Rate My Professor Liz Fynes Clinton

Liz Fynes-Clinton serves as a casual academic at Curtin College, Curtin University in Bentley, Western Australia, within the Education discipline. Her academic interests focus on philosophy for children and educational philosophy, particularly the development of deep reflective thinking (DRT) as a theory of practice through collaborative philosophical inquiry in communities of inquiry. She completed her PhD in the School of Education at the University of Queensland in 2018, with a doctoral thesis titled "Deep Reflective Thinking through Collaborative Philosophical Inquiry." This research, drawn from a longitudinal study conducted from 2012 to 2016 with primary school students aged 7-12, outlines DRT as comprising a repertoire of intellectual skills and processes, sustained engagement in philosophizing, ongoing self- and peer-assessment, and examination of epistemic doubt. These elements aim to cultivate metacognition, genuine collective doubt, fallibilism, and self-correction, with applications to democratic education and complex issues like environmental challenges and climate change.

Fynes-Clinton began her career in philosophy education as a philosophy educator at Buranda State School in 2001, making collaborative philosophical inquiry a core aspect of her teaching practice at both primary and tertiary levels. She has authored and co-authored several journal articles on philosophy in the classroom. Her key publications include co-authored books "Philosophy with Young Children: A Classroom Handbook" and "Philosophical and Ethical Inquiry in the Middle Years and Beyond." Recent works feature "Toward a self-correcting society: Deep reflective thinking as a theory of practice" (Journal of Philosophy in Schools, 2024, with Gilbert Burgh and Simone Thornton), "Do not block the way of inquiry: Cultivating collective doubt through sustained deep reflective thinking" (2018, with Burgh and Thornton), "Reconstruction of thinking across the curriculum through the community of inquiry" (2017, with Kim Nichols and Burgh), and community of inquiry activities such as "Watery reflections," "Space Exploration," and "You, water and society."