This is a chronicle of the development of Philosophy for Children program in Costa Rica. It addresses the projects of some state universities and the pioneer experience of the British School of Costa Rica, which has consistently led the program in the country for 24 years. A general account of the teaching practice is made, referring to matters of evaluation, class settings and teachers' workloads. A comparison between the aims of P4C and the International Baccalaureate programs is also considered as (...) well. (shrink)

To what extent can Lipman’s P4C materials be universally applied? The Portuguese Curriculum on Philosophy with Children and Youth is designed as an answer to this question. A number of difficulties arise in translating these IAPC materials. In linguistic terms – and generally speaking – it is may be an easy, simple task to translate from one language to another, but how is it possible to translate cultural contexts? Ordinary practices within a given culture may be seen as odd or (...) even absurd to another. In such cases, the text remains distant to the reader hindering his/her empathy with the characters in the story. (shrink)

After more than 25 years of development of Filosofia 3/18 project – Philosophy for Children- in Catalonia, the Superior Assessment Council (Consell Superior d’Avaluació) of the Ministry of Education of the Government of Catalonia (Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya) conducted an external evaluation in order to see the results of the application of this project after so many years. In this report, you will see the results.

Deep personal concern along with querying the issue of Philosophy as a school subject having been moved to the periphery of secondary education form the starting point of this research study. The impression of students’ opinions, as directly implicated in the teaching process led to a series of interesting outcomes. Certain significant findings, among others, include students’ positive attitude towards the subject of Philosophy; acknowledging the necessity for its presence on the school curriculum; recognizing the practical value and contribution of (...) Philosophy on the ethical and intellectual impact on a young individual’s personality; and demonstrating the educator’s pivotal role in the formation of students’ attitudes and opinions. (shrink)

This article addresses the principal challenges the philosophy for children (P4C) educator/practitioner faces today, particularly in light of the multi-channel communication environment that threatens to undermine the philosophical enterprise as a whole and P4C in particular. It seeks to answer the following questions: a) What status does P4C hold as promoting a community of inquiry in an era in which the school discourse finds itself in growing competition with a communication discourse driven by traditional media tools?; b) What philosophical challenges (...) face P4C educators and children in consequence of the “new “subject” created by cyberspace? c) Can proper and beneficial use be made of the media in constructing a sense of relevancy and actuality within the classroom?; d) Should P4C educators espouse the communication discourse or create a counter-discourse? (shrink)

Philosophy for Children is working because it is focusing on thinking which is the essence of education. Communities of inquiry are the ways through which training in thinking is done, and they are going to help significantly transform learning. Collective epistemic progress is possible through craftsmanlike thinking leading to better judgments. Certain processes are needed in the Philippines for these communities of inquiry to be firmly in place.

The proposed paper situates the question about the ‘success’ of the P4C program within the ‘what works’ debate which has taken place in the Anglo-American educational community over the last 15 years. Against this backdrop, the cultural significance of P4C is highlighted and a special focus is devoted to how P4C has changed (or should have changed) the practice of teaching. Finally, the P4C-oriented teaching of disciplines is indicated as a possible promising way out of the current educational predicament marked (...) by the detraditionalization and individualization of knowledge. (shrink)

The future of Philosophy for Children depends upon at least two factors: shared values with the educational policies of the society in question, and valid and user-friendly tools for monitoring growth in this area. As teachers internalise the requirements of the Victorian Education system policy statements, the use of the pedagogy of the Community of Inquiry, P4C is being recognised as a particularly powerful tool for delivering the outcomes. In addition, appropriate tools for curriculum development, and for the assessment and (...) monitoring of student progress (as critical, creative and caring thinkers) are being developed and circulated within the Department of Education. Thus we proceed with optimism and confidence. (shrink)

The article deals with the problems, troubles and successes of P4C in Russia. There is a description of the first steps of it, contemporary situation, and author’s reasoning about it through the discussion with opponents. P4C in Russia started from the meeting of Nina Yulina and Matthew Lipman more then 20 years ago.

This paper supports Dewey’s call for the ‘recovery’ of philosophy as a practice addressing the ordinary problems of humans. It suggests that Lipman’s development of communities of philosophical inquiry, and particularly his emphasis on caring thinking, have helped considerably towards this recovery – rendering philosophy ‘kinder’ or more compassionate in its tone. But it argues that there has to be an equal emphasis on collaborative, or dialogical, thinking. Without that drive towards mutual understanding and the common good, philosophy as a (...) practice can easily become too narrowly critical, or too broadly sentimental. We must think together, or we shall die apart. (shrink)

This paper describes a research project assessing the effect on second grade students’ understanding of argumentation that a twelve-week program of weekly philosophy lessons had. The philosophy lessons were taught using popular picture books in the manner employed in my Teaching Children Philosophy program. Compared to a control group of second graders who did not study philosophy, it was demonstrated that the 45-minute weekly philosophy classes led to a significant and sustainable increase in students’ understanding of argumentation.

A classroom Community of Inquiry depends on the deliberation skills of its members and their willingness to share ideas, time and power, despite conflicting interests, in the process of social inquiry. This vision of sharing power is not without challenges to both P4C and other theoretical movements within the discourse of democratic education. The kind of theorizing that is missing should explore students’ perceptions, judgment, decision making, agency and the like, through meaning making in particular contexts of democratic education. To (...) explore such challenges, I designed a qualitative study to unfold the meanings of power that middle school students constructed within a learning environment, which was influenced by democratic education principles. In explaining their meanings of power in democratic education, the participants explicitly challenged the pre-set notion of power equality between teachers and students, and between the members of a CI, and also the foundational concept of power that is based on redistribution of time and ideas. Arendt’s view of power mirrors the students’ perspectives. This notion of power in education explains why the students supported the teachers’ ‘power’, and why students used their power to different degrees. It is the way Arendt “stylized the image of the Greek polis to the essence of politics as such” (Habermas, 1986, p.82; Arendt, 1986, p.62) that explains how power should support democratic education according to the youths’ view. (shrink)