Still Thinking is the website of Dr Barry Hymer. Barry is professor of psychology in education in the Education Faculty of the University of Cumbria. An experienced teacher, educational psychologist, trainer and consultant, Barry Hymer has delivered keynote and workshop presentations at over 500 national and international conferences, and worked in a training and consultancy capacity with nearly two thousand schools and LAs. In his present role within HE Barry retains a limited capacity for direct work with schools and other clients (see consultancy page) via Osiris Educational:
Barry Hymer’s work aims always to respect the capacity of teachers and students to take ownership of their learning agenda, in a way which allows them to realize their personal and educational values in their own practice.
Barry’s latest books are the P4C Pocketbook (with Roger Sutcliffe), Dilemma-Based Learning in Primary School (with Deb Michel), the Gifted & Talented Pocketbook, The Routledge-Falmer International Companion to Gifted Education (co-edited by Tom Balchin, Barry Hymer and Dona Matthews) and Gifts, Talents & Education: A Living Theory Approach (co-written by Barry Hymer, Jack Whitehead and Marie Huxtable).
If you require any more information than you can gather from this site, please feel free to contact Barry Hymer by using the link.
View a short taster from the Carol Dweck 2010 Tour
Latest Blog Entry.
Two shameless commercials: The P4C Pocketbook has just been published – a snip at £7.99 and cheaper still on Amazon. It was a great pleasure to work on this publication with Roger Sutcliffe during 2011, and to see it added in January 2012 to the award-winning series produced by the team from Teachers’ Pocketbooks. Roger is “Mr P4C” in the UK and the living embodiment of all the wisdom and virtues that the discipline of philosophy has to offer us. A founder member of SAPERE and one of the few remaining links that we in the UK have to Matthew Lipman, the originator of the P4C approach, Roger is to P4C practitioners what Alan Bennett is to playwrights, Doris Lessing is to novelists or Mike Leigh is to film buffs – someone held in as close to universal esteem as is conceivable amongst peers, and whose sense of integrity allows his life to walk in rare step with his values. Roger and I found the discipline of working to the Pocketbook format both exacting and rewarding in equal measure: it isn’t easy to distil ideas to their essential core, to curb our more florid stylistic excesses, and to know what to leave out – not just to decide what to put in. The editorial support Pocketbook authors receive is admirable, however, and I’m sure we’re not alone in finding the critical and hands-on editorial process led to a markedly improved final product. The proof will be in its impact on your practice though – it’s our hope that many teachers find it a useful and practical resource in their engagement with the process of doing philosophy with young people.
Secondly, look out for a book aimed at secondary practitioners of P4C which will be published later this year. This has been written by people who combine P4C expertise and particular expertise in curriculum subject areas. My reading of an early proof leads me to hold out great hope that it’ll go a long way towards convincing many who are sceptical that P4C is compatible with a high stakes system of public exams. Watch this space ….
Posted on: 16-01-12