YEAR 1 FOUNDATION

RS

Philosophy for ChildrenP4C

P for C

‘The unexplained life is not worth living.’

Socrates

Would you rather meet:

1. God2. Your great, great, great, great,

grandparents.3. The cleverest person in the world.4. Your favourite football player /

musician.

What would you say?

What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is a method of thinking, reasoning and making sense of arguments and counter arguments.

**WHOLE GROUP ACTIVITY**

WHAT IF … People discovered the secret of eternal youth? You could end one evil in the world - what

would it be? You were someone else – who would you

be? You could meet someone who is dead,

who would it be? Discuss these with your group. Try to

think of some more ‘What ifs’ …

There are many benefits from following a P4C programme.

Children are required to reason and explain their thinking.

They learn to listen to the views of others.

They respect the thinking of others. It can lead to increased self-esteem

and confidence.

Philosophy for Children.P4C P for Children

This is a practical philosophy, it is not dealing with the facts but in

the process of exploring philosophical questions.

It is the dialogue which is important.

The Community of Enquiry

This term is used to describe a group of children and their teacher involved in philosophical discussions.

There needs to be calm and an element of mutual trust and respect between teacher and children.

The teacher takes on the role of guide or facilitator.

Group activity

Philosophy improves THINKING SKILLS

It is VITAL that our education system teaches children how to think.

How to think well will greatly affect a person’s life chances.

We must give children TIME to think and we must CHALLENGE them to think.

Ways to encourage thinking skills:

Through effective questioning. Using non-verbal signals. Find an approach which encourages

children to think for themselves. Build confidence and trust. Through dialogue.

Task: Connections

GOOD QUESTIONING STRATEGIES

Open questioning. Give thinking time. Second questioning. Ask ALL pupils. Provide cues for assistance. Slow the rate of questioning. Listen. Withhold judgement. Keep it simple.

Thinking skills include:

Information handling – analysing, interpreting and locating.

Enquiry – planning, predicting, testing conclusions.

Reasoning – giving reason for opinions, making judgements based on evidence.

Creative Thinking –generating ideas, being innovative.

Evaluation – developing a criteria for making judgements.

Philosophy improvesEMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The life chances of our young are affected by EQ as much as IQ.

Self-awareness. Self-regulation Motivation Empathy Social Skills.

Philosophy improvesSPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE

Having visions and values

Seeing holistically

Being ‘field independent’

Spontaneously adaptive.

The Structure of a Philosophy session

The Focusing exercise This is a simple exercise that

helps to focus attention and be ‘in the present’.

Links with the previous week. The StimulusPaired, group work

Structure continued:

DialogueThe key to the whole programme. Not mere conversation but enquiry.The teacher becomes the facilitator.Modelling open questioning, encouraging all

to take part, not always being content with the first answer, allowing deeper thinking.

Dialogue stimulates thinking and emotional intelligence, bringing with it self confidence.

Inspirational Messages