Summary and contents

This resource is the About P4C page of the Philosophy4Children site.

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Subjects: Philosophy4Children, philosophy for children, p4c, philosophy, children, education, teaching, training, classroom, about

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What is Philosophy for Children?

Benefits for Children

A way to open up children’s learning through enquiry and the exploration of ideas.
Gives children the possibility of seeing that their ideas have value, and that others have different ideas that have value too.
They realise that they don’t always have to be right.
They have the confidence to ask questions and learn through discussion.
All learners (including teachers) have opportunities to genuinely enquire.
A chance to speak and be heard without fear of getting an answer wrong.
Intelligence grows.
Gives children who are not considered “academic” a voice and a chance to flourish.
Gives the “academic” children a chance to think outside the box and to see that the non-academic have inspiring ideas.
Gives all children value.

A structured session.
Starts with a stimulus.
Children are encouraged to draw on their imagination to ask a question based on wonderment (I wonder why...?).
Children make a collective decision on the question they are most interested in.
The discussion starts but is then not contained. It follows its own path guided by the children’s thoughts and ideas, agreeing and disagreeing, but always giving a reason for their point of view.

Impact on other areas of the curriculum.
Lots of ideas for creative writing.
Creates an enquiring classroom in all areas of the curriculum.
Affects personal skills, and behaviour in the playground.
Develops skills necessary for positions of responsibility (school council, worship leaders etc).
Listening and reasoning skills.
Independence.