Issues arising in the use of philosophical enquiry with children to develop thinking skills

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify a number of issues surrounding the practice of philosophical enquiry in the classroom. The issues have been chosen as a consequence of 3 years work using philosophy for children techniques regularly in a Cumbrian Primary School. We begin by defining philosophical enquiry and then show how the context of a mixed age class has itself raised a particular set of issues which have to be tackled if philosophical enquiry is to be successful as a method of developing thinking skills. Specifically we look at the curriculum links which can be made to philosophical enquiry, how it can be assessed and how a range of children can be included in the process. The paper continues by looking at some of the strategies and resources that we have developed to overcome the issue of inclusion, in particular by focusing on the meaning and interpretations of the questions.