What Kind of Mind? Engaging Children and the Public with Research on Animal and Infant Minds from Philosophy and Psychology
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Philos Anthrop and Film Studies
Abstract
How do babies see the world? Do chimpanzees have a language? Does your cat love you? How do monkeys think about objects in their environment, and about each other? Can they really be said to think at all? The Rethinking Mind and Meaning project, funded as a part of the AHRC's Science in Culture theme, focused on understanding the minds of infants and animals from a scientific and philosophical perspective. This follow-on proposal aims to engage school pupils and underserved adults in prisons and the local community with this research, and thereby to build a critical understanding of science, including the ability to evaluate current research, and to build critical thinking skills applicable to many areas of work and life.
Working closely with teachers and pupils in Fife and in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, we will develop materials that will enable primary teachers to present cutting-edge empirical research in psychology to their pupils, to evaluate how this research bears on traditional philosophical questions about the mind, and to begin to think about new methodologies for answering questions about the minds of infants and animals. There is considerable demand for activities in these areas; primary schools in Fife, in particular, have recently adopted a programme of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) teaching that integrates arts and culture into science teaching. Our interdisciplinary research, which uses empirical techniques to investigate traditional philosophical questions about the mind, is a perfect fit for these aims, and we will collaborate with the developers of Fife's STEAM curriculum to ensure that our materials meet the needs of teachers and pupils.
More generally, all of our activities will be collaboratively created with teachers and pupils, to ensure that they are useful in the classroom and genuinely engaging to a young audience. The result will include background information for teachers, activities tailored to pupils of different ages, and links to multimedia (such as videos of experiments). We will support teachers in the delivery of this material by a dedicated social media presence where they can ask questions (or pass on questions from their pupils), and by continuing professional development workshops throughout Scotland, focusing particularly on Highland and Island schools which may have limited access to University researchers due to their remote locations. And we will make the materials widely available to teachers by distributing them online through our website and in hard copy where there is demand.
We will also deliver lessons directly to adult audiences, notably including prisoners in HMPs Perth and Polmont, and to underserved audiences in the local community. We believe that by teaching cutting-edge philosophical and scientific research, we can build skills in thinking critically about science and its methods. How can science answer intuitive philosophical questions about the mind? What are scientific methods, and how can they be applied in particular cases? What do the results of scientific experiments really show? Critical thinking skills of this kind are crucial not only for thinking through current scientific controversies - for example, about climate change, GMO crops, or alternative medicine - but also, in this age of "fake news" and "alternative facts", for full participation in politics and the public sphere.
Working closely with teachers and pupils in Fife and in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, we will develop materials that will enable primary teachers to present cutting-edge empirical research in psychology to their pupils, to evaluate how this research bears on traditional philosophical questions about the mind, and to begin to think about new methodologies for answering questions about the minds of infants and animals. There is considerable demand for activities in these areas; primary schools in Fife, in particular, have recently adopted a programme of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) teaching that integrates arts and culture into science teaching. Our interdisciplinary research, which uses empirical techniques to investigate traditional philosophical questions about the mind, is a perfect fit for these aims, and we will collaborate with the developers of Fife's STEAM curriculum to ensure that our materials meet the needs of teachers and pupils.
More generally, all of our activities will be collaboratively created with teachers and pupils, to ensure that they are useful in the classroom and genuinely engaging to a young audience. The result will include background information for teachers, activities tailored to pupils of different ages, and links to multimedia (such as videos of experiments). We will support teachers in the delivery of this material by a dedicated social media presence where they can ask questions (or pass on questions from their pupils), and by continuing professional development workshops throughout Scotland, focusing particularly on Highland and Island schools which may have limited access to University researchers due to their remote locations. And we will make the materials widely available to teachers by distributing them online through our website and in hard copy where there is demand.
We will also deliver lessons directly to adult audiences, notably including prisoners in HMPs Perth and Polmont, and to underserved audiences in the local community. We believe that by teaching cutting-edge philosophical and scientific research, we can build skills in thinking critically about science and its methods. How can science answer intuitive philosophical questions about the mind? What are scientific methods, and how can they be applied in particular cases? What do the results of scientific experiments really show? Critical thinking skills of this kind are crucial not only for thinking through current scientific controversies - for example, about climate change, GMO crops, or alternative medicine - but also, in this age of "fake news" and "alternative facts", for full participation in politics and the public sphere.
Planned Impact
The primary aim of this project is to engage primary school pupils and underserved adult audiences in cutting edge philosophical and psychological research about infant and animal minds. The main beneficiaries of the project will be:
1. Primary school pupils in Fife. Collaborating closely with teachers in Fife schools, including teachers at Thornton Primary who have developed resources for teaching STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) subjects that have been adopted by all 140 primary schools in Fife, we will develop activities and lesson plans that fit the STEAM curriculum. The interdisciplinary nature of our project makes it especially well suited to STEAM's emphasis on integrating arts and culture in science teaching, and by working with teachers and pupils we will be able to ensure wide adoption of our materials.
2. Primary school pupils in the Highlands and Islands. Collaborating with teachers from Highland schools, we will organize professional development workshops that will bring teachers at geographically isolated schools across Scotland up to speed on cutting edge research, and put them in a position to teach this material confidently. We will support teachers by providing opportunities to ask questions (or pass on questions from their pupils) on social media.
3. Underserved adult audiences, including prisoners at HMPs Perth and Polmont. Collaborating with the University of St Andrews's Cellblock Science programme, we will bring our research into prison learning centres.
Because we will make the materials available online, we hope that other audiences - in Scotland, the UK, and worldwide -- may also be impacted.
The benefits of this engagement will go well beyond learning facts about our research.
1. Fife schools' STEAM resources focus on developing skills in formulating questions and developing investigations to answer them, in communication, and in the understanding, analysis, and evaluation of scientific research, as well as a general understanding of scientific methods, and of the role of arts, culture, and creativity in science. By presenting cutting edge research in which methodological difficulties and debates remain crucial, and the significance of various results remains controversial, we hope to develop these creative and critical skills, which we hope will generalize beyond the evaluation of science into many other areas of life.
2. By developing materials with teachers, and supporting them in the use of these materials, we will make possible pedagogical innovation; in particular we hope to build teachers' confidence in presenting recent research across science and the humanities.
At every stage of the project, we will obtain evidence to enable us to evaluate the success of our engagement. Early in the project, we will involve teachers and pupils in the development of our materials and activities. We will seek their feedback and will use it to revise our materials. As the project continues, we will use social media and collaboration with school officials in Fife and in the Highlands and Islands to get precise information about the number of schools using our materials, the number of pupils engaged, and how they are affected.
More speculatively, we hope that engaging with our research will provoke audiences to rethink philosophy, science, and their own place in nature. The STEAM programme with which we are collaborating articulates a vision of science as driven by creativity, thereby creating innovations which drive the economy. Our research supports this vision; we see scientific investigations as having the potential to help answer intuitive, philosophical questions about the mind, and philosophy as having the potential to suggest new questions and new methodologies for scientists to investigate. Appreciating this research will give audiences a new perspective on how the human mind fits in to the natural world.
1. Primary school pupils in Fife. Collaborating closely with teachers in Fife schools, including teachers at Thornton Primary who have developed resources for teaching STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) subjects that have been adopted by all 140 primary schools in Fife, we will develop activities and lesson plans that fit the STEAM curriculum. The interdisciplinary nature of our project makes it especially well suited to STEAM's emphasis on integrating arts and culture in science teaching, and by working with teachers and pupils we will be able to ensure wide adoption of our materials.
2. Primary school pupils in the Highlands and Islands. Collaborating with teachers from Highland schools, we will organize professional development workshops that will bring teachers at geographically isolated schools across Scotland up to speed on cutting edge research, and put them in a position to teach this material confidently. We will support teachers by providing opportunities to ask questions (or pass on questions from their pupils) on social media.
3. Underserved adult audiences, including prisoners at HMPs Perth and Polmont. Collaborating with the University of St Andrews's Cellblock Science programme, we will bring our research into prison learning centres.
Because we will make the materials available online, we hope that other audiences - in Scotland, the UK, and worldwide -- may also be impacted.
The benefits of this engagement will go well beyond learning facts about our research.
1. Fife schools' STEAM resources focus on developing skills in formulating questions and developing investigations to answer them, in communication, and in the understanding, analysis, and evaluation of scientific research, as well as a general understanding of scientific methods, and of the role of arts, culture, and creativity in science. By presenting cutting edge research in which methodological difficulties and debates remain crucial, and the significance of various results remains controversial, we hope to develop these creative and critical skills, which we hope will generalize beyond the evaluation of science into many other areas of life.
2. By developing materials with teachers, and supporting them in the use of these materials, we will make possible pedagogical innovation; in particular we hope to build teachers' confidence in presenting recent research across science and the humanities.
At every stage of the project, we will obtain evidence to enable us to evaluate the success of our engagement. Early in the project, we will involve teachers and pupils in the development of our materials and activities. We will seek their feedback and will use it to revise our materials. As the project continues, we will use social media and collaboration with school officials in Fife and in the Highlands and Islands to get precise information about the number of schools using our materials, the number of pupils engaged, and how they are affected.
More speculatively, we hope that engaging with our research will provoke audiences to rethink philosophy, science, and their own place in nature. The STEAM programme with which we are collaborating articulates a vision of science as driven by creativity, thereby creating innovations which drive the economy. Our research supports this vision; we see scientific investigations as having the potential to help answer intuitive, philosophical questions about the mind, and philosophy as having the potential to suggest new questions and new methodologies for scientists to investigate. Appreciating this research will give audiences a new perspective on how the human mind fits in to the natural world.
Publications
Kersken V
(2020)
Capuchin Monkeys Individuate Objects Based on Spatio-temporal and Property/Kind Information: Evidence from Looking and Reaching Measures
in Animal Behavior and Cognition
| Description | The most significant achievement of the award has been the development and use of a series of lesson plans and activities designed to introduce philosophical and psychological issues about the mind to primary school pupils, focusing on the minds of non-human animals. The lesson plans and activities are currently in use in several primary schools in Fife. We have also used related materials in lessons in prisons, in a day centre for the homeless, and in science festivals. The development of these materials, and training of teachers in their use, was the main objective of the award. We have made good progress on this objective, but we had hoped to have a final draft of the materials being used in more schools by this point. The materials are now freely available online, and we have two other primary schools taking up the materials for the first time this semester. We remain optimistic that once the final versions of our materials are made more widely available, they will be adopted by more schools. |
| Exploitation Route | We hope that our lessons and materials will be taken up by many primary schools. We have focused on making links with the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence; so we are especially hopeful that they will be widely adopted in Scotland. But we also hope that they may be used elsewhere around the world. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | https://what-kind-of-mind.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/ |
| Description | This grant was for impact and engagement, building on research conducted on a previous AHRC grant ("Rethinking Mind and Meaning: A Case Study from a Co-Disciplinary Perspective", PI Juan Carlos Gomez). We have integrated some of the research conducted during that grant into lesson plans (including videos and interactive activities) aimed primarily at primary schools, which (after a period of initial testing at Thornton Primary) are being used in several primary schools across Fife. Feedback from pupils indicates a keen interest in the topics among pupils (including pupils on the autism spectrum who sometimes struggle to engage with class activities), and increased awareness among pupils of the subjects of philosophy and psychology, and of possible careers, as well as significant changes in attitude toward animals. For example, a questionnaire given to students revealed that after lessons, 77% of children (aged 11-12) thought that animal minds were like human minds, compared to just 42% before lessons. Their answers revealed a change in the basis of comparison of animal and human minds from a focus on simple behaviour (e.g. walking on 2 or 4 legs and eating food) to more complex cognitive abilities (including curiosity and communication), indicating a broadening of reasoning. Among teachers, reports indicate increased confidence in teaching sciences and philosophy. We have also presented related materials at a series of science festival-style events, as well as in prisons (HMP Perth and HMP and HMYOI Polmont) and at a day centre for the homeless. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Fife Council Schools -- Influence on primary teaching |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We have developed lesson plans and materials for primary school teachers to introduce materials from psychology and philosophy related to animal minds. Our initial tests at Thornton Primary School suggested that with our materials and training, teachers became comfortable introducing a new area of study (most teachers have little or no training in either philosophy or psychology, and have not previously taught this material), and pupils were introduced to new fields of study, new career possibilities, and gained confidence in expressing and developing philosophical ideas and arguments. We are currently in the process of collecting detailed evidence of this impact at five further primary schools in Fife. |
| Description | Fife Council primary schools |
| Organisation | Fife Council |
| Department | Education and learning |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We have contributed materials including videos and lesson plans, and training and support in using the materials, including travel to schools to meet with teachers in small groups and email support. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Schools in Fife have contributed their teachers' time to learn to use our materials and to provide us with post-lesson feedback on the materials. They have also contributed facilities to meet with teachers and to work with pupils. |
| Impact | Engagement activities: Visits to Fife Primary Schools Influenced training of practitioners or researchers - Fife Council Schools -- Influence on primary teaching (2018) |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Animal Show (The Byre Theatre) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Animal Show was a performance about animals given in the Byre Studio on the 13th of May 2018. To accompany this, animal-themed workshops were offered in the theatre foyer. The age range of the audience was from 4 to 64 years old. The Animal Minds team presented several activities. 1. 'What Kind of Mind?' This activity invited children to place stickers of animals along a scale on a poster, to indicate whether they believed the animal had a mind which was similar to or different from the human mind. They were also asked to give a reason for their choice of placement. Participants gave varied and interesting reasons for their placement of the animals on the scale. For example: 'Whales have bigger brains, so they are more intelligent.' Where multiple audience members participated at the same time, there was discussion and argument about their choices with each other. 2. Films of Research with question prompts. Audience members were able to select a film of research into animal minds from a selection about babies and Capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees, parrots or orangutans. These films began with a prompted question for the audience member to consider (for example, 'Can orangutans manipulate each other?'). Their response was noted and then noted again, to ascertain whether their answer had changed, after viewing the film. Several audience members indicated their surprise at the experiment outcomes, for example, that parrots could learn about objects by playing with them. This prompted questions for the researcher and further discussion. 3. 'Do babies reason about objects?' Dr Derek Ball presented the experiment testing whether young babies can reason about objects. He demonstrated the experiment by showing two different objects, placing both of these behind a screen and then lifting the screen to show only one object remaining. The explanation was given to audience members that young babies ( up to 12 months old) will show surprise, by looking longer, which would indicate that they expected to see two objects behind the screen, rather than one. This activity prompted further questions for Dr Ball and discussion about babies' minds. 4. 'Vala: The Baby Capuchin' - This activity involved the use of a toy Capuchin monkey and the narration of a story for younger children. The toy Capuchin is made to interact with objects, such as a banana, to find out what these do. The story was amusing and included questions to ask the audience about what the Capuchin should do with the object to find out about it. This activity entertained the audience and did draw responses to the embedded questions, which demonstrated engagement with the story. Feedback from visitors rated the research activities as overwhelmingly positive, with 100% rating these as good or excellent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ae2l6f4wb6vusbr/AAC0Y4FYJNNc0zBi-efsc45la?dl=0 |
| Description | Ask Me Anything Video for GLOW (Scottish schools portal) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I recorded two videos as part of an opportunity for school pupils across Scotland to engage with researchers. The first video gave a brief description of my research and invited pupils to submit questions. 21 questions were received in response. I selected three and recorded a further video giving brief answers. The videos were posted on GLOW, an online portal used by Scottish schools, and on the University of St Andrews Public Engagement webpage. The videos together have received more than 1200 views and more than 20 like/love reactions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/1776795085929151/videos/230544991490953/?__so__=watchlist&__rv__=video_home... |
| Description | Explorathon 2018 (The Byre Theatre) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Explorathon 2018 is a science discovery event organised by St Andrews University. Our evening presentation took place in the evening of the 28th of September 2018, in the foyer at The Byre Theatre. The following activities were presented to children and adults from Brownie and Girl Guide troops from Fife: 1. 'What is the most intelligent and why?' This activity involved splitting the troops into groups and asking them to arrange various objects and animals on a scale of intelligence. They were also asked to provide reasons for their choices. The objects included a toaster, a radiator, a plant, a dinosaur, various animals and a human adult and baby. This activity prompted lots of respectful discussion within the group, as well as debate. For example, some argued the human baby was not intelligent because it could not look after itself, whilst others argued that the baby's intelligence was not yet developed. Some groups observed that the inanimate objects were not viewed as intelligent because they had been created by humans. The activity stimulated interest in how we identify and label intelligence. 2. PowerPoint Presentation - 'Primate Minds'. This presentation related the common ancestry of primates, including humans and encouraged the viewers to spot similarities and differences in primate and human bodies. This connection was then expanded to consider similarities in human and primate minds. A film of research with human babies and Capuchin monkeys and how they may reason about objects similarly was then shown. The groups showed interest in the primate phylogenetic tree. Similarities and differences between human and primate hands, which were illustrated in the slides, were also popular, with many questions being asked about the evolutionary adaptations of the primate hands. This led onto discussion about primate minds and the experiment involving the Capuchin monkeys and human babies. 3. Blindfolded Feeling Activity - This activity followed on from the discussions about primate hands and minds. A participant from each group was blindfolded and then asked to use their primate hands to identify an object presented to them (for example, a ball of wool or a pen). The remainder of the group recorded the time it took for the volunteer to identify the object and how difficult or easy the participant found this. This activity generated a fair amount of excitement amongst the children, in the process of identifying the object. It also generated discussion about the sensitivity of human hands and how they could know an object without seeing it. The groups were also prompted to chat about whether non-human primate hands were more or less sensitive than those of humans and this also resulted in debate. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ae2l6f4wb6vusbr/AAC0Y4FYJNNc0zBi-efsc45la?dl=0&preview=Capuchin.mp4 |
| Description | FirstChances Summer School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The First Chances Project is a partnership between the University of St Andrews, Fife Education and The Robertson Trust. The programme aims to raise the aspirations and attainment of selected pupils from P7 throughout their high school journey, with continued support into higher education. We presented research as a part of the annual First Chances Summer School. Some 30 pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds came to our session, which involved a brief presentation and discussion. They reported increased awareness of philosophy and psychology (for many, it was their first exposure to either field), and increased interest in issues about animal minds. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/study/access/projects/first-chances-project/ |
| Description | St Andrews Green Film Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A brief talk and discussion following a screening of the film BUGS, a documentary about eating insects. Some 40 members of the public in attendance, almost all of whom stayed for a full hour after the film for an engaging discussion of insect minds and the ethics of eating animals. We received several follow-up emails requesting further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Talk to Philosophy in Schools Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A lecture to a group of some 25 teachers and students with interests in teaching, which described the lesson plans and materials developed in the course of this project, explained the process of developing them, and discussed challenges arising from collaboration between schools and University researchers. Part of the lecture was delivered by teachers who had used the materials. There were questions and discussion afterwards, and teachers from several schools indicated an interest in using the materials. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ceppa.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/research-projects/philosophy-and-education/philosophy-in-schools-c... |
| Description | Visits to Fife Primary Schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We have arranged several training sessions with teachers in primary schools in Fife to introduce them to our lesson plans and materials. This included multiple visits to our initial test school, Thornton Primary, at which we interacted with one teacher and some 40 pupils, including participating in detailed discussions with the pupils that arose as a result of our lessons. The school reported (and we observed) very good interest on the part of the students, and both students and teacher reported increased interest in and awareness of philosophy and psychology as a result. We also received valuable feedback on our materials that resulted in revisions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| Description | Visits to prisons (HMP Perth and HMP and HMYOI Polmont) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We visited HMP Perth and HMP and HMYOI Polmont in collaboration with the Wellcome-funded Cell Block Science programme. During each visit, we taught two classes to different groups (one in the morning, one in the afternoon), adapted from the materials we had initially developed for primary schools. There was very good engagement throughout and a great deal of good discussion. Although prison education centres were several disrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we were invited to return to HMP Perth for a further workshop in autumn 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2021 |
| Description | Website with What Kind of Mind? Teaching Materials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A website where the lesson plans, activities, and materials developed in the What Kind of Mind? project can be freely downloaded by teachers. The website has had 4,607 unique visitors and the materials have been downloaded more than 2,000 times as of 07/03/2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021,2022,2023 |
| URL | https://what-kind-of-mind.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Workshop at C.A.T.H. day centre, Perth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A workshop introducing basic ideas from philosophy of mind and psychology, using material developed during the What Kind of Mind? project, at a homeless day centre in Perth. 8 clients of the day centre attended. There was good participation, with much discussion throughout the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |