Deep reflective thinking through collaborative philosophical inquiry

Abstract

The thesis offers insight into the phenomenon of Deep Reflective thinking (DRT) as a theory of practice for teachers and students. This study examined how collaborative philosophical inquiry (CPI) facilitated children’s development of DRT. In the context of this thesis, DRT is a specific way of thinking and learning that emerges from a balanced, dynamic interplay among four elements: development of a repertoire of intellectual skills and processes; sustained philosophising; ongoing self- and peer-assessment; and examination of epistemic doubt. Key theorists informing the investigation were the pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey as well as the sociocultural theorist Lev Vygotsky, and Matthew Lipman who founded the Philosophy for Children program that is used in schools across many countries, including Australia. The research site was an inner-city Brisbane state primary school. Design research methodology was employed within the qualitative research framework to investigate the students’ engagement in episodes of DRT within the context of CPI. The research was conducted between 2012-2016 over three macro-cycles and included student participants from Year 2 through to Year 7 (7 to 12 years of age). The first macro-cycle focused on the students’ development of a repertoire of intellectual tools and processes; the next macro-cycle attended to the substantive elements of CPI and investigated the students’ capacity to deal with philosophical abstraction; and the final macro-cycle examined the extent to which engagement in DRT instigated students’ consideration of epistemic doubt within the community of inquiry. Design research was employed to promote and document the occurrence and depth of students’ reflective thinking as they participated in communities of philosophical inquiry. CPI underpinned all aspects of the designed interventions and data collection. The community of inquiry pedagogy played a dual role as both a key pedagogical practice and as the context for documenting students’ DRT as it occurred.The extended time of the investigation enabled several key findings to emerge. Students can and do reconstruct intellectual tools and practices (Dewey, 1938) in and beyond the context in which they are taught but it takes time for them to understand how these tools will assist the community to make epistemic progress. The development of ongoing self- and peer-assessment prompted students to appropriate the intellectual tools and processes to extend the epistemic growth of the community. Initially, a small number of students evidenced the capacity to do this but as the research progressed these students opened a dialogic space for others within the community and this facilitated further appropriation of the tools and processes for epistemic growth.Students dealt with abstract philosophical ideas in ways that would be considered beyond their age level expectations. Key philosophical theories in relation to the acquisition of knowledge, including the theoretical notions underpinning the study, became stimuli for philosophical discussions. Further stimuli emerged through the students’ thoughts and experiences. The classroom dialogue became the site where the students collaboratively developed philosophical inquiry by following the inquiry where it leads and paying attention to their own epistemic uncertainty. In this sense, they became the characters in their own narratives. This process stimulated genuine engagement as the students took ownership over the path of the inquiry. Students demonstrated a high level of care for the collective thinking of the community and for the direction of the inquiry. The process of ongoing self- and peer-assessment combined with purposeful reconstruction of intellectual practices enabled the students to deconstruct ideas and sustain the rigor and depth of the shared dialogue. They came to understand how to use their new ways of thinking to enrich the collective thinking of their community and extend their own thinking.Through the sustained practice of DRT, involving the use of intellectual tools and processes, ongoing self- and peer-assessment, and collaborative philosophising, many students began to express epistemic uncertainty. The students’ examination of their individual and collective doubt strengthened their DRT. Only a small number of students in a community of inquiry regularly evidenced a position of genuine doubt (Peirce, 1877); however, those students created a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978) in which other members of the community were able to collectively examine doubt. This in turn instigated further doubt, thus increasing the complexity and depth of the ideas under examination. The overlapping ZPDs within the community (Brown, 1994) facilitated understanding and engagement for all members of the community.The evidence collected during the culminating macrocycle of the research prompted a reconsideration of the initial DRT framework to include the examination of epistemic doubt as a necessary element. The thesis provides evidence to support a return to the fundamental notions that Lipman drew upon to develop Philosophy for Children and extends pragmatist theory through the examination of students’ ongoing self- and peer-assessment, reconstruction of experience and examination of epistemic doubt. DRT provides a reconstruction of philosophy with children and a living model of philosophical inquiry.