The Effectiveness of 'Philosophy for Children' Program on the Growth Of Reasoning Skills of Students

Background and Aim: Educationalists believe that the acquisition of knowledge purpose has been set to develop the power of thinking and besides teaching reading, writing and calculating skills; schools should enhance students' ability to apply scientific topics and facts. Philosophy for Children is one of the programs designed for children in order to improve their learning in the curriculum. Lipman sets the following goals for the program: Improvement in reasoning ability and nurturing creativity, critical thinking, citizenship; individual and interpersonal growth, and nurturing the ability to find meaning in experience. Some storybooks have been designed to perform the Philosophy for Children program. Stories are the stimuli that present philosophy in the form of the experiences of fictional characters. Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental method with pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The participants were ۴۱ fifth grade elementary school students who were selected through available sampling method and randomly were divided into an experimental (n=۲۲) and a control (n=۱۹) groups. The New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skill was used to assess the reasoning skills. Employing Philosophy for Children (based on Philip Cam's Thinking Stories) was conducted using the Community of Inquiry method in thirteen ۶۰-minute sessions for the experimental group. Results: The hypothesis of the study is that using the Philosophy for Children Program affects the development of the students' reasoning skills in Iranian schools. Conclusion Results of the ANCOVA Test of Using Philosophy for Children Program on Reasoning Skills indicated a significant main effect of group in Reasoning Skills, F(۱, ۳۷)= ۶.۱, p<۰.۰۵, with better performance for experimental group (M= ۲۹.۶۸, SD=۴.۸۸) than control group (M=۲۵.۶۸, SD=۶.۹۱). The Philosophy curriculum raises questions in minds of the students and provides them with the opportunity to think. This enables them to judge their own beliefs and that of others, expands their insight, and ultimately increases their power of thinking. As children in the Community Inquiry method are asked to argue with each other, they learn to give reasons for what they say, and this will reinforce their reasoning. The trained Program engages learners to search meaning and helps them to make better judgments in their daily life. Therefore, this program is useful for children and it is suggested to have this program supported at schools.

کلیدواژه ها:

Philosophy for children ، reasoning skills ، students