P4C

Philosophy for Children (P4C) is a wonderful way of bringing teachers and children together to discuss things that matter.

P4C gets our children to think for themselves. It stops them playing the age old game of ‘guess what’s in the teacher’s head’. In P4C the children are given the tools and structures to develop high quality thinking. This process is facilitated by the teacher, who after some warm-up activities will present a stimulus for thinking e.g. a story, an artefact, a picture, a video clip etc. The children then generate questions; linked to thought provoking concepts that they would like to discuss linked to the stimulus and then vote on the most interesting question. The teachers then facilitate a philosophical dialogue that helps children come to a better reasoned and more deeply thought through answer to the question. The approach helps children use critical and creative thinking to explore key concepts within the curriculum through a caring and collaborative community of enquiry, although the techniques and tools of P4C can be infused throughout the whole curriculum within a variety of lessons.

 

P4C helps pupils accept and respectfully agree or disagree with other viewpoints in a constructive way. It promotes learning to learn and develops children’s emotional development.

P4C