Philosophical thinking teaching is an educational methods and approach that goes beyond what can be achieved through traditional education. It's not a subject with a determined content or a textbook that teaches the history of philosophy or differences between philosophical schools. Instead, it's a practical approach that provides the skills of Socratic dialogue as a way to learn philosophical inquiry, and conceptual thinking. This equips the student with the ability to apply philosophy as a cognitive skill that can be practically utilized in various fields of life.
The approach can be adapted to any subject in the school curriculum and is suitable for all ages, from kindergarten children to adults.
This approach benefits individuals with varying cognitive abilities.
The Philosophical Thinking Education curriculum is spread across more than 60 countries around the world and focuses on promoting thinking through dialogue, creating an educational model called the "Community of Inquiry."
In the Community of Inquiry, the role of the teacher shifts from being a knowledge transmitter to a facilitator of open-ended philosophical dialogue, while the child and the adult bothe become an active participant in knowledge creation.
Dialogue occurs during what is called the Socratic circle, where participants are encouraged to interact and respond to a philosophical stimulus, which could be an illustrated story for children, an image, or a short film clip. They then learn how to pose open philosophical questions. Each group then presents its questions, and the one receiving the most votes is selected. The facilitator leads the Socratic dialogue using a range of supporting methods.
At the end of the dialogue, individuals withing the Socratic circle engage in effective reflection and evaluation of what occured during the dialogue. This is because philosophical thinking goes beyond a focus on philosophical content to the process of dialogue itself.
The Community of Inquiry is centered around four types of thinking: caring thinking, collaborative thinking, creative thinking, and critical thinking.
Through interactive integration between these types of thinking, individuals can generate a set of mental habits, including connections and distinctions, building concepts, argumentation skils, examples and reasanble warrants, returning to the assumptions in questions, justification and reasoning, and more.
Philosophical thinking education is considered a constructive form of education centered around the child, providing them with sustainable learning skills. It develops reasoning, emotional aspects, active listening, articulate speech, and clear and concise expression of ideas.
Research worldwide has demonstrated that philosophical thinking education contributes to enhancing academic achievement efficiency and enriching learning, as it clearly supports participants’ learning motivation.
Philosophical thinking education offers a stimulating challenge for children, adolescents, and participants in general, including teachers who play a different role from their traditional role as facilitators in the Socratic circle.”
Developing cognitive abilities through the acquisition of higher-order mental habits, including abstraction, reasoning, logic, categorization, and more.
Cultivating a strong sense of the Community of Inquiry, which encompasses all aspects of social skills, including respecting and accepting differences in ideas, emotions, perspectives, and values.
Each child and young person has their own unique experiences and interests, just like adults. They have the right for these experiences and interests to be part of their educational journey.
Quality education is that which arises from these interests and is adapted to the child, rather than being governed by fixed quantitative standards.
School is an integrated scientific and social experience, not limited to the instructional side of academic content alone. Therefore, it mirrors a microcosm of the larger society.
Good education cares about the educational process itself, which emerges from the child's interests, equally, and perhaps even more than the educational product or content. Consequently, there must be formal and informal time available for learners in school to ask questions that will help them understand both their scientific curriculum and their social experiences.
The facilitator (philosophical teacher) makes the process of dialogue flow between individuals inside the dialogue circle. They do not transmit information and do not determine answers.
The facilitator adheres to the idea of open philosophical dialogue. As such, they do not lead the dialogue to make participants guess the answer that they have prepared in their minds or attempt to guess the answers that participants have in their minds, and then rephrase them to change them. Instead, they allow the dialogue to proceed smoothly using specific techniques that advance the idea forward without directly contributing to a predetermined endpoint.
Therefore, the facilitator serves as a role model in terms of behavioral conduct in the curriculum.
The dialogue circle includes everyone, and the dialogue respects all viewpoints while enhancing interaction with arguments and counterexamples.
The dialogue does not motivate the desire to score points or win arguments within the philosophical circle. Instead, there is a focus on arriving at the truth without personal bias.
Participants within the Community of Inquiry understand that they are part of the social fabric and recognize that the Community of Inquiry is a natural and authentic way of creating intersubjectivity between individuals.
The Community of Inquiry enriches the process of exchanging ideas and contributes to the creation of new thought models that are more respectful of the reality of lived experience and prevailing social values. It is also more committed to the idea of a common future within the broader social fabric.