1. Pam O’Leary, Guidance Counsellor and ethical education teacher
Adventures in P4C
Pam O’Leary, Guidance Counsellor and ethical education teacher

2. What the hell is p4c?!!!
P4C stands for Philosophy for Children and was invented by Matthew Lipman in the 1970’s
Creating a community of enquiry in the classroom
Students ask questions and we go deeper into that question by asking further questions
We use a new stimulus every week eg. Film clip, poem, piece of art, news article or philosophical theory e.g. existentialism.
The stimulus kickstarts a discussion where we ask further questions

3. How are CETSS using P4C in their Junior Cycle Programme?
Part of our ethical education programme (module)
Focuses on listening, critical thinking and communication skills
Links with Whole School Restorative Practice approach (personal responsibility)
Promotion of Social Emotional Learning in the school
Student Assembly (consensus decision making)
starting philosophy short course this year
Skills link to wellbeing indicators
How are CETSS using P4C in their Junior Cycle Programme?

5. Use of a talking piece (Hagrid the Hedgehog) Student negotiated rules
Horseshoe seating
Use of a talking piece (Hagrid the Hedgehog)
Student negotiated rules
Teacher as facilitator
Dialogue based classes - as opposed to just chatting –
Encouraging students to make judgements, asking questions, examining reasons, forming and testing hypotheses, giving examples, making connections and distinctions, and reflection.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

7. Key questions for p4C What have we learned today?
Can anyone draw any conclusions?
Is anyone left with confusion?
Can anyone sum up our discussion?
What new ideas have you had?
What was most interesting part of our discussion today?
What will we do better next time?

10. Resources that I use for p4C
8 bit philosophy funny short films about philosophy
Clips from films like: the matrix, blade runner, total recall. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, the butterfly effect, inception. (themes like future/love/memory/reality/truth/destiny/power etc)
Ted ed talks – lots of relevant themes
Logic puzzles or quizzes (how to solve problems in a logical way)
Thought experiments such as ‘the trolley experiment’ (ethical decision making –moral reasoning)