Students as enquiry facilitators Emerging findings Fufy Demissie Karen Hardy Mary Haynes

The research Colleagues in DECI (Karen Hardy, Mary Haynes) have been using the P4C (Philosophy for children) methodology with a group of level 4 foundation degree students. In the last 2 sessions, students were invited to facilitate the enquiry

Rationale for students as facilitators benefits of facilitating enquiry, through actively questioning contributors' assumptions, checking consistency and relevance student engagement and ownership

The purpose of critical/reflective thinking? is 'good judgement' judgements: forming opinions, estimates, conclusions, making decisions 'good professionals make good judgments about their own practice as well as the subject matter of their practice' (Lipman, 2003, p.212). therefore, critical/reflective thinking is thinking that facilitates judgment..

Enquiry 1 1. To what extent can a child communicate non-verbally in decisions which affect them? 7 2. To what extent should we allow children to participate in decision making? 8 3. Do children feel more able to participate when there is less adult involvement? Are parents inhibiting their child's development even when they do not mean to?1

Enquiry 2 1.Do we consider everyday objects to be just as stimulating as man-made toys?11 2.Do we value trips and visiting new sites in educating children?4 3.Do we construct environments to encourage children to conform?5 4.Do we give enough real life situations or experiences?5 5.Do we encourage communication?1 6.Do we value the natural environment in children's play?8 7.Do we encourage risk benefit and involve children in this?5

Examples of questions from the module review 1.Key difference I have noticed between philosophical enquiries and other class discussions... 2.The enquiries could be developed further by... 3.The philosophical enquiries have enabled me to... 4.When fellow students facilitated philosophical enquiries...

Emerging findings 'When fellow students facilitated philosophical enquiries I felt: I felt...because... 'encouraged/more at ease''we are all in the same wave length' 'more involved and trusted''we were given opportunities to lead discussions 'confident and comfortable''we are all in the same boat' 'hard to listen to the silence''I had to move the discussion on' 'more a need to contribute''wanted to support my peers 'less under pressure''my confidence had grown' 'comfortable''.. we have developed our knowledge of each other over along period of time'

Data collection - next stage 1.focus group interviews with: facilitator group volunteers form the rest of the group 2. In-depth interviews with facilitators /other participants?

Next stage.. the research question/s? any additional data? how to analyse the data? theoretical perspectives? methodological perspectives?