Marie-France Daniel

Philosophy, Critical Thinking and Philosophy for Children.

For centuries, philosophy has been considered as an intellectual activity requiring complex cognitive skills and predispositions related to complex (or critical) thinking. The Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach aims at the development of critical thinking in pupils through philosophical dialogue. Some contest the introduction of P4C in the classroom, suggesting that the discussions it fosters are not philosophical in essence. In this text, we argue that P4C is philosophy.

Modeling the development process of dialogical critical thinking in pupils aged 10 to 12 years

This research project investigated manifestations of critical thinking in pupils 10 to 12 years of age during their group discussions held in the context of Philosophy for Children Adapted to Mathematics. The objective of the research project was to examine, through the pupils’ discussions, the development of dialogical critical thinking processes. The research was conducted during an entire school year. The research method was based on the Grounded Theory approach; the material used consisted of transcripts of verbal exchanges among the pupils (at the beginning, middle and end of the school year). Analysis of the transcripts revealed that: (1) critical thinking appears to the extent that a ‘dia-logue’ is established among pupils; (2) on the cognitive level, dialogical critical thinking is comprised of four thinking modes: logical, creative, responsible and meta-cognitive; and (3) on the epistemological level, dialogical critical thinking is only manifested in a context where egocentricity of perspective and relativism of beliefs are transcended.

Higher-Order Thinking, Philosophy, and Teacher Education in Physical Education

In this paper, we first present three educational perspectives inherent in the teaching of physical education and, parallel to it, in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. These perspectives are the traditional, the humanistic, and the social. We agree with advocates of the critical pedagogy and critical thinking movements who suggest that the development of higherorder thinking is neglected in these programs. In order to emphasize higherorder thinking in teacher education, we propose the re-introduction of philosophy—not philosophy in its traditional sense, but as in hermeneutics: philosophy in its pragmatic (Deweyan and Lipmanian) sense. We argue that philosophical dialogue within a community of peers provides the essential conditions for the development of higher-order thinking skills and dispositions. We then examine to what extent philosophy is relevant to future teachers in physical education, and provide one successful example of the implementation of philosophical dialogue into a c...

Philosophical Reflection and Cooperative Practices in an Elementary School Mathematics Classroom

Following Matthew Lipman (Lipman, 1991; Lipman, Sharp, & Oscanyan, 1980), we introduced philosophical dialogue (PD) about mathematics in an elementary school to help pupils consider mathematical and meta-mathematical matters. This article describes the social and cognitive activity when pupils engage in PD and some pedagogical conditions necessary to foster the development of PD. Changes in pupils’ discussions from the begin- ning to the end of the test period showed that the dynamic evolved from monological exchanges to dialogical exchanges. Whereas early pupil responses could be characterized mainly as simple answers, later responses displayed more lower-order and even higher- order thinking skills. The data suggest that for PD about mathematics to develop, the teacher must be proficient in the role of mediator. A la suite de Matthew Lipman (Lipman, 1991; Lipman, Sharp et Oscanyan, 1980), les auteurs ont introduit le dialogue philosophique (DP) dans une ecole primaire afin d’aider les eleves a reflechir aux questions d’ordre mathematique et meta-mathematique. Cet article decrit l’activite sociale et cognitive a laquelle donne lieu le DP ainsi que certaines des conditions pedagogiques qui doivent etre reunies pour favoriser le developpement du DP. L’analyse des discussions des eleves du debut a la fin de la periode d’essai a revele une evolution de la dynamique, des echanges monologiques aux echanges dialogiques . Si en premier les eleves donnent de simples reponses, par la suite ils demontrent des capa- cites de raisonnement elementaires et meme de plus haut niveau. Ces donnees semblent indiquer que pour que le DP au sujet de la mathematique se developpe, l’enseignant doit devenir un mediateur efficace.

Epistemological and Educational Presuppositions of P4C: From Critical Dialogue to Dialogical Critical Thinking:

In Quebec as in other parts of the world, education is becoming increasingly problematic, in that the list century will likely be shaped by three major trends: globalization, the explosion of knowledge and accelerated development of technologies, and the increasing complexity of life within our societies12J. DELORS, ibid., p. 47.. In future, schools must ensure a form of education that enables young people to successfully face these new challenges, that is oriented towards the development of critical thinking.

Children’s representations of violence: impacts of cognitive stimulation of a philosophical nature

The ultimate goal of peace education is ‘to minimise and eventually eliminate various forms of violence through consciousness raising, vision, and action’ (Brantmeier, E. (2003) Peace Pedagogy: exposing and integrating peace education in teacher education. Paper presented at the Association for Teacher Educators meeting, p. 6). Our position is that we should invest in peace education and prevention of violence by helping preschool children develop cognitive competencies. One of the aspects of cognitive development explored in this text regards children’s social representations (SR) of violence. Indeed, a number of psychologists have demonstrated that SR serve to regulate behaviors in relation to social norms, and that a change in a person’s SR influences her or his judgments and actions. This study consists of descriptions of children’s SR of violence, verifying whether these SR are stable or dynamic at the ages of five and six years, and whether children are or are not stimulated by the Philosophy for Children approach used throughout one school year. Firstly, the results indicate that children’s SR of violence can be grouped into four hierarchical perspectives. Secondly, the results indicate that the SR of children in the control groups hardly changed during the year, whereas those of children in the experimental groups showed a more marked reorganization.

Chapter 7 Philosophy for Children and the Developmental Process of Dialogical Critical Thinking in Groups of Preschool Children

The questions at the origin of this chapter are: Are children aged 5 years able to become involved in a critical thinking process, which implies a certain degree of abstraction and decentering? To what extent can an approach centered on philosophical dialogue among peers contribute to this development? The chapter describes a study of the exchanges in two groups of children aged 5 years. One group had experience with the philosophical dialogue tool, the Philosophy for Children approach, while the other group had no such experience. The analysis grid was the operationalized model of the developmental process of dialogical critical thinking, as revisited by Daniel and Gagnon, which includes four thinking modes (logical, creative, responsible, and metacognitive) and six epistemological perspectives (egocentricity, post-egocentricity, pre-relativism, relativism, post-relativism, intersubjectivity). Results of the analysis showed that 65% of the experimental groups interventions were situated in relativistic perspectives and 35% in egocentric perspectives, whereas 60% of the control groups interventions were situated in egocentric perspectives and 40% in relativistic perspectives.

Philosopher sur le corps et la violence: Récit d’une expérimentation auprès d’enfants de 5 ans

RésuméLa violence est un phénomène de plus en plus présent dans non sociétés. Le manque d’estime de soi, une conscience non critique et la difficulté de dialoguer sont au centre des problèmes de violence. Le but de cette recherche exploratoire était d’étudier dans quelle mesure des enfants du préscolaire (cinq ans) sont aptes à échanger de façon dialogique sur des concepts reliés au corps et à la violence. Un support narratif de type philosophique a d’abord été élaboré pour les enfants. Ensuite une recherche de type qualitatif a été menée auprès de trois groupes d’enfants Canadiens (Montréal) et de trois groupes d’enfants Français (Caen) durant une année scolaire complète. Les résultats issus de l’analyse des verbatim de discussions montrent qu’avec un support philosophique adapté, non seulement les enfants de cinq ans sont capables de dialoguer, mais qu’ils le font de façon critique.SummaryViolence is an increasingly present phenomenon in our societies. Lack of self-esteem, non-critical awareness and difficulties related to dialogue are at the core of the problems of violence. The aim of this exploratory research was to study the extent to which preschool children (five years of age) are capable to exchange dialogically on concepts related to the body and violence. A philosophical narrative support was initially worked out for the children. Then, a qualitative type of research was undertaken with three groups of children from Canada (Montreal) and three groups of children from France (Caen) during a complete school year. The results of the analysis of the discussion transcripts show that with an adapted philosophical support, not only are the five year-old children able to dialogue, but that they do so in a critical manner.ResumenLa violencia es un fenómeno cada vez más presente en nuestras sociedades. La carencia de autoestima, una conciencia no critica y la dificultad en diálogar son al centro de los problemas de violencia. El propósito de esta investigación exploratoria era estudiar el grado en el cual los niños de edad preescolar (cinco años) pueden hacer intercambios dialogicos sobre conceptos relacionados al cuerpo y a la violencia. Inicialmente, una ayuda narrativa filosófica fue elaborada para los niños. Luego, una investigación de tipo cualitativo fue emprendida con tres grupos de niños de Canada (Montreal) y tres grupos de niños de Francia (Caen) durante un año escolar completo. Los resultados que emergieron del análisis de los verbatim de discusiónes demuestran que con una ayuda filosófica adaptada, no solamente los niños de cinco años son capaces de dialogar, pero lo hacen de manera crítica.

Being Children: Children’s Voices on Childhood

Situated in the context of the children’s rights, this article reports on a study involving children from eleven countries and five continents in philosophical discussions about child and childhood. Here we focus on five of those countries. In a previous study, two of the authors explored in what kind of society children would like to live. The present study addresses directly one of the issues arising from that study: to investigate what children think childhood is and their place in society. The study raises issues around children’s participation related to their conceptions of child and childhood.