A response to ecclestone and hayes’ critique of therapeutic education using the community of inquiry to bridge the divide between the therapeutic and the educational

A 'Community of Inquiry' a pproach was used to explore the black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) student experience in a university situated in the north of England. Research facilitators were recruited from the postgraduate student population to explore with participants their experiences of learning in the institution. It was found that some of the white academic staff were not confident in talking about issues to do with race and racism. It was also discovered that students from BAME backgrounds may be experiencing isolation in their accommodation and on their courses, while at the same time feeling they needed to 'overperform' in order to succeed. The cumulative effect of this could lead to students' dissatisfaction and the non-continuation of their courses. The Community of Inquiry was effective in identifying possible strategies for improving the student experience.

Creating a community of learning can enhance critical reading in a classroom environment. Task design plays a critical role in the effectiveness of this process. This paper presents a case study of a face-to-face literature course that used a host of Google tools to create such a community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) principles of teacher presence, cognitive presence, and social presence have been applied to analyze the task design using Google tools. Data collected from coursework, surveys, and interviews provide evidence that tasks using Google tools can promote community building and critical reading.

IntroductionThis study explored the impact of a community of inquiry on Science, Design and Technology and Mathematics curriculum competencies of 159 Year six students as they carried out a design task.MethodsA quasi-experimental design was employed with both qualitative and quantitative analyses. A community of inquiry approach was adopted by the teachers (n = 3) in the experimental group but not by teachers (n = 4) in the comparison group. Both groups participated in a learning sequence on electricity culminating in a design challenge in small collaborative groups.ResultsThe results showed that the experimental group (n = 65) demonstrated significantly greater instances and a broader range of Science, Design and Technology and Mathematics competencies across the design task as well as significantly higher learning gains than their comparison group (n = 94) peers.DiscussionThe cognitive shifts towards higher competency development in the experimental group is stronger as a result of the reflection and reasoning required to engage in a community of inquiry.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how the authors created a community of inquiry for game design with Crystal Island, report research results from a school pilot and analyze lessons learned. Using a community of inquiry approach, the authors created participatory structures for design and communication among the university team (i.e. computer science, literacy and science education, educational psychology and art design), elementary teachers and elementary students who were involved with Crystal Island. Design/methodology/approach – As part of the design process and in the attempt to create a community of inquiry, the authors conducted ongoing sessions with the teachers and students (N = 800), or what the authors refer to as design charettes. The design charettes included forming a lead teacher cadre and conducting game-based learning teacher institutes. These sessions led to a mixed methods school pilot study. Findings – Results of the classroom pilot study suggested that game-based lear...

The research paper explores the use of a metaverse‐enabled immersive learning environment (MeILE) guided by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to enhance university student interactions and collaboration. The platform integrates various components, including avatar usage, multimodality, and gamification, with careful consideration of each CoI element to maximize students' immersive interactions and collaboration in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning contexts. By aligning activities with Bloom's digital taxonomy, the metaverse environment aims to improve STEM learning outcomes. A case study conducted at a university demonstrated the successful implementation of essential CoI elements, leading to increased student engagement and improved learning performance. Results indicate MeILE facilitates interactive, reflective, constructive, and self‐regulated learning, which are essential for developing STEM and 21st century skills. The study emphasizes the teacher's role as a facilitator in fostering self‐directed learning, and cultivating 21st‐century skills through collaborative learning activities in virtual environment. The research underscores the importance of innovative educational tools in adapting to the evolving landscape of education in the digital age.

This paper aims at using Facebook to improve the students' engagements with the flipped learning materials through implementation of a socially enabled peer learning environment. The article reports an experiment comparing the online quizzes and Facebook to increase the students' engagement with the online materials in flipped classes. The study looks at the students' perceptions. The current study utilizes the Community of Inquiry (RCOI) to analyze the students' opinions about using Facebook for implementation of flipped learning. The paper provides recommendations to the instructors on how to use Facebook for increasing the students' engagement with the flipped materials. This study also motivates teaching practitioners in Information Systems to improve flipped learning by using social networking sites in their courses.

This article explores the intersection of Immanuel Kant’s maxims of common human understanding and the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CPI). Kant’s three maxims—thinking for oneself, considering others' perspectives, and maintaining logical consistency—are foundational to philosophical reasoning and education. The CPI framework, originally developed by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, encourages critical, creative, and collaborative thinking among children. The study examines how CPI aligns with Kant’s ideals, fostering intellectual autonomy, perspective-taking, and systematic reasoning in education. Drawing from John Dewey’s pragmatism and Walter Benjamin’s insights on childhood imagination, the article highlights how CPI integrates independent thinking and collective dialogue to cultivate critical reflection and ethical awareness. Moreover, the paper argues that CPI can be an effective pedagogical model for addressing contemporary challenges such as misinformation, political polarization, and civic disengagement. Through open-ended discussions, students learn to critically evaluate information, challenge assumptions, and develop social responsibility. By implementing CPI methodologies, educators can create inclusive learning environments that promote inquiry, intellectual integrity, and democratic engagement. This synthesis suggests that Kant’s philosophical principles, when applied through CPI, can enhance modern education by fostering individuals who are not only rational thinkers but also socially responsible citizens capable of constructive dialogue and ethical decision-making.

Philosophy for Children is a pedagogical approach practised worldwide. Although well known for its contribution to democratic teaching and learning its contribution to critical research is relatively unknown. In this paper we present the use of a Community of Enquiry (CoE), as conceptualised in Philosophy for Children, as a qualitative research method that foregrounds participant voice. Framed through Freirean critical pedagogy and social transformation, we present research undertaken with primary pre-service teachers in England, exploring their emerging teacher identity, and detail the method of how a CoE was enabled. We conclude and advocate that a CoE aligns with a research axiology concomitant with ethical critical practices and argue for an environment that enables the researcher, and participants, to generate data collaboratively and collectively through democratic dialogue. Finally, our findings show that a CoE can have much to offer qualitative critical scholars beyond its originally intended pedagogical contribution.

This chapter examines the philosophy and pedagogy of Paulo Freire as an example of applied, pluralist and critical liberal ideology. The 'Socratic circle' is a philosophy-based method which places the teacher inside a 'community of enquiry' on the same level with the students. This ancient method is used in modern ethics classes today. Building on Socrates's foundations, constructivist philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries examined the ideals of a questioning education. One of the most globally recognised educational revolutionaries using this critical line of thought is social theorist Paulo Freire. In the 1970s Freire drew from Catholic liberation theology to pursue social and individual emancipation through literacy. Working with poor communities against communists in Brazil and Chile, Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, from 1993, and Education for Critical Consciousness, from 1974, claimed education as a egalitarian weapon.Keywords: constructivist philosophers; critical pedagogy; democratic egalitarian weapon; Paulo Freire; pluralist approach

IntroductionPhilosophy with children is an educational field that provides children with appropriate instruments as they begin to question world and their own insertion in it. It is a systematic and progressive program specially designed for them. The program is based on traditional topics in history of Philosophy, and through a set of methodological guidelines, carefully planned and implemented, which nurture curiosity and wonder of children, it aims to stimulate and develop complex thinking within a community of inquiry. In this type of community, members work to be able to understand point of view of others and strive in solidarity to discover meaning of world and society in which they live. This article aims to highlight benefits of applying philosophy with children, at same time pointing towards a series of communicational strategies used to promote a with children on social media networks.The philosophy with Children Club?The project Philosophy with Children Club is an initiative of a group of teachers from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, a group composed of Associate professor PhD Mihaela Frunza from Department of Philosophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Assist. PhD Iulia Grad, and respectively PhD candidates Ariana Guga and Iulia Medveschi (the latter ones studying at Doctoral School of Department of Communication, Public Relations and Advertising at Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences). The project aims to introduce with Children in cultural and educational institutions in Romania and to develop partnerships with similar institutions from Romania and abroad.The for Children programs (P4C) draw their inspiration from life-time activity of professor Matthew Lipman in 1970s from US, and subsequent developments from European space, in 1990s. Currently, this discipline is studied in more than 60 countries. In this respect, P4C should be understood as the attempt to construct a pedagogical tool that functions as a model for critical thinking by describing 'real life' children engaged in critical dialogue about philosophical issues, with goal of stimulating same sort of dialogue among groups of students (Vansieleghem, Kennedy 2011, 173).In a constantly changing society, Van der Leeuw advocates for an educational system which pledges for reflexive thinking and communication. According to his perspective through philosophy expect people to be able to reflect rationally on human life, which includes a view of reality, of place of individual in society, of values and norms, of meaning of life and so on. [And] ... we expect them to be able to communicate these views to others, because we live in a common reality, and this common reality must be subject of common discourse, and can even be regarded as a common construct (Van der Leeuw 2009, 113).The introduction of philosophy as an object of study for several generations of children in learning systems in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, or UK has shown that this way of engaging philosophical thinking skills, from a young age, has generated a large number of assertive kids endowed with independent thinking, able to relate critically-constructive to knowledge, to articulate and conceptualize their ideas and to think independently and creatively, to be tolerant towards ideas of others, and ultimately, to work in innovative communities of people with similar thinking. Undoubtedly, this kind of philosophical meetings can help children develop their patience, contentment, confidence in their own strengths, and also to realize their own weaknesses, prioritizing values such as respect and subjectivity related to personal experience (Daniel, Auriac 2011, 421).The with Children aims to involve pupils aged between 7 and 12 in reflection and philosophical exploration through a set of specific methods of stimulating and encouraging curiosity of children, all of which help them to look for meanings, to cultivate intellectual courage, and to make fair judgments in everyday life. …

Faculty and students evaluate the curriculum design and delivery of a synchronous online PhD program in social work that prepares scholar-practitioners in social work research, education, and organizational practice. The designers envision a collaborative community of scholars and leaders nurtured by a cohort-based, sequenced curriculum, and intentional faculty mentoring. This teaching and learning platform provides an opportunity to engage with a globally diverse population of doctoral students while fostering both relationships and quality learning outcomes. Educational design and pedagogical features of the program are described and analyzed through the collaborative thinking and learning platform of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model’s interdependent elements–teaching, cognitive, and social presence. Eighteen students and ten faculty evaluated the strengths and limitations of the online program across each dimension of the model through student course evaluations, focus-group reflections, and qualitative faculty survey data. Student and faculty respondents specified the benefits of synchronous presence across all three dimensions. They also identified significant barriers, particularly in the areas of teaching and social presence. Implications and recommendations are based on a review of findings that inform pedagogical decisions and design options for online PhD education in social work.

ABSTRACTFaculty and students evaluate the curriculum design and delivery of a synchronous online PhD program in social work that prepares scholar-practitioners in social work research, education, and organizational practice. The designers envision a collaborative community of scholars and leaders nurtured by a cohort-based, sequenced curriculum, and intentional faculty mentoring. This teaching and learning platform provides an opportunity to engage with a globally diverse population of doctoral students while fostering both relationships and quality learning outcomes. Educational design and pedagogical features of the program are described and analyzed through the collaborative thinking and learning platform of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model’s interdependent elements–teaching, cognitive, and social presence. Eighteen students and ten faculty evaluated the strengths and limitations of the online program across each dimension of the model through student course evaluations, focus-group reflections, and qualitative faculty survey data. Student and faculty respondents specified the benefits of synchronous presence across all three dimensions. They also identified significant barriers, particularly in the areas of teaching and social presence. Implications and recommendations are based on a review of findings that inform pedagogical decisions and design options for online PhD education in social work.

This article discusses the conditions under which dialogical learner-researchers can move out of the philosophical laboratory of a community of philosophical inquiry into the field of social activism, engaging in a critical and creative examination of society and seeking to change it. Based on Matthew Lipman’s proposal that communities of philosophical inquiry can serve as a model of social activism in the present, it presents the community of philosophical inquiry as a model for social activism in the future. In other words, Lipman’s central ideas in his earlier and later thought—including meaning as a mode of action, relevance as a way of examining life and stimulating influence for change as a form of creating a democratic society—establish two parallel circle of influence: the present time, in the shape of the philosophical community of inquiry that allows activist skills to be honed, and a social space that extends into the future as a forum for applying principles and bettering society. Finally, this paper adduces several forms of social activism that may be anchored in philosophical awareness of real conditions and their contexts. Through them, the community of philosophical inquiry not only constitutes a place in which young people’s thought processes can be developed but also one in which they can aspire to become activists in various areas.

The use of philosophy in educational programmes and practices under such names as philosophy for children, philosophy with children, or the community of philosophical enquiry, has become well established in many countries around the world. The main attraction of the educational use of philosophy seems to lie in the claim that it can help children and young people to develop skills for thinking critically, reflectively and reasonably. By locating the acquisition of such skills within communities of enquiry, the further claim is that engagement with philosophy can foster the development of moral reflection and sensitivity and of social and democratic skills more generally. Claims like these provide a set of arguments for the inclusion of philosophy in the school curriculum that goes well beyond philosophy as just another curricular subject or body of knowledge. The aim of this article is to raise some questions about the conception of education that appears to inform the discussion about the educational use of philosophy. My ambition is to suggest an additional rather than an alternative view about the educational use of philosophy in the hope that this may act as a reminder of a different way in which one can engage with philosophy in educational settings which, in turn, might also act as a reminder of how philosophy might engage with us. The philosophical distinction in which my argument is phrased is that between humanism and post-humanism and the guiding educational concept is that of exposure.

Í þessari grein er fjallað um starfsþróunarverkefnið Hugleik – samræður til náms í leikskóla. Um er að ræða verkefni sem unnið var í samstarfi leikskólans Lundarsels á Akureyri, Miðstöðvar skólaþróunar og kennaradeildar Háskólans á Akureyri. Megintilgangur verkefnisins var að starfsfólk leikskólans lærði um samræður og efldi leikni sína til að nota samræðuaðferðir með börnum í daglegu skólastarfi með það að markmiði að efla með börnum hæfni til að draga ályktanir, taka afstöðu og efla rökhugsun. Margvíslegar rannsóknir hafa farið fram á samræðum sem sýna að þær hvetja börn til að ígrunda og skerpa vitund þeirra um eigin hugsunaraðferðir. Samræðuaðferðir fela t.d. í sér að spyrja spurninga sem hvetja til ígrundunar í þeim tilgangi að efla með börnum gagnrýna hugsun og hæfni til að ræða saman. Verkefnið fellur vel að hæfniáherslum Aðalnámskrár leikskóla (2011) eins og þær birtast í almennum hluta þar sem lögð er áhersla á að skólar efli með börnum og ungu fólki hæfni til að afla gagna og upplýsinga og beita gagnrýninni hugsun við mótun og miðlun hugmynda á skapandi hátt. Í Aðalnámskrá leikskóla (2011) er m.a. lögð áhersla á að í leikskóla sé skapaður vettvangur þar sem allir taki virkan þátt í samræðum um almenn málefni, hlusti hver á annan, skiptist á skoðunum og taki þátt í heimspekilegum samræðum. Starfsþróunarverkefnið náði yfir tveggja ára tímabil og voru alls haldnar 8 samræðusmiðjur, auk þess sem starfsfólk leikskólans skráði niður valdar samræðustundir og tók þátt í rýnihópaviðtölum. Sagt verður frá hugmyndafræðilegum grunni verkefnisins, umfangi, inntaki, aðferðum og verkfærum. Auk þess verður greint frá niðurstöðum skráninga og rýnihópaviðtala. Niðurstöður gefa starfsfólki leikskóla tilefni til að ígrunda og endurskoða starfshætti með það að markmiði að efla samræður með börnum í skólastarfinu.