‘Philosophy for Children’: deepening learning

The impact of ‘thinking through philosophy’ on pupils’ learning  The primary children in this Scottish study showed: –greater improvements on number tasks, verbal and non-verbal reasoning tasks compared with control groups –learning gains across the range of abilities – particularly middle level performers –consistent gains across schools and pupils – both boys and girls showed significant gains in post-tests

The other benefits of ‘thinking through philosophy’  Teachers increased their use of open-ended questions  Pupils increased their participation in classroom discussion and showed greater use of critical reasoning  Thinking skills learnt through dialogue were transferred to non-verbal and numerical reasoning tasks

Thinking through philosophy lessons involved:  one-hour lessons with three main components: –introduction –collaborative working, and –closure  open-ended questioning by the teacher that challenged the children to think independently and promoted teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil dialogue

The introduction to lessons involved:  a focusing exercise to relax the children and engage their attention  linking to previous work to establish a starting point for thinking, and  introducing a stimulus for the new activity, usually a teacher reading a poem or story with visuals

Collaborative working involved:  pair working to check children’s initial understanding of the stimulus  dialogue in groups of six in which the teacher encouraged the children to stick to a number of rules

During the closure phase of the lesson:  teachers encouraged children to reflect on their thinking  children followed up the activity by relating what they learned to other situations

Creating a ‘community of enquiry’  To create and maintain the community of enquiry the teacher encouraged the children to: –be willing to communicate their views about the topic –support their views with reasons –listen respectfully to others –indicate politely their agreement or disagreement with the others’ views –provide alternative viewpoints –reach a shared conclusion

What professional development did teachers receive?  During the first 12 months of the two-year initiative teachers received hours of professional development  Professional development involved: –one day of training prior to the intervention provided by a local primary head teacher and two senior teachers –observation of specialist teachers using the strategies, followed by debriefing with the specialists –teachers exploring their experiences collaboratively –specialist teachers available on a call-out basis

Who were the children in the study?  A total of 105 pupils aged years from four schools within a single Scottish educational authority experience ‘thinking through philosophy’ lessons  A further group of 72 pupils in another two schools in the same authority acted as a matched control group  Pupils were of mixed socio-economic status, including some very disadvantaged pupils

How might teachers use this evidence?  It was important for teachers to give children time to reflect on how their thinking had moved on, and to link their learning with other situations  In what ways could you support this kind of reflection among pupils? Could you, for example, ask them to note down their beliefs and/or knowledge about the topic at the start of a session/term, and refer back to this later on?

How might school leaders use this evidence?  The extended nature of the CPD provided teachers with the opportunity to embed the new practice, reflect on and refine their approach through termly meetings, and draw on specialist support as it was needed  Are you able to provide support mechanisms over time to ensure they have the opportunity for sustained and deep professional learning and to embed new practice of the type described in the study?

Find out more  Study reference: Topping, K.J and Trickey S (2007) Collaborative philosophical enquiry for school children: Cognitive effects at years in British Journal of Educational Psychology (2007), 77, pp  You might like to read a longer summary of group work that is effective for learning on the GTC website: mentoflearning/groupwork_nov06// mentoflearning/groupwork_nov06// mentoflearning/groupwork_nov06//

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