![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
| Philosophy for Children. A program that offers conceptual and cultural enrichment while providing skill improvement in comprehension, analysis, and problem solving. Specifically, the program develops reasoning competencies (e.g., inferring and finding underlying assumptions) and inquiry skills (e.g., forming hypotheses and explaining) for grades 3-7. |
Audience Approved by the JDRP for elementary school children grades 3-7.
Description The classroom community of inquiry whereby children are encouraged to listen to and talk with their peers is the central feature of the Philosophy for Children program. This is not just another discussion format. Teachers are trained to become expert facilitators of substantive philosophical discussion about matters of concern to children. Why philosophy? Because the skills fostered by philosophical discussion are precisely those which cut across the various school subjects in which parents, teachers, and administrators want children to excel. This connection of the program with school subjects is borne out by the research indicated below. A short list of essential features of the program includes:
Since the community of inquiry is self-correcting, that is, individual opinions are continuously monitored by the community, children quite naturally come to recognize the procedures of critical thinking. This acquisition of procedures is reinforced, since sequentially arranged cognitive and reasoning skills are introduced in grades 3-6, and there is ample opportunity to apply the skills to concrete areas of concern to children throughout the 3-7 curricula. Additionally, children become creative as well as critical thinkers.
The pedagogical strategy of Philosophy for Children is to introduce children to standards of sound thinking through careful discussion of ideas. In this way, their reading, writing, speaking, and listening become infused with better reasoning, and this is then carried by them into other classrooms. Philosophy for Children is therefore critical thinking at its most thorough, aimed at producing reasonable students capable of good judgment when finding themselves in problematic situations. Philosophy for Children is especially germane to the first two objectives of National Goal for Education 3: (1) raising the overall academic performance of students; and (2) increasing the ability of students to reason, solve problems, apply knowledge, and write and communicate effectively.
Evidence of Effectiveness Students exposed to the program have consistently demonstrated significant gains in logic, reading comprehension, mathematics, and reasoning skills when evaluated with the California Test of Mental Maturity, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, and the New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills, and when matched with equivalent comparison students. Populations have been heterogeneous, from all socioeconomic groups and of mixed ethnicity.
Requirements Training is required for all teachers who participate in the program. Guaranteed training must involve a certified trainer. Two follow-up visits by the trainer are strongly recommended; the first for the trainer to model the program in each class, while the second is for the trainer to observe the teachers.
Costs For a class of 25 students, the entire cost could be as little as $265 plus the cost of a substitute if needed. Follow-up activity is negotiable, but will not, in any case, require substitutes.
Services Awareness materials are available at no cost. Program or on-site training is available. Visitors are welcome by appointment to nationwide demonstration sites. In some cases, graduate credit can be arranged for inservice training.
Developmental Funding: NEH, USOE, ESEA Title IV-C, state, and private sources.
JDRP 86-12 (7/2/86)
-###-
[Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT)]