What Kind of Mind: Lesson 1 Introducing the Topic of Animal Minds
Creators: name: Ball, Derek
name: Gomez, Juan-Carlos
name: Seed, Amanda
name: Collins, Susan
name: Smith, Jessica
name: Zdrovstova, Natalia
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: Phenomenology
Philosophy of cognition
Philosophy of mind (excl. cognition)
Psychological methodology, design and analysis
Cognition
Learning, motivation and emotion
Memory and attention
Other education not elsewhere classified
Other psychology not elsewhere classified

description: <strong>Lesson 1: Introducing the Topic of Animal Minds</strong> This lesson introduces key concepts such as the animal mind and the challenges of studying the minds of animals. It also raises questions such as: What constitutes intelligence? What is a mind? How should we research non-human animals? What is the difference between philosophy and psychology? <strong>Skills:</strong> Curriculum for Excellence SCN 2-11a, SCN 2-20a, SCN 2-20b Independent thinking and group discussion Developing arguments and giving reasons for a viewpoint Appraising and comparing evidence <strong>Key Resources: </strong> Lesson slides, L1: Lesson slides containing prompts for pupils as well as related video links, designed to introduce general themes and spark class discussion. Lesson plan, L1: Summary of the lesson content, including learning intentions, success criteria and the resources needed. Teacher notes, L1: Detailed explanation of how the class activities work, as well as full information for leading class debates, including details about the mind-body debate in philosophy and psychology. Annotated slides, L1: Additional information, paired with the appropriate slides in the presentation. Worksheets: (These resources can also be easily printed as part of the student work booklet) Pre-program Questionnaire Researcher questionnaire used to assess the impact of lessons on pupils. This resource can be used by teachers to measure pupil progress over the course of the program and check to understanding. Pre-program Teacher Questionnaire Researcher questionnaire used to investigate philosophy/psychology teaching in schools. 'How Intelligent?' scale: Blank scale for the task on slide 8, ‘How Intelligent Are These Things?’ (This resource can also be saved for use in lesson 6!) Images for intelligence task: Images for the above task (slide 8). These should be cut out so that pupils can move them about the scale during discussion. (This resource can also be saved for lesson 6!) 'What is it like to be a bat?' worksheet: Thought experiment considering how a bat would investigate humans, slide 23. <strong>Additional resources:</strong> Glossary: Definitions and more information surrounding the key terms of the topic, for teacher reference where necessary. A Brief Guide to philosophy of Mind: Some background information about the philosophy of mind providing information and evidence about materialism and dualism (the main stances in philosophy of mind). A Brief Guide to Philosophical Issues about Animals: Background information about the main debates to do with animals in the philosophy of mind - do animals have minds? How should they be treated? A Brief Guide to Brains: An overview on brains - how and when they developed, how research into the brain is done and how human and chimp brains relate. Further brief guides can be found alongside the lessons where they are most relevant. <strong>Printable resources for all lessons:</strong> Student workbook: This booklet contains all of the written class activities for students, condensing the resources into a booklet of five sheets of paper (so 20, A5 pages for the students to work on). Although the PDF may look like the pages are in an *interesting* order, if printed correctly they will fold into the booklet. To do this, ensure that printing is double sided, and that the printer is set to flip pages on the short edge. Student prints: This printing resource contains all of the individual sheets to be used by the students throughout the project such as the images to be stuck into their booklets and the researcher questionnaires. The document is designed to be printed double sided, meaning that there are some blank pages so individual resources can be separated. [Page breakdown: (P1-2) Pre-program questionnaire, (P3-P4) Post-program questionnaire, (P5) Lesson 1 Images for intelligence task, (P6) Blank, (P7) Lesson 3 Images for the family tree task, (P8) Blank, (P9) Lesson 6 Images for intelligence task.] Teacher prints: This printing resource contains all sheets the teachers will use throughout the project including teacher questionnaires and answer sheets. The document is designed to be printed double sided, meaning that there are some blank pages so that each individual resource can be separated. [Page breakdown: (P1-P4) Pre-program questionnaire, (P5-P9) Post-program questionnaire, (P10) blank, (P11) Lesson 3 answers, (P12) blank, (P13) Lesson 4 communication task.] <strong>"Living Links" Learning Programme at RZSS</strong> A bespoke learning programme of interactive, interdisciplinary and online sessions on themes from <em>What Kind of Mind?</em> has been developed by the "Living Links" collaboration between the University of St Andrews and RZSS aiming to deepen learners' connections with nature, increase awareness of how our minds affect our health and wellbeing, and promote an understanding of the role of research in scientific development. This free resource can be found on the RZSS Discovery and Learning ZOOdle (Zoo "Digital Learning Environment") website at https://discover.rzss.org.uk/livinglinks.