COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY AND PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN (COI P4C) AS A TOOL FOR RE-BRANDING EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education systems across the world have traditionally placed a heavy premium on the transmission of factual content and the memorization of information, often leaving comparatively little room for the deliberate cultivation of reasoning, questioning and independent thought in the classroom. Philosophy for Children, popularly abbreviated as P4C, emerged as a direct response to this gap. Founded on the pioneering work of Matthew Lipman, P4C is built around the pedagogical device of the Community of Inquiry, a structured yet dialogic classroom setting in which a teacher-facilitator and a group of learners collectively examine a stimulus, generate philosophical questions, and reason together toward clearer, more justified understandings, without any single voice, including the facilitator's, being treated as the final authority on truth (Fisher, 2008). Within the Community of Inquiry, every participant is regarded as a co-inquirer, and the primary goal of the exercise is not to arrive at a single correct answer but to pursue clarity of ideas and a disciplined, reasonable way of thinking.

Trickey and Topping (2004), in an influential systematic review of the field, described P4C as essentially a thinking-skills programme, one whose central concern is the development of learners' capacity for logical, creative, caring and collaborative thought through sustained philosophical dialogue. Since that review, an extensive and growing body of international research has examined the effects of P4C-style Community of Inquiry sessions on a range of outcomes among children and adolescents, including critical thinking, moral reasoning, reading comprehension, self-esteem and social competence (García-Moriyón et al., 2020; Zulkifli & Hashim, 2020; Işıklar & Abalı-Öztürk, 2022; Balcı & Eryılmaz, 2024). Across much of this literature, P4C is consistently framed not merely as an additional subject on the timetable but as an approach capable of transforming the underlying culture and pedagogy of a school, shifting classroom practice away from passive content-absorption and toward reflective, dialogic, and democratic engagement with ideas.

It is this transformative potential that lies at the heart of the present study's interest in Community of Inquiry and Philosophy for Children as a tool for re-branding the educational system. If, as much of the literature suggests, no single perspective can claim absolute truth, then a classroom culture built around collective, reasoned inquiry offers a plausible route to bridging what may be described as the missing link in the wider chain of education: the deliberate, structured cultivation of reasonableness itself. This study, presented as a case study, investigates the perceptions of two small samples of learners, one at Key Stage 3 and the other at Key Stage 4, drawn from a small, independent progressive school, regarding their experience of Philosophy for Children, or Philosophical Enquiry (PE), lessons undertaken during the 2011/12 academic year.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

A recurring criticism of conventional schooling is that it can, if left unchecked, produce learners who are proficient at recalling information but who are less confident or less practised at questioning, evaluating evidence, or constructing and defending a reasoned argument of their own. Where such gaps exist, they are rarely addressed by the standard curriculum in any deliberate or systematic way, and the resulting deficit in reasoning and higher-order thinking skills has implications not only for academic attainment but also for learners' broader participation in the democratic and communal life of their school and society (Zulkifli & Hashim, 2020). Although Philosophy for Children and the Community of Inquiry method have been proposed and, in a growing number of settings, implemented as a corrective to this problem, comparatively little is known, in the specific context of this small independent progressive school, about how the learners themselves experience these sessions: whether they genuinely enjoy them, whether they engage meaningfully with the process, and whether the sessions have any discernible effect on how the learners understand what it means to learn. It is this gap in localized, learner-centred understanding of the affective and cognitive dimensions of P4C/PE practice that this study sets out to address.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The research interest of this study lies principally in learners' motivation and engagement, and it therefore addresses whether the participants enjoyed the Philosophical Enquiry sessions and whether they engaged with the process of P4C/PE. Because P4C is widely described in the literature as a thinking-skills programme, the study, while centred in the affective domain, also designed its remaining research questions to be open to the participants' own perceptions of what they learnt and how they learnt, with particular reference to critical or higher-order thinking and other transferable skills. In pursuing this purpose, the study generates qualitative data, and, in contrast with much of the existing research into P4C which tends to measure cognitive development quantitatively, this study makes no attempt to do so. Instead, it is presented as an illuminative evaluation, descriptive of a multifaceted practice in which the affective and cognitive dimensions interweave, and it further discusses the facilitation and teaching approach of the researcher with regard to his own professional development.

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

• Did the students enjoy PE, and if so what was it they enjoyed about it, and why?

• Did it engage them, and if so to what degree and in what ways?

• Did the experience of 'Philosophical Enquiry' in any way change their perspectives on 'learning', of what 'learning' is?

• What benefit, and learning, did students gain from the experience of the sessions?

• Were these benefits and gains transferred to (a) learning in other lessons, and (b) their participation in the community life of the school?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study is significant because it offers a grounded, learner-centred account of how Philosophy for Children and the Community of Inquiry method are actually experienced by young people in a real classroom setting, rather than relying solely on externally imposed measures of cognitive gain. For classroom practitioners and school leaders considering the adoption of P4C, the study offers illuminative, practice-based insight into what motivates and engages learners, insight that can usefully inform decisions about curriculum policy and pedagogical design. For the wider field of educational research, the study contributes qualitative, case-based evidence to a literature that, as noted by Trickey and Topping (2004) and subsequent reviewers, has tended to privilege quantitative measures of critical thinking and cognitive development over the lived, affective experience of the learners themselves.

The study is also significant for its contribution to the professional development of the researcher as a facilitator, offering a reflective account of facilitation and teaching approach that may be of value to other teachers seeking to introduce or refine Community of Inquiry practice in their own classrooms. Finally, by concluding that P4C/PE sessions can contribute to a humanistic and progressive pedagogy consistent with the curriculum policy of the school studied, the research offers a modest but concrete case in support of the broader claim that Community of Inquiry and Philosophy for Children can serve as a genuine tool for re-branding educational practice.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study is delimited to two small samples of learners, one drawn from Key Stage 3 and the other from Key Stage 4, at a single small, independent progressive school, engaging in Philosophy for Children or Philosophical Enquiry lessons during the 2011/12 academic year. The study is qualitative and interpretive in nature, and its scope is confined to learners' perceptions of enjoyment, engagement, and their understanding of learning, together with a reflective account of the researcher's own facilitation practice. The study does not attempt to quantitatively measure cognitive development, examination attainment, or standardized thinking-skills scores; rather, it is presented as an illuminative evaluation of a multifaceted practice in which the affective and cognitive domains interweave.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

Several limitations should be borne in mind when interpreting the findings of this study. First, the sample size at both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 is small, and the study is confined to a single, independent, progressive school, a context that may differ considerably from mainstream state schools in terms of ethos, class size, and pedagogical culture; this limits the extent to which findings can be generalized to other settings. Second, because the study relies on learners' self-reported perceptions, the data are inherently subjective and may be influenced by the learners' relationship with the researcher, who was also their facilitator, raising the possibility of social-desirability bias in responses. Third, as noted earlier, no attempt was made to measure cognitive development directly, so the study cannot speak to whether the reported gains in reasoning or thinking skills would also manifest in more objective, standardized assessments. These limitations notwithstanding, the illuminative, descriptive approach adopted was deliberately chosen as appropriate to the study's central concern with learners' own motivation and engagement, rather than with generalizable, quantifiable outcomes.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Philosophy for Children (P4C): An educational approach, founded on the work of Matthew Lipman, that uses structured philosophical dialogue within a Community of Inquiry to develop children's critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking.

Community of Inquiry: A pedagogical structure in which a facilitator and a group of learners collectively investigate a stimulus or question through reasoned dialogue, with every participant treated as a co-inquirer rather than a passive recipient of knowledge.

Philosophical Enquiry (PE): A term often used interchangeably with P4C to describe classroom sessions structured around collective philosophical questioning and dialogue.

Key Stage 3: A stage of the English national curriculum framework typically covering learners aged approximately 11 to 14 years.

Key Stage 4: A stage of the English national curriculum framework typically covering learners aged approximately 14 to 16 years, usually culminating in national examinations.

Illuminative Evaluation: A qualitative, descriptive approach to research evaluation that seeks to illuminate the complexity of a practice as it is actually experienced, rather than to reduce it to a single measurable outcome.

Higher-Order Thinking: Complex modes of thought, such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis, that go beyond simple recall of information.

Affective Domain: The dimension of learning concerned with feelings, attitudes, motivation and emotional engagement, as distinct from the cognitive domain, which concerns knowledge and intellectual skills.

REFERENCES

Balcı, E., & Eryılmaz, R. (2024). The impact of Philosophy for Children (P4C) activities on enhancing the speaking skills of gifted students. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1451532. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1451532

Fisher, R. (2008). Teaching thinking: Philosophical enquiry in the classroom (3rd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing.

García-Moriyón, F., González-Lamas, J., Botella, J., Vela, J. G., Miranda-Alonso, T., Palacios, A., & Robles-Loro, R. (2020). Research in moral education: The contribution of P4C to the moral growth of students. Education Sciences, 10(4), 119. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10040119

Işıklar, S., & Abalı-Öztürk, Y. (2022). The effect of philosophy for children (P4C) curriculum on critical thinking through philosophical inquiry and problem solving skills. International Journal of Contemporary Educational Research, 9(1), 130–142. https://doi.org/10.33200/ijcer.942575

Trickey, S., & Topping, K. J. (2004). 'Philosophy for children': A systematic review. Research Papers in Education, 19(3), 365–380.

Zulkifli, H., & Hashim, R. (2020). Philosophy for Children (P4C) in improving critical thinking in a secondary moral education class. Sains Humanika, 12(2), 23–32.