Dutch humanist ethical education
Didactic principles and the method
This article explains the aim of Humanist
Education as developed by HVO (Dutch
Centre for Humanist Ethical Education).
In the first paragraph it will first give a picture of the
general view of HVO through a metaphor. Next it will
focus more deeply on the aims and didactic principles
and themes that highlight the education. In the fourth
paragraph it will discuss the specific method of HVO
that serves as a steppingstone for the lessons. It
closes with a roadmap how to set up a meeting yourself.
The article is written by Alexandra Bronsveld (Ed.)
and others. The picture at the front is from the IHEYO
international Conference on Teaching Critical Thinking
held in 2006. The article is part of the IHEYO book
‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview
of best practices worldwide’. The book will be published in 2012. See for more: www.iheyo.org.
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
Humanist Ethical Education in the
Netherlands
School is an important institution for the moral
development of children. Humanist Ethical
Education focuses on the moral development
of pupils and finds it important to guide young
people by the development of their own consciousness of values and their own convictions about life. It is desirable that children
learn to cope with questions about norms and
values. In this way they can develop into people who know what they want and who make
their own responsible choices with self confidence.
The Dutch educational system is divided between public and private schools. Both are
funded by the state. Private schools are based
on a belief-system such as Catholicism or a
pedagogic point of view such as Steiner
School. The public schools are ‘neutral’; they
are not based on a particular pedagogic or
(non-)religious point of view. In the Netherlands public education is accessible for everyone. Every child is welcome, regardless of
their background, neither faith, ideology, culture nor country of origin. Public education
has the statutory task to pay attention to the
multiform values within Dutch society. Children learn to interact with each other in a
good way in actual practice. The strength of
this education is meeting each other.
Children between 6 and 12 years old in these
state primary schools have a statutory right to
receive religious education or education about
an ideology which is not explicitly based on
religion during school hours. In order to do
justice to the various ideologies, public
schools offer the opportunity to parents and
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children to receive religious or humanist ethical education. Parents can choose from protestant, catholic, Islamic, humanist or Hindustani education.
These separate denominations work together
to realize this education in primary schools
since 2009. The joint aim is to teach children
to respect other faiths, ideologies and cultures
from an early age on. The lessons help children to develop their own view of life. They
show what faith can mean to people and
show respect to people with a different way of
living.
Since the academic year 1969 – 1970, humanists have contributed to the education of
such an ideology. This contribution has been
much valued by the children, parents and
schools alike. They call their education of this
ideology Humanist Ethical Education (HEE).
Or as it is called in Dutch, “humanistisch
vormingsonderwijs (HVO). The HEE-teachers
are trained and supported by the Dutch Centre for Humanist Ethical Education (Stichting
HVO). Currently 30.000 children receive humanist education.
Humanists offer children a learning programme as an alternative to religious education which helps them become mature responsible adults. The methodology of the
learning programme has been well thoughtout and is aimed at the moral and socioemotional development of children and the
development of their identity. Over the past
forty years, the subject of HEE as an ideological education has secured for itself a firm
place in the curriculum as the enthu-siastic
volunteer has grown into a motivated professional (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 8).
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
PAGE 3
Humanist Ethical Education (HEE), a
metaphor
children can test whatever they think is valuable in life.
It is natural for human beings to ask questions. Not only adults, but children of all ages
too, ask questions. Some of these questions
are extraordinary and touch themes of life
like love, death, identity, nature, faith, good
and evil, beautiful and ugly. We also call
these questions vital questions. We do not
have an answer to them right away. Questions about life are about what we think are
really important values in life. In the HVO
lessons that we offer in the Netherlands, children explore these and other questions in a
interactive, playful and creative manner.
In order to clarify how the way of life of the
teacher, the educational vision and the pedagogy of HEE are connected to each other, I
use a suitable metaphor, the wedding cake.
This metaphor has been devised by Marjolijn
Beuling, a former employee of Stichting HVO
(Beuling 2010, p. 15-18). This metaphor illustrates at the same time the creative element
and the playfulness which are so important in
HEE.
When teaching this subject, the ideology of
the professional teacher is of importance. As
a HEE-teacher you do not want to impose
your view of life on the children, but to explore values and norms together with the
children so that they will be able to make
their own choices. Humanist principles are
the touchstones for the research the pupils
undertake. However, they will never be held
as the only truth. You do not teach pupils
what they need to think. You teach them the
need to think. Pupils have a right to their own
opinion. The purpose is to let pupils form
their own awareness of their values and
norms. Therefore, the pupil must be addressed as someone who is able to value
things at its own level.
As a teacher you develop your own lessons.
There are no clear-cut methods. You devise
the subjects in cooperation with the group.
As a teacher you are more of a coach or
guide than someone who transfers knowledge.
The teacher creates situations in which the
The lower layer of the cake is symbolic for
humanism and the fundamental attitude of the
teacher/trainer. To make a cake, various ingredients are needed: flour, eggs, milk and
sugar. In the lower layer the flour (the firmness of the dough) indicates the humanist
values as a human being, freedom, equality
and solidarity. The eggs (all people in the
making, who will grow their whole lives) stand
for the autonomy of the human being: to form
one’s own life and take responsibility for what
you think, feel, want or do. The milk (dilutes
the dough) stands for this responsibility. Do
not only think of yourself, but give the other
one the opportunity to develop his or herself.
The sugar (as many people in the world as
grains of sugar in the dough) stands for the
human rights, striving for a world in which
freedom and humanity will be central.
The middle layer stands for pedagogics, the
way you think about raising and education as
a teacher/trainer. It is about the question: to
what kind of people should education in a humanistic way lead? On the one hand, you
want children/youngsters to learn to adapt
themselves to their environment
(socialization). On the other hand, you
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
want them to form their own lives
(individuation). In the metaphor, the flour in
this layer stands for connecting to the pupils’
way of living and their perception of their environment. Without this connection that which
you offer to the pupils or youngsters will hover
in thin air and they will not be able to connect
it to their own experiences. The eggs in this
layer are symbolic for the ego, independence
and the development of selfconfidence and
the self-image of the children and participants.
The milk is symbolic for me and the other, for
responsibility and the social development of
the children or the participants. Finally, the
sugar stands for me and the world, for world
citizenship and being able to make moral
choices: the moral development.
The upper layer represents didactics. How
do you as a teacher/trainer bring your ideals
into practice? In this layer, the flour (direct
educators/culture), the eggs (the child or the
participants of your training), the milk (the
group) and the sugar (school) off course play
an important part too, but because the
method is central here the emphasis is on the
sweets (handed out by the bride). These
sweets stand for learning through experience,
also called learning through action or interactive learning. You do this by using the RExCE
method: recognize, explore/examine, choose
and evaluate, and by using various working
methods. The aim is to motivate the pupils
and to cultivate development. It is important to
realize that the participants in your group
learn in different ways: by listening, by doing
and experiencing, by reading, by watching, by
talking and by writing. The sweets represent
the various working methods that will be offered in the lessons because of these different
ways of learning: talking, drawing, reading,
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writing, drama and games.
On top of the cake stands the wedding couple. This wedding couple is at once symbolic
for the relationship between the children or
the participants within your group itself as for
the relationship trainer participant. It stands
for good contact on an equal basis: equality.
The experiences of the one participant are
just as important as those of the other participant or as those of the trainer/teacher. By taking part in a discussion with each other you
can find out how every one experiences a certain situation and which values are of importance to him or her.
The aim of Humanist Education as developed by the HVO
The main aim of Humanist Ethical education
can be summarized as: ’to teach pupils, on
the basis of humanistic principles, to tackle
issues relating to standards and values in a
critical and creative manner and to encourage
them to judge and act independently, increasingly enabling them to give sense and shape
to their own life and that of others’.
In HEE the teacher creates the conditions
for pupils to grow into a master in the art
of living and a citizen of the world. HEE
works at building a bridge between radical
steermanship over one’s own life and multilateral sympathy with the ups and downs
of others.
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
There are constantly three levels of development: THE SELF, your own personal development, THE ME AND THE OTHER, living together with others in a democracy and THE
ME AND THE WORLD, becoming a citizen of
the world.
What does the above mean for the contents
of the profession? Humanist ethical education
and ideology is:

Getting to know yourself: children explore in a creative way what they think is
important, interesting, good, fun or annoying in their lives and how they deal
with it.

Getting to know the other: children learn
to listen to and be open for what others
think, feel, want or do. They compare
their own opinion to those of other children and learn that there are similarities
and differences.

Learn to make choices: children look at
their own way of thinking and doing in a
critical manner. They do this through
stories and mutual experiences. They
will be encouraged to make their own
choices and to search for solutions in
conflicting choices.

Learn to respect differences: together
children explore each others’ standards
and values. They learn that although
there are differences between people,
cultures and ideologies, it is possible to
live together in a good way by accepting
the other as he/she is. They learn to
empathize with the other, not to judge
too quickly and to develop an open
mind.

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Learn to take responsibility: children
learn to carry their own responsibility,
explore the consequences of their
choices for others and their environment
and learn how to work together. Skills
that are important to live together with
each other in a good way (Bronsveld &
Corneille 2009).
To be able to do all this, it is important that
you do not adopt all opinions and knowledge
without thinking and that you learn to think it
over. The development of a critical way of
thinking takes a central position within HEE.
Within Humanism postponing your judgment a
little and dialogue are important values. More
knowledge about one another, really getting
to know each other leads to more understanding and a more humane society.
Teaching methods in HEE
All these wonderful objectives require professional skills of the teacher. Achieving the objectives is not something that happens by itself. It requires a great deal of practice, reflection and learning, and HEE and Life Orientation lessons provide the setting in which to do
this. Many different working methods have
been developed over the years supporting
this education. As mentioned earlier on, it is
not about transferring knowledge but to explore a theme with children in an active, creative and playful manner. Methods that are
commonly used include drama, role-play, various forms of dialogue, learning to construct
one’s argument, dealing with moral dilemmas
and various creative forms of expression (De
Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 7).
In this and the following paragraph you will
find various tools to construct your meetings.
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
Fundamental didactic principles
HEE is based on a number of fundamental
didactic principles. These principles pertain to
a humanistic portrayal of mankind and of the
world and a humanistic perspective on teaching an education, which underlies HEE. HEE
is about the teacher performing an initiatory,
stimulating and supportive role among pupils
who are educating themselves. I will now
briefly explain the different didactic principles.
Using pupils’ actual experiences
The main didactic principle of HEE is to use
pupils’ actual experiences as a basis and in
this way gear lessons to their own environment. In other words, learning through or from
experiences. Mind, feeling and behavior are
more or less present in each experience. For
HEE it is important to connect to the environment of the pupils, so that they will be able to
recognize moral dilemmas and life issues. In
the next chapter various examples of this will
be given. De following principles really stem
from this principle.
Creative working methods
Another principle is to appeal to a combination of the senses that will bring you as fully
as possible in touch with yourself and the outside world. By using creative and activating
working methods like talking, drawing, reading, writing, drama and games you connect to
the individual differences between pupils. The
idea that pupils will learn much better by
bringing variation in your lessons is based on
the insight that information is better and multilateral secured in the memory when it reaches
one through more senses.
The key word in this principle is activating. By
devising stimulating tasks, formulating challenging dilemmas and organizing working to-
PAGE 6
gether in subgroups, you will incite pupils to
physical and mental activity. Especially at the
beginning of a meeting, the learning by doing
has a strong activating effect. Through learning by doing the whole person is involved with
mind, heart and hands. This way of teaching
is radically different from the more classical
way of teaching in which the teacher talks and
the children listen.
Asking questions and explore
A third principle is to learn through questioning and examining, to develop an open mind
towards life issues and finding possible answers. The teacher together with the children
explores moral issues and studies these in
depth through various working methods. In
the HEE lessons the emphasis lies on questions regarding standards and values. A lot of
the choices children have to make amount to
moral issues like: do you always need to be
obedient? Are you allowed to decide what to
do by yourself?
Pupils will think about this, they will ponder
and will finally establish to their own judgment. It is important here that children solve
the dilemmas together. They have to know
why they have chosen a certain point of view.
It does not matter if this point of view is right
or wrong. There is not one right solution.
By exploring life issues and moral dilemmas,
the pupils will be more conscious of how they
view human kind and the world and which
place and part they (want to) take in it.
Here one’s own thinking is crucial. One’s
own mind is often surprisingly original and
creative. Asking questions and exploring
one’s own thoughts and actions stimulates
a positively critical attitude. By exploring
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
which place and part they (want to) take in it.
Here one’s own thinking is crucial. One’s
own mind is often surprisingly original and
creative. Asking questions and exploring
one’s own thoughts and actions stimulates a
positively critical attitude. By exploring with
each other the thinking out-of-the-box will be
stimulated. Finally, by taking what pupils say
serious and exploring it with each other you
are showing that their opinions, ideas and
contributions do matter.
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In the end the themes and objectives connect
to the three layers of being a human being as
mentioned above: the ego, the me and the
other and me and the world. Within HEE it is
not only about discovering and creating your
own ideology but also to live together with
others and the world around us. This division
in three can well be found in the various
themes which can be discussed in HEE.
Themes in HEE
Cooperate
You do not explore life issues and moral dilemmas on your own. You do this in a group.
The emphasis on cooperation and exchange
is also a didactic principle in HEE, in which
social learning and living are also given their
place (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 9). You
could describe the HEE-lessons as an actual
democratic practice. Children can practice
dealing with diversity, the possibility to
autonomous development of identity, forming
an opinion and communication, especially
dialogue (Bartels & van Rossum 2009, p.
17). It is always about exploring and discovering together.
Learning through reflection
By looking back at the learning process and
by doing that looking forward how you can
improve certain things, you will be able to
contribute to your own education and consciously choose to change. It is about discovering alternatives of acting. We all tend to act
according to certain patterns. In HEE you will
explore these patterns and you may discover
that you could do things differently.
ME, ME en THE OTHER, ME and THE
WORLD
In HEE one does not use fixed methods or
series of lessons. Lessons are usually based
on a theme. The teacher may choose a theme
him or herself which he or she believes fits in
with the pupils’ environment. More often, however, pupils will bring up an issue themselves
during the lesson which the teacher and pupils may feel is important to deal with. This
particular issue then becomes the theme of
the HEE-lesson, in which topical matters and
events usually play an major role.
The themes that are being used have been
ordered in three main categories. The three
main categories are (Stuij 2010, p. 25):
1.
Social art of living with subjects like: philosophizing with children, Who am I?
Belonging. Me and the other. Being different. Family. Friendship. Animals in
my life. My life on the internet. Sexual
education as relational education. The
sense of art. Life and death and my personal art of living.
2.
Social and ecological world citizenship
with the following subjects: democratic
way of living, the world belongs to everyone (social world citizenship), the
rights and obligations of children, rich
and poor, living together in peace
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
people who think or believe differently,
green from the inside out (ecological way
of living) the earth belongs to everyone
(ecological world citizenship), stories
from around the world and my personal
world view.
3. Humanist principles:
A.
Origin and development: evolution and
humanity (about the origin and the development of the human being, human
kind and humanity). The great thinkers
from history: Socrates, Aristotle, the
Stoa, Erasmus, Spinoza, Darwin a.o.).
(These are mostly Western philosophers, however, each continent can
add their own philosophers here).
B.
Values and virtues: about freedom,
solidarity and individuality. About wisdom, courage, justice and self-control
and discovering one’s own view of life.
PAGE 8
of the pupils, stimulate their interests and increase their motivation.
When you are looking for a suitable form from
the social reality or environment of the pupil
for the first stage of the lesson, it is necessary
that you have a vision of the social context of
the pupils that is connected to your theme.
While looking for a working method you constantly keep in mind that the pupils have to
recognize the moral or life issues. You can
achieve this by giving suitable examples or a
story, showing an article from a newspaper,
an interview with someone on tv or by specific
photos. You can also let your pupils experience the moral dilemma directly in the lesson
by playing a game. As you see you can use
various didactic working methods (Beuling
2010, p 75).
At this stage questions matter like:
The RExCE method
How do you put the above in a lesson or a
meeting with the aim to make the participants
develop themselves in the field of life views
and morals? A special method has been developed, which gives HEE teachers a structure, a framework within which to plan their
themed lessons. This methodology allows for
a variety of working methods. The methodology comprises four steps: Recognize, Explore/Examine, Choose and Evaluate
(RExCE)

Have you ever experienced or seen the
same?

What does it make you think of?

Is it important to discuss this?
Example from the IHEYO conference 2006
Addressing the family
For the ages 6-12
Recognize
The chosen situation must be brought to life
and pupils must recognize it, i.e. identify with
it. The teacher must present the subject in
such a way that all pupils are able to fully
participate. This will deepen the involvement
Step 1: have the students look at pictures of
many different kinds of families: single-parent,
multi-racial, multi-religion, large, small, young,
and old. Ask the students what the picture says
about the family. Do they think they are happy?
Do they get along? Do you know a family like
this? Do you think families are like in other parts
of the world?
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
Explore / Examine
The pupils explore the situation and examine
it from all angles. This is the stage where underlying values are made explicit. Pupils look
at their experiences and assess their personal
feelings and evaluations.
It is important when exploring that you start
with the own experiences of the pupils. By
giving the pupils the opportunity to exchange
their own experiences with the given situation
with each other, they will explore the situation
further. In that way you will give them the opportunity to include former experiences when
defining their opinion. It is important that you
give attention to the feelings that go with
these experiences. Through this you create
the possibility to let underlying values come to
the surface and to deal with existential questions that have to do with the theme (Beuling
2010, p. 76).
The meaning of this second step, explore or
examine, is to experience, to consider and to
understand an event, a situation or a dilemma
from different perspectives. In this way, the
various motives for acting become clear and a
balanced picture about the situation will
evolve.
PAGE 9

What do we know about things that
have to do with the dilemma?

Why would anybody do something like
that?

What would happen if …..?

What do you think of that?
This is also the stage where concepts are
clarified and taught. The teacher or the pupils
may also add information in order to test the
various opinions about it. If you as a teacher
want to give extra information, this stage is
the best stage to do so.
Example from the IHEYO conference 2006
Addressing the family
For the ages 6-12
Step 2: then the discussion can be directed to
families around students and their own ones.
With questions such as the following. What is
your best friend’s family like? How are they different from your family? Do those differences
matter? How do you think life would be different
in another kind of family?
At this stage, questions that matter are:

What experiences do you have that resemble this dilemma?

What did you feel at the time? What do
you think the other people felt?

What do you think is most important in
this situation?

What exactly do we mean by …?

When is something …..?
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
PAGE 10
Choose
The pupils are encouraged to make choices
within the given situation. The emphasis here
is not so much on the final choice, but on the
development of moral sensitivity and becoming fully aware of values. Moral and existential questions can help out here. The teacher
continues to refine the information of the
situation. To allow the pupils to re-assess
their choice and justify it. What is important
here is that the pupils are able to empathize
sufficiently, that they take into account the
arguments and feelings of others and that
they can form a connection with their own
behavior. All behavior is based on a view of
reality in which standards en values have a
firm place. This is therefore also the stage
where values are developed and communicated.
In order to make a well-considered choice, it
is necessary that the pupils:
At this stage it is important that you as a
teacher can listen actively, are well able to
summarize and that you are inviting pupils to
make a choice. The issue here is the process
of how to make a choice. What pupils choose
eventually is less important than how they
came to make that choice. At this stage the
pupils explore the various possibilities of
choice with each other.
Questions you can ask as a teacher at this
stage are:

Questions about the dilemma – Questions about taking a point of view: ‘What
would you do?’

Why- questions – Questions about the
reason or motive of a point of view: ‘Can
you tell me why you think about it in this
way?’

‘more-questions’ – Questions about
more reasons.

Pass on questions – Questions if other
pupils want to react.

Change parts questions – Questions to
put oneself in the position of another:
‘What would you do if you were …. or if
you were …..?
-Have entered well enough into the situation
-Have involved solutions and reasoning of
others into their own argumentation and solutions (social development)
-Have involved former experiences into their
solution (with experiences of an unity, balance in thinking and feeling, personal development);
-Are able to connect their arguments to their
behavior (moral development)
You can do this in a group discussion but also
through other working methods:
-Are able to connect the situation and their
solutions to the humanist values that are in
line with them.
Acting out the situation;
-After having defined a dilemma in the exploration stage, the pupils are then challenged
to reconsider their choice (what they would
do in this situation) and put their findings into
words (Beuling 2010, p. 77).
Playing a card game;
Writing a newspaper article;
Making a cartoon.
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
Example from the IHEYO conference 2006
PAGE 11
process which the pupil experienced.
Addressing the family
For the ages 6-12
Step 3: Questions around choosing: would you
change your family? Do you think there is a
“right” kind of family?, When you grow up, what
do you want your family to be like?, What type
of family would you choose? If you would
choose your own family, why?
Questions belonging to the evaluation about
the process are:

Were you able to give your opinion
about this theme?

Did others give their opinion?

How did that go?

Did you have enough time to finish the
assignments?

How did you like working in the group?

Did the drama, drawing, writing etcetera
help you find answers?

How was working in subgroups?

Do you think you participated well?
Evaluate
n the last stage pupils look back at what they
have done during the lesson. They identify
important moments and issues that made
them change their point of view and/or encouraged them to search deeper. It also becomes clear at this stage what needs more
work and which themes should be explored
next (De Groot & Klarenbeek, p. 9-10)
It is a matter of an evaluation about the content of the lesson and an evaluation of the
process which the pupils have been part in.
Questions belonging to the evaluation of the
content are:
The evaluation can provide a lot of information for further themes, subjects and lessons.
In this case too, many working methods can
be used:
Ask questions orally
-Let them fill in questions on paper individually.

What appealed to you in this lesson?
-The agree-and-do-not-agree-propositions
game.

What did you think of the subject or
theme and why?
The making of two statues; one like is was
and one how it is now.

What did you learn about the subject?

Do you think differently about the situation now?
-The writing of a poem about what has
changed, about how the class thinks about it.

What made you change your opinion?

Do you have any other questions about
this subject?

Are there other themes or subjects we
could pursue in the future?
The four RExEC stages can be run through
within one lesson or spread out over several
meetings.
An evaluation about the process is about the
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
Example from the IHEYO conference 2006
Addressing the family
For the ages 6-12
Step 4: the discussion is closed with an evaluation of it. Questions for the evaluation are:
Did you learn about a kind of family that is new
for you? Do you see “family” differently now?
Did you learn something new about your family? What will you do when you see your family
next? Do you like your family? Do you think
your family is normal? What is special about
your family?
Design your own meeting
How to go about it? To help you design your
own meetings I have formulated 5 steps below which you may use as a checklist. I will
first describe the steps and then I will translate the steps into a lesson for children aged
10 to 12 years.
PAGE 12
Design your own meeting by following the
steps of the RExCE method as described in
the preceding chapter. Always connect to the
perception of the environment and always
round off your meeting, however briefly this
may be.
Step 4: Moral questions and existential
questions
See if you can make statements in your meeting. Is it about exchanging experiences or
really about exploring a moral dilemma? In
the questions you present to the group you
can stress different subjects. One time you
will discuss a dilemma together and the next
time you will explore deeper values in a dialogue about ideologies.

What age are the participants and what
are they interested in?

Is it a new group or not at all?

How does the group treat one another?
Existential questions are questions about the
origin, the connection and the aim of life. They
question the meaning of importance of things
and are directly related to values. Existential
questions therefore give rise to starting points
to talk about their feelings with the pupils.
Moral questions are questions concerning
good or bad, right or wrong, are or are not allowed to. It are questions concerning a moral
dilemma.

Which working methods are familiar to
the group?
Step 5: Reflection
Step 1: Explore your target group
Step 2: Formulate objectives
The aim of your meeting must be feasible
and challenging for the participants from this
specific group.

What do you want to achieve with this
meeting?

What do you want your participants to
have experienced or learned by the
end of the meeting?

How do you test your objectives?
Evaluate your lesson yourself. Have you
achieved what you wanted to achieve? What
went well, what good have been better? What
would you do differently next time? Evaluation
helps you to discover your strong points and
your less strong points and to discover your
own style. You as a teacher are a driving
force behind the meeting and that which you
ask of your participants is also important to go
through yourself. That is how you develop
yourself and how you keep improving your
meetings.
Step 3: RExCE
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
The lesson: Who are you and who am
I?
Step 1: The target group
Have the participants been together over a
period of time and do they feel somehow safe
with each other? If not, you will have to adapt
your lesson. The lesson I will elaborate on
has been developed for children aged 10 to
12 years.
Step 2: Objective
The objectives I want to achieve in this lesson
are:
-Making pupils realize that first impressions
are not always correct
-Getting them to look at photographs and describing their first impressions
-Encouraging them to show themselves willing to explore their own impressions and discover any prejudices they might have.
These objectives have been made specific
and can be tested. The first objective is always tested during the introduction and you
can let it recur during the evaluation. The second objective is actually carried out during the
lesson with the pupils. And the last objective
you test with a working method in which the
pupils show what they have filled in and what
they are going to ask each other.
Stap 3: RExCE
A) Introduction: Discussion group with questions:
Recognize: Is the first impression you get of
someone always correct?
Have you experienced that?
PAGE 13
when do you want to become friends with a
child you do not know?
when will you avoid someone, when will you
ignore someone?
Does this have anything to do with the way
this person looks?
B) Core: The teacher brings in a large number of different photographs of children. Try to
make sure these include a good number of
children from other cultures (source: UNICEF,
Oxfam of Novib calendars for instance). Every
pupil is given a photograph and a worksheet.
They stick the photograph in the middle of the
worksheet and answer the following questions
on the worksheet, working on their own.

What do you think of this person? I think
he/she is …

Can you trust him/her?
cause…., No, because

Which 2 characteristics do you think describe him/her well?

What name would you give him/her?

Would you like to be friends with him/
her?

What would he/she enjoy doing, do you
think?

What else do you want to say about
him/her?
Yes,
be-
the worksheets are put
C) Conclusion:
up. Every child or a number of children, are
invited to tell something about their own worksheet and ask each other questions about it.
You can round the lessons off by asking the
class some of the evaluation questions.
There are several variations possible to
this lesson. You can, if you do not have
enough photos, choose 4 yourself and
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’
Dutch humanist ethical education: didactic principles and the method
There are several variations possible to this
lesson. You can, if you do not have enough
photos, choose 4 yourself and make a number of children write down what they think
about a certain picture. In the subsequent
discussion the children can then explore with
each other why it is that they look at one and
the same person in different ways (if that is
the case).
Step 4: Moral questions and existential
questions
You can make statements in your lessons
when dealing with moral questions and existential questions. A moral question for this
lesson could be: Is it bad to be prejudiced? Is
it allowed to shut out someone because of
what he looks like? Can you think of situations where that would be allowed or not?
Existential questions in this lesson would be
about how it is that you immediately get a
number of images/prejudices when seeing
someone? Did anyone experience things being said about you which were not correct?
How did that feel?
Step 5: Reflection
Evaluate your lesson through answering the
following questions:

What went well? Because of what?

What did not go as well?

What happened and what did you do?

What did you think, feel and what did
you want to achieve?

What is most important of the abovementioned?

What would you do differently next
time? (make this clear, do not say: I
want it to be better next time, but say:
next time I will hang a clock in the
classroom so I can better keep a track
PAGE 14
of time. Or I will create depth in the conversation by asking the following questions…. etcetera).
In the next article the methodology will be
translated to a wider target group which might
possibly be usable in your own practice. I
hope that the description of the methodology
in this chapter can help you to make challenging, creative and playful meetings. In which
the participants will explore their own values
and those of others in a positively critical
manner. Good luck!
Literature

Bartels, R. & van Rossum, M. (2009).
Filosoferen doe je zo. Leidraad voor de basisschool. Band 1 voor groep 1 t/m 4. Damon Budel
 Bronsveld, A. & Corneille, J. (2009). Humanistisch Vormingsonderwijs en Levensbeschouwing
(HV)) op de openbare basisschool. Utrecht: Folder
HVO
 Groot, T. & Klarenbeek, E. (2000). Mastering
the art of living and becoming a citizen of the
world. It isn’t something that just happens. A book
of lesson plans and teaching suggestions for Humanist Ethical Education. Utrecht: Pedagogisch
studiecentrum HVO
 Vries, J.P. de (2010). Competente vakdocent
GVO en HVO voor de openbare basisschool
Article IHEYO book ‘Critical Thinking in Humanist education: an overview of best practices worldwide’