AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
problematic situations that encourage flexibility in creating new
solutions, assessing them using different criteria, and
encouraging the creation of questions. Developing the skills to
correctly formulate questions helps pupils to critically assess the
excessive amount of information they are flooded with on a daily
basis. Reading a literary story is usually followed by questions in
smaller groups. The questions created are mostly of a
philosophical nature, they are recorded in a visible place, and a
question that the members of the seeking community want to
solve, is chosen by voting.
In the process of discussion in this program, pupils thoughtfully
process opinions of others, they are compelled to listen carefully
in order to choose correct words to solve the problem –
exploring alternatives and considering conflicting views. The
effort to think jointly, to define concepts, to remove prejudices,
to consider different aspects, to consider reasons is encouraged.
A discussion within the P4C program is not the same as a
debate, because the debate is aimed at promoting views of an
individual (victory of the individual), while the discussion is
aimed at solving the problem together (victory of the group).
The discussion may be supplemented by introducing activities
related to the problem or its parts. The choice of activities
depends on the facilitator (teacher) or the person who leads the
discussion. Activities within the P4C program include various
exercises focusing on speech, visualization, and expression
through movement and drama.
As mentioned above, there is a number of activational methods
that develop critical and creative thinking, for example through
essays, the Socratic method, the E-U-R teaching and learning
strategy, brainstorming, staging methods, mental mapping,
questioning methods, discussions and more. The P4C methods
include many similar features to the above methods, while
offering several different approaches to develop critical thinking
along with other skills. Among the activational methods of the
P4C program developing critical thinking we include e.g.
problem-solving discussion focused on question-making and
exercises focused on expression through speech, art, drama, and
movement. Lipman (2003) proposes the inclusion of critical
thinking as a separate course for teachers, in which teachers
would acquire basic knowledge and skills to develop pupils’
thinking. The author suggests that without such a course, it is
difficult for teachers to explain to their pupils the importance of
developing not only critical, but also creative and committed
thinking, and highlights the development of thinking through the
P4C program.
In the field of the P4C program, a number of studies,
publications, and researches are underway demonstrating the
impact of the program on the level of critical and creative
thinking, e.g. Garcia-Moriyon et al., 2005; Othman Hashim
2006; Topping, Trickey, 2007; Lam, 2012; Fair et al., 2015 and
many others. A significant source of knowledge on the subject is
the P4C meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the program (Yan
et. al., 2018) providing broad understanding of the impact of
program methods on cognitive performance of pupils. Meta-
analysis is described as a method of combining the results of
several independent researchers from a common field, while the
method performs statistical analysis. The authors analyzed
researches and studies from 2002 to 2016, which examined the
connection between the seeking community, philosophical
thinking and socio-psychological improvement of personality.
From more than a thousand researches in this field, the authors
selected ten research studies eligible for their analysis using
strict criteria. The research was required to include a quantitative
methodological approach, both experimental and control groups,
cognitive ability measurement and statistical evaluation. The
variables included the measurement of cognitive results, such as
reasoning ability, comprehension ability, and general cognitive
ability. Meta-analysis gave us insight into the ways, in which the
level of cognitive abilities can be measured. According to the
findings of this meta-analysis, the P4C program showed a slight
positive impact on students’ cognitive performance. Cognitive
outcomes include general cognitive skills, reasoning skills,
creative thinking, reading and listening comprehension.
According to meta-analysis, in all these types of cognitive
outcomes, the P4C program has a large positive impact on
pupils’ judgment, and a slight impact on other cognitive areas
(Yan et. al., 2018).
In the context of the above, we focused on the validation of the
Philosophy for Children (P4C) program as a tool for developing
critical thinking in education.
4 Research
The subject of the study was the Philosophy for Children
program and its application in the educational process at the
level of secondary education, specifically for pupils of the 1st –
4th year of secondary school, and the identification of its impact
on the development of critical thinking. The main aim of the
research was to determine the impact of the Philosophy for
Children program on the development of critical thinking of
secondary school pupils (1st – 4th year of secondary school).
Based on the above-mentioned goal, we identified two research
issues:
1.
RP: How does the use of the Philosophy for Children
program in education impact the development of critical
thinking of secondary school pupils over a period of two to
three months?
We assumed that:
pupils to whom the Philosophy for Children program has
been applied in an experimental way reach better level of
critical thinking than pupils to whom the program was not
applied.
2.
RP: To what extent can we develop critical thinking by
implementing a model lesson of Philosophy for Children in
a time span of two to three months?
4.1 Research Sample
The research sample consisted of 82 pupils of the 1st – 4th year
of secondary school. Sampling was subject to availability, but
also to intentionality in order to ensure equal classes. The
research sample was divided into two groups: one group being
experimental (EG), which consisted of 40 pupils. Pupils of this
group attended one lesson a week for the period of two and half
months within the Philosophy for Children program, which was
applied to the subject Civic education. It is difficult to compare
the application of the Philosophy for Children methods with
another program in school education owing to its uniqueness,
and so the second, control group (CG), consisting of 42 pupils,
did not participate in any program. The experimental and control
groups were randomized.
4.2 Research Methods
The character of our research was quantitative, based on a
pedagogical experiment. We chose experiment as our research
method, because this method, as the only one of the research
methods, can prove causal consequences of pedagogical activity.
As part of the experimental plan, we used the pre-test and post-
test, which both groups underwent.
The most widely used tool for determining the level of critical
thinking is the standardized psychological test W-GCTA, known
as Watson-Glaser test (Watson, Glaser, 2000), which has been
used since 1926. There is also the Lawson (1999) test of critical
thinking, however, it is designed for respondents –
psychologists, so we did not consider its use. We did not use the
Watson-Glaser test for several reasons. One of them is that
Watson-Glaser test belongs to the hands of psychologists. This
was also admitted by Kosturková (2016) who justifies its use by
its great importance for pegadogy. Here it is necessary to
mention that the test contains 80 exercises and we did not have
sufficient time for its use due to the realization of agreed
meetings with the students of the experimental group. The fact is
- 183 -