Philosophy of Children in College Students

Merin Bose

Abstract: Philosophy for Children, sometimes abbreviated to philosophy of children, is a movement that aims to teach reasoning and argumentative skills to children. There are also related methods sometimes called "Philosophy for Young People" or "Philosophy for Kids". Often the hope is that this will be a key influential move towards a more democratic form of democracy. However, there is also a long tradition within higher education of developing alternative methods for teaching colleges. Dialogic teaching has been demonstrated to be conducive to the development of important competencies and skills such as creativity, communication skills and critical thinking skills. Yet, the literature confirms that teacher?student interactions in the classroom are predominantly monologic rather than dialogic across subjects, grades and countries. This article reports the results of a study that evaluates the effectiveness of a Philosophy for Children programme in facilitating the development of dialogic and inquiry teaching in teachers in Hong Kong. In the study, training and support were provided for teachers to enable them to teach philosophy for children to their students during Integrated Humanities and English lessons. Philosophy for children was found to help enhance the teachers? effectiveness in the classroom in terms of their ability to engage in dialogic and inquiry teaching. The findings of this study suggest that philosophy for children plays a significant role in promoting the professional development of teachers.

Keywords: Philosophy of Children, Dialogic Teaching, Philosophy of Kids, Monologic, Critical Thinking

How to Cite?: Merin Bose, "Philosophy of Children in College Students", Volume 14 Issue 7, July 2025, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 760-763, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR25710225835, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR25710225835