What is P4C ?

Philosophy for Children, or P4C as it is more commonly known, is a thinking skills programme which was developed by Matthew Lipman. (Yates, J. ) P4C is an approach to learning and teaching, now a recognised worldwide movement and practice (Oak, H.). P4C is a powerful approach to develop children’s thinking skills, which has been practised in over 60 countries wordwide for 30 years. In independent studies it has been shown to have a significant impact on pupil’s attainment and emotional wellbeing.(Hannam, J.)

The American philosophy professor Matthew Lipman, realize that it is late for students to learn the right thinking after seeing that their reasoning skills are inadequate and he initiated the philosophy (P4C) pedagogy for children in 1960s.

“Seldom have I seen children dissatisfied with the product they took from a philosophical discussion, even if it is only some modest philosophical distinction, for they recognize how before that acquisition they had even less. Children, unlike adults, do not look insistently for answers or conclusions. They look rather for the kind of transformation that philosophy provides – not giving a new answer to an old question, but transforming all the questions.”
― Matthew Lipman, Thinking in Education

Lipman also had a strong conviction that children were not only capable of talking about matters of significance but also that they were naturally disposed to question and wonder. They were hungry for nourishing intellectual food.

P4C is an approach to teaching and learning that explores the big ideas that arise in all areas of education and life experience. P4C uses philosophical dialogue and enquiry to help learners to think, to speak, to listen, to learn and to live together more effectively. (sapere.org)

P4C is a proven enquiry-based pedagogy; where teachers enable pupils to take the lead in a community of enquiry together, building their ability to express more complex ideas as they progress through school. The P4C curriculum is split between cycles of enquiry that allow children to explore current topics in the curriculum in more depth; and those that explore key philosophical concepts such as equality, which are returned to on a two year cycle to encourage progression in thinking around these ideas over time. As children move through school using the approach, they show significant improvements in their reasoning and spoken language. Evidence suggests that there are wider cognitive and non-cognitive benefits to P4C, including trust, critical thinking and civic-mindedness (Siddiqui)

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