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Philosophy for Children deepening learning
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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

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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

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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

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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

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Collaborative working involved

• pair working to check childrens initial
  understanding of the stimulus
• dialogue in groups of six in which the teacher
  encouraged the children to stick to a number of
  rules

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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

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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

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What professional development did teachers
receive?

• During the first 12 months of the two-year
  initiative teachers received 10-12 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

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Who were the children in the study?

• A total of 105 pupils aged 10-12 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

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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?

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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?

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Find out more

• Study reference Topping, K.J and Trickey S
  (2007) Collaborative philosophical enquiry for
  school children Cognitive effects at 10-12 years
  in British Journal of Educational Psychology
  (2007), 77, pp. 271-288
• You might like to read a longer summary of group
  work that is effective for learning on the GTC
  website http//www.gtce.org.uk/research/romtopics
  /rom_managementoflearning/groupwork_nov06//

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