Collaborative philosophical inquiry for schoolchildren: Cognitive gains at 2‐year follow‐up

Abstract

Given the pattern of sample attrition, the group difference seems likely to be underestimated. The study provides evidence of maintained cognitive gains from collaborative philosophical inquiry, transferred across contexts. Implications for future research, policy and practice are discussed.

Dialogic interactions in the cooperative classroom

“…Using P4C, the authors investigated the effects of this approach to dialoguing on students' academic, social, and cognitive abilities with the Trickey and Topping (2006) finding significant positive socio-emotional effects while Topping and Trickey (2007a) reported that students recorded significant standardised gains in verbal and non-verbal reasoning ability that generalised to non-verbal and quantitative reasoning ability. Furthermore, these gains were maintained when Topping and Trickey (2007b) followed these students up two-years later after they had transferred to high school even though they had not received further instruction in P4C. In summary, dialogic teaching is promoted when teachers and students cooperate, listen to each other, explain their own thinking, and engage in sustained discussion of complex ideas.…”

Can ‘Philosophy for Children’ Improve Primary School Attainment?

“…The online CAT4 test was proposed by SAPERE as it was judged appropriate for the kinds of things that P4C might influence, and it had previously been used in the Topping and Trickey () study. The test has four sub‐scales, representing the core elements thought to be needed for critical thinking (Stein et al ., 2013).…”

"Inside-out Pedagogy": Theorising Pedagogical Transformation through Teaching Philosophy

“…While there has been considerable research to link the teaching of Philosophy to noteworthy improvements in students' cognitive (Camhy & Iberer, 1988;Garcia-Moriyon, Rebollo & Colom, 2005;Millett & Tapper, 2012;Morehouse & Williams, 1998;Niklasson, Ohlsson & Rinborg, 1996;Topping & Trickey, 2007a, 2007bTrickey & Topping, 2004), affective and social skills (Camhy & Iberer, 1988;Gardner, 1999;Millett & Tapper, 2012;Sasseville, 1994;Trickey & Topping, 2006) there has been less research about the impact of teaching Philosophy on pedagogy.…”