children’s experiences of online philosophical dialogues
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2021.60940Keywords:
philosophy with/for children, children’s perspectives, online dialogues, surveyAbstract
Researchers are increasingly interested in the impact of philosophical dialogues with children. Studies have shown that this approach helps realise dialogic ideals in learning environments and that Philosophy with Children significantly impacts children’s cognitive and social skills. However, other aspects of this approach have attracted less attention – for example, given the focus on children’s thinking, voices and perspectives in Philosophy with Children, surprisingly few studies have examined how children experience philosophical dialogues. The aim of this study was to help fill this research gap by describing how children perceived a week of online philosophical dialogues. We conducted 58 dialogues in emergency teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown in Denmark and asked the children questions about their experiences of the dialogues – for instance, about their overall impressions, their perceptions of meaning and the facilitators, and their sense of community. We found that the children generally enjoyed the dialogues and understood their rationale even though the rationale had not been explicitly discussed with them. We also found that the children’s opinions were diverse and complex, that some of their descriptions were surprising and that their experiences, in general, matched influential descriptions of dialogic teaching ideals. Our findings confirm that it is important to examine children’s perspectives; therefore, we emphasise the need for further attention to the experiences of children participating in philosophical dialogues.
References
Alexander, R. (2018a). Developing dialogic teaching: genesis, process, trial. Research Papers in Education, 33(5), 561-598. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2018.1481140
Alexander, R. (2018b). Towards Dialogic Teaching (5th ed.). Dialogos.
Amholt, T., Dammeyer, J., Carter, R., & Niclasen, J. (2020). Psychological Well-Being and Academic Achievement among School-Aged Children: a Systematic Review. Child Indicators Research, 13(5), 1523-1548. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09725-9
Barrow, W. (2010). Dialogic, participation and the potential for Philosophy for Children. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 5(2), 61-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2010.01.002
Barrow, W. (2015). ‘I think she’s learnt how to sort of let the class speak’: Children’s perspectives on Philosophy for Children as participatory pedagogy. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 17, 76-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2015.06.003
Crosskey, L., & Vance, M. (2011). Training teachers to support pupils’ listening in class: An evaluation using pupil questionnaires. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 27(2), 165-182. http://doi.org/10.1177/0265659010397249
Ewing, L.-A., & Cooper, H. B. (2021). Technology-enabled remote learning during COVID-19: perspectives of Australian teachers, students and parents. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2020.1868562
Fair, F., Haas, L. E., Gardosik, C., Johnson, D. D., Price, D. P., & Leipnik, O. (2015). Socrates in the schools from Scotland to Texas: Replicating a study on the effects of a Philosophy for Children program. Journal of Philosophy in Schools, 2(1), 18-37. https://doi.org/10.21913/jps.v2i1.1100
Fiş Erümit, S. (2020). The distance education process in K–12 schools during the pandemic period: evaluation of implementations in Turkey from the student perspective. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2020.1856178
Fisher, R. (2013). Teaching Thinking: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom. Bloomsbury.
Galton, M. (2007). Learning and Teaching in the Primary Classroom. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446212950
García-Carrión, R. (2015). What the Dialogic Literary Gatherings Did for Me:The Personal Narrative of an 11-Year-Old Boy in a Rural Community in England. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(10), 913-919. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800415614305
Gentilucci, J. (2004, 06/30). Improving School Learning: The Student Perspective. The Educational Forum, 68. http://doi.org/10.1080/00131720408984620
Greene, S., & Hogan, D. (Eds.). (2005). Researching Children's Experiences. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Gregory, M. R., Haynes, J., & Murris, K. (2017). The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315726625
Greig, A., Taylor, J., & MacKay, T. (2017). Doing Research with Children: A Practical Guide. SAGE Publications.
Hargreaves, E. (2015). ‘I think it helps you better when you’re not scared’: fear and learning in the primary classroom. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 23(4), 617-638. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2015.1082077
Hargreaves, E. (2017). Children's experiences of classrooms: Talking about being pupils in the classroom. SAGE Publications.
Haynes, J. (2007). Freedom and the Urge to Think in Philosophy with Children. Gifted Education International, 22(2-3), 229-237. https//doi.org/10.1177/026142940702200313
Hedayati, M., & Ghaedi, Y. (2009). Effects of the philosophy for children program through the community of inquiry method on the improvement of interpersonal relationship skills in primary school students. Childhood & Philosophy, 5(9), 199-217.
Jackson, T. (1993). 1990-1991 Evaluation Report of Philosophy for Children in Hawaii. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children, 10(4), 36-43. https://doi.org/10.5840/thinking19931048
Jespersen, P. (1988). Filosofi med børn. Kroghs Forlag.
Kohan, W. O. (2014). Philosophy and Childhood. Critical Perspectives and Affirmative Practices. Palgrave.
Lefstein, A., Pollak, I., & Segal, A. (2020, 2020/01/02). Compelling student voice: dialogic practices of public confession. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 41(1), 110-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1473341
Lei, H., Cui, Y., & Zhou, W. (2018). Relationships between student engagement and academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Social Behavior and Personality : An International Journal, 46(3), 517-528. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.7054
Lipman, M., Sharp, A. M., & Oscanyan, F. S. (1980). Philosophy in the Classroom. Temple University Press.
Lone, J. M. (2012a). The Philosophical Child. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Lone, J. M. (2012b). Teaching Pre-college Philosophy: The Cultivation of Philosophical Sensitivity. In J. M. Lone & R. Israeloff (Eds.), Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People (pp. 13-21). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Martens, E. (1979). Dialogisch-Pragmatische Philosophiedidaktik. Herman Schroedel Verlag KG.
Martens, E. (2009). Pleasure in Philosophizing—Not Just for Children. In E. Marsal, T. Dobashi, & B. Webe (Eds.), Children Philosophize Worldwide: Theoretical and Practical Concepts (pp. 219-246). Peter Lang.
Matthews, G. B. (1979). Philosophy and the Young Child. Metaphilosophy, 10(3/4), 354-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9973.1983.tb00303.x
Matthews, G. B. (1980). Philosophy and the Young Child. Harvard University Press.
McCall, C. C. (2009). Transforming Thinking: Philosophical Inquiry in the Primary and Secondary Classroom. Routledge.
Meir, S., & McCann, J. (2017). An Evaluation of P4C. In B. Anderson (Ed.), Theories and praxis in teacher education (pp. 83-92). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315640310-9
Millett, S., & Tapper, A. (2012). Benefits of Collaborative Philosophical Inquiry in Schools. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(5), 546-567. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00727.x
Murris, K. S. (2008). Philosophy with Children, the Stingray and the Educative Value of Disequilibrium. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42(3-4), 667-685. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00640.x
Naji, S., & Hashim, R. (2017). History, Theory and Practice of Philosophy for Children: International Perspectives. Routledge.
Nystrand, M. (1997). Opening Dialogue: Understanding the dynamics of language and learning in the English schoolroom. Teachers College Press.
Nystrand, M., Wu, L. L., Gamoran, A., Zeiser, S., & Long, D. A. (2003). Questions in Time: Investigating the Strucure and Dynamics of Unfolding Classroom Discourse. Discourse Processes, 35(2), 135-198. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326950dp3502_3
Qvortrup, L., Qvortrup, A., Wistoft, K., Jacob Christensen, J., & Lomholt, R. (2020). Nødundervisning under coronakrisen: Et elev- og forældreperspektiv [Emergency teaching during the corona crisis: Perspectives from students and parents]. Nationalt Center for Skoleforskning. https://unipress.dk/media/17311/9788772192871_ncs_e-journal_nr07_4k.pdf
Reznitskaya, A., & Glina, M. (2013). Comparing Student Experiences with Story Discussions in Dialogic Versus Traditional Settings. The Journal of Educational Research, 106(1), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2012.658458
Reznitskaya, A., & Wilkinson, I. (2015). Professional Development in Dialogic Teaching: Helping Teachers Promote Argument Literacy in Their Classrooms. In D. Scott & E. Hargreaves (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Learning (pp. 219-231). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473915213.n21
Roberts, C., Freeman, J., Samdal, O., Schnohr, C. W., de Looze, M. E., Nic Gabhainn, S., Iannotti, R., Rasmussen, M., & the International, H. S. G. (2009, 2009/09/01). The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: methodological developments and current tensions. International Journal of Public Health, 54(2), 140-150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-009-5405-9
Santos, A. I., & Carvalho, M. C. (2017). Não deve dar a palavra aos amigos... assim não é justo! Representações das crianças sobre o gestor da palavra na comunidade de investigação filosófica. Childhood & Philosophy, 13(27), 369-391. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2017.27317
Segal, A., Pollak, I., & Lefstein, A. (2017, 2017/01/02). Democracy, voice and dialogic pedagogy: the struggle to be heard and heeded. Language and Education, 31(1), 6-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2016.1230124
Sharp, A.-M. (2007). Education of the Emotions in the Classroom Community of Inquiry. Gifted Education International, 22(2-3), 248-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/026142940702200315
Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S., & See, B. H. (2017). Non-cognitive impacts of philosophy for children. School of Education, Durham University. https://dro.dur.ac.uk/20880/1/20880.pdf?DDD34+DDD29+czwc58+d700tmt
Siddiqui, N., Gorard, S., & See, B. H. (2019). Can programmes like Philosophy for Children help schools to look beyond academic attainment? Educational Review, 71(2), 146-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2017.1400948
Skidmore, D. (2016). Pedagogy and Dialogue. In D. Skidmore & K. Murakami (Eds.), Dialogic Pedagogy (pp. 98-110). Multilingual matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783096220-007
Splitter, L. J., & Sharp, A. M. (1995). Teaching for Better Thinking: The Classroom Community of Inquiry. ACER.
Sutcliffe, R. (2017). The Difference between P4C and PwC. In S. Naji & R. Hashim (Eds.), History, Theory and Practice of Philosophy for Children (pp. 56 to 63). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315208732-7
Säre, E., Luik, P., & Fisher, R. (2016). Supporting educational researchers and practitioners in their work in education: Assessing the verbal reasoning skills of five- to six-year-old children. European Early Childhood Education, 24(5), 638-651. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2016.1213564
Topping, K. J., & Trickey, S. (2007). Collaborative philosophical enquiry for school children: Cognitive effects at 10–12 years. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 271–288. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906x105328
Wilkinson, I. A. G., Reznitskaya, A., Bourdage, K., Oyler, J., Glina, M., Drewry, R., Kim, M.-Y., & Nelson, K. (2017). Toward a more dialogic pedagogy: changing teachers’ beliefs and practices through professional development in language arts classrooms. Language and Education, 31(1), 65-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2016.1230129
Worley, E., & Worley, P. (2019). Teaching critical thinking and metacognitive skills through philosophical enquiry: a practitioner's report on experiments in the classroom. Childhood & Philosophy, 15, 1-34. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2019.46229
Worley, P. (2011). The If Machine: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Worley, P. (2016). Ariadne’s Clew Absence and presence in the facilitation of philosophical conversations. Journal of Philosophy in Schools, 3(2), 51–70. https://doi.org/10.21913/jps.v3i2.1350
