Philosophy for Children and moral development in the Indian context ...

Philosophy for Children and moral development in the Indian context Sanjana Mehta & David Whitebread University of Cambridge Abstract This paper is based on a study that was carried out using Philosophy for Children as an intervention technique to enhance children’s socio-moral reasoning and behaviour. The sample consisted of 50 students (including 26 boys and 24 girls) aged 12-13 years from grade 7 of an urban school in Southern India. The Indian education system is characterised by didactic teaching, individual work, a product oriented approach (output being entirely measured in terms of achievement in exams), absence of independent thinking and the presence of unquestioned obedience to authority. In a setting such as this, it could be argued that there is a pressing need to introduce activities that may enhance the children’s abilities to critically analyse situations, make decisions, empathise with people and work cooperatively towards a common goal. The current education system in India is highly effective in developing individuals who can be successful in situations where they have an authority to follow, but is not so effective in preparing individuals to deal with situations where they need to exercise their own judgement. Producing autonomous individuals, according to Matthew Lipman and his followers, should be the foremost aim of education. As it could be argued that the Indian curriculum currently neglects this aim, the present study was constructed to see whether Philosophy for Children could make a significant contribution, particularly in relation to children’s moral development. The intervention consisted of 22 Philosophy for Children sessions which were audio and video recorded. In order to assess the effectiveness of the programme, further data was collected through children’s thinking diaries, feedback forms, interviews with students and teachers, and field notes based on the researcher’s observations. Pre and post assessments were also carried out with the students using moral dilemmas and personality inventories. Analysis of this data was carried out in the cognitive, social and emotional domains to determine efficacy of the programme separately in relation to each area and the transfer of these skills to children’s day-to-day life. Moreover, the findings obtained were corroborated against different data sources. The analysis revealed that the programme most positively influenced the social and emotional domains. Gender differences also emerged in relation to some of the outcomes. These findings are discussed in the context of the Indian educational system, the Indian culture and specifically the culture of the school where the programme was implemented.

Philosophy for Children and moral development in the Indian Context

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Introduction

Matthew Lipman (Lipman et al, 1980; Lipman, 1991 and Lipman, 1993) developed the Philosophy for Children programme in order to foster thinking skills which he found to be absent in the traditional curriculum. He pioneered the belief that children are capable of sophisticated cognitive skills and need to be encouraged in their earliest stages of schooling to develop higher order thinking. His theory stimulated research in this field not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom (Fisher, 1998; Haynes, 2002; Costello, 2000; Quinn, 1997). The researchers in this area differ on several issues, such as the material for stimulating philosophical discussions (Fisher, 1998; Murris and Haynes, 2000), the role of the teacher (Quinn, 1997) and the methodological aspects of conducting the sessions (Matthews, 1984; Sutcliffe and William, 2000). However, they all concede that philosophy needs to be included in the curriculum and have demonstrated cognitive and social gains in children who were exposed to philosophy in their schooling. Philosophy for Children relates to cognitive enhancements not only in the area of intellectual intelligence, but also in the area of moral and social intelligence (Sprod 2001; Lipman et al ?; Lipman and Sharp 1978). The programme proposes that the skills required for these distinct areas overlap (involving good reasoning, consistency, considering alternatives, sensitivity to context and so forth) even though the specific content to which the skills are applied may differ. Moreover, the process of conducting philosophy (in a community of enquiry) further develops an individual’s moral personality (Dillon, 1994). The environment within which children deliberate philosophical issues necessitates mutual respect, empathy and cooperation resulting in moral conduct. Philosophical questioning and reasoning about values and beliefs encourages more sophisticated moral decision-making. As Lipman (1991) suggests, Children will learn that all ethical acts must have reasons and that it is well to think of the reason before one engages in the act, because if one does not, one must face the moral censure of one’s peers. This is not decision making by mere consensus. The guidance we receive is from a critical community that weighs the reasons for actions and not just the actions in isolation (pp. 147). Moreover, the process of philosophical enquiry leads to moral action and positive social conduct in the form of respecting others, accepting differences and behaving responsibly. Finally, these cognitive and social outcomes have an impact on the individual’s personality resulting in self-esteem and confidence. One of the key elements of ethical living is autonomy. Autonomy is the capacity for self-government. It is indicated by evidence of a child thinking for themselves, for example, in taking a minority view point, or in challenging the view point of others (Fisher, 1998, pp.84-85). Moral reasoning and behaviour requires careful decision making, empathising with others and commitment to one’s decisions. Since moral education entails education of the complete personality (cognitive, social and affective) Philosophy for Children would appear to be an appropriate intervention in this field since it focuses on all aspects of an individual’s functioning. A. Philosophy for Children in the Indian Context As established in the preceding section Philosophy for Children fosters thinking skills, social behaviour and positive personal characteristics. The programme was implemented in an Indian school to assess its potential impact on the lacuna existing in the present educational system in this area. The Indian educational structure is complex, consisting of various curricula (National consisting of two Boards of Education and State) and types of schools (private, state, private but state-aided, recognised and unrecognised). Regardless of these differences, a major commonality between them is the absence of structured (or inadequate) plans for imparting personal, social and moral education (Probe Report, 1999). This lack of enthusiasm derives from certain special characteristics of the educational system: emphasis on traditional academic subjects, didactic teaching methods, hierarchical relations, unquestioned obedience to authority, focus on preparation for exams and so forth. Even though the


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1986 National Policy on Education (Nanda, 1997) deems initiatives in this area of personal, social and moral education important, in practice it is accorded very low status and priority. Research in the area of assessment and enhancement of thinking skills in general and sociomoral reasoning in particular has gained momentum in recent years in the UK, Europe and the USA. However, in the Indian educational context, it has not yet acquired the same level of research interest. This concern is expressed in the report on the 5th All India Educational Survey conducted by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT, India). According to the report, More research is being done in the area of moral development than in the area of moral education…existing value patterns have been surveyed but research on the inculcation of values through educational intervention is limited. Our suggestion is that while doing research work, more stress should be given to formulation of educational objectives, preparation of instructional material and trying out the materials through experimental design research (pp.403). The present study was conducted partly in the hope that if more (rigorous) research took place in this field within the Indian context, then it may persuade schools to adopt a more serious stance towards imparting moral education and thus provide for a more all round development of their students. 2.

Aims and objectives of the study

The present study consisted of a naturalistic experiment in the area of moral education with Philosophy for Children as the chosen intervention. The study aimed to: • Assess the effectiveness of the P4C programme in the Indian context (there are no recorded studies with this programme in the Indian educational system). • Analyse the observational and other data rigorously based on operational definitions in the social, cognitive and affective domains to determine the exact nature of change over time in the student group in each of these domains (previous work in this area has made claims of change often without the support of detailed empirical evidence). • Determine the extent and nature of transfer of skills from the intervention sessions to children’s day-to-day life (there is lack of such assessment in previous research). • Examine the issue of gender differences in relation to the outcomes of the programme (previous research has not commonly addressed this issue). • Examine the possible contributions to the observed outcomes by aspects of the programme and the context in which the programme was implemented (previous work has not adequately attempted to delineate the differing effects of these elements) 3.

Sample

Established in 1977 by a Trust, the school in which the present study was located is a private school, not subsidised by the government. The academic curriculum followed by the school is the SSLC syllabus, laid down by the State Board of Education. The students from the 7th grade (Section A) comprising about 50 students (and about equal number of boys and girls) participated in this study. 7th grade is an important school year for the children who follow the State syllabus because at the end of the academic year, the children take the State wide Board Exams (State of Karnataka). Personally as well this was a crucial time for the children as they are progressing onto higher classes wherein they have to make choices regarding their academic subjects which have important implications for career decisions. The reason to involve this school in the intervention was that it represented most of the shortcomings and inadequacies related to the Indian curriculum and educational system described in the preceding sections. Children’s educational experiences in this school predominantly consisted of a regimented routine, structured lessons with little room for open discussions or collaborative work, constant focus on preparation for the Board exams and absence of any slot on the timetable for personal, social and moral education. As a consequence, the children might well be rather ill equipped to take significant decisions related to their education and career and the need to encourage them to examine their values and to the foster the ability to make decisions might be seen to be rather significant.

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The students that comprised the sample were aged 12-13 years. While it would be useful for any group to participate in a moral education programme, the decision to focus on pre-adolescence for the present study stemmed from the relative paucity of research conducted with this age group in the Indian context (Fifth Survey of Educational Research, NCERT) and the special significance attributed to this age group within the developmental literature (Beamon, 1997; Gardner, 1982; Asher and Gottman, 1981; and, Durkin, 1995). According to Beamon (1997), Although students’ brains will continue to develop throughout life, young adolescence is a critical time when cognitive development is more rapid and transformational. Teachers can play an important role in young adolescents’ cognitive growth by designing learning experiences that actively and meaningfully challenge socially, emotionally and intellectually (pp.35). She goes on to say that, “A plethora of reports and journals in this field of study fortunately has helped to communicate that young adolescents are in need of a unique kind of classroom instruction” (pp.138). 4.

Design and Methodology

Preassessment Sessions (5)

Intervention Sessions (11)

Student feedback forms + Student Interviews

Intervention Sessions (11)

PostAssessment sessions (6) + Student Interviews

Continuous Assessment (Thinking diaries, discussions with teachers and field notes) The diagram above shows the design of the study. The intervention began with 5 pre-assessment sessions consisting of socio-moral situations, personality and thinking inventories. This was followed by 11 intervention sessions. After half the intervention was completed feedback was obtained from the entire group and a select sub-sample was interviewed to gain more detailed insights into the impact of the programme. The intervention programme continued with the remaining 11 sessions. At the end of the intervention 6 post-assessment sessions consisting of socio-moral situations, personality and thinking inventories were conducted to determine the effectiveness of the programme. In addition the same sub-sample was interviewed a second time. In addition to this continuous assessment took place over the entire period of the intervention in the form of thinking diaries, discussions with teachers and researcher’s field notes. A. Intervention Programme: The story chosen for the study was ‘Nous’ (Lipman, 1996). ‘Nous’ was chosen instead of other stories by Lipman because it deals most often with problems of a purely moral nature and least often with problems of purely logical thinking. The story encourages the children to deliberate about moral problems, virtues, character and the nature of a moral education programme. The physical arrangement of the classes however, could not be set up according to the ideal norms laid down by Lipman and other P4C researchers (Lipman, 1996; Sutcliffe and Williams, 2000; Murris, 1992). It has been recommended that the participants should be made to sit in a circle, wherein each person can see the other and thus participate in a more interactive discussion. This was not possible within the present study, as there were about 50 children in the group and the physical structure of the classroom consisted of permanently fixed tables and chairs in rows and columns. B. Data Collection Observational data: intervention sessions: 22 Philosophy for Children sessions were carried out. These sessions were audio and video recorded and transcribed for further analysis. Written and oral report data i) Thinking Diaries: An intervention programme in a naturalistic setting would involve a gradual process of change influenced not only by the intervention per se, but a number of others factors. A source that was considered helpful in ascertaining this varied information were children’s thinking diaries (Swan and White, 1994). Children were encouraged to write about anything they considered


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significant in these diaries, to make associations between the content of the discussions and their daily situations at home and school. ii) Interviews with students: 3 boys and 3 girls were selected for detailed feedback interviews based on their level of participation in the class (high, medium and low), level of enthusiasm and their engagement with the thinking diaries. iii) Student Feedback Forms: Since it was not feasible to conduct an open-ended personal interview with each participant, the feedback forms fulfilled the purpose to a large extent- they covered the same topics as the interview schedule, enabling access to the opinions of the entire sample. iv) Discussions with teachers: Carried out informally to obtain information on any observable outcomes as a result of the intervention. v) Field notes: Based on observations of children in the intervention sessions and in their other classes. Pre and post assessments: Carried out using the Kohlberg dilemmas (Colby and Kohlberg, 1987), Survey on Heroes (White and O’Brien, 1999), Fables Task (Johnston, 1988), Constructive Thinking Inventory (Epstein, 2000) and the Self Perception Profile (Harter, 1985). C. Method of Analysis i) Analysis of session transcripts Table1: Conceptual framework for the analysis of the session transcripts of the Philosophy for Children intervention sessions Cognitive Dimension Social Dimension Emotional Dimension 1.Justification 1.Adherence to the goals for 1.Participation by boys and girls 2.Heteronomous vs. dialogue 2.Length of contributions Autonomous reasoning 2.Time spent on disciplining 3.Perspective taking 3.Instances of disrespect/ 4.Questioning uncooperativeness. 5.Consistency 4. Instances of mutual respect/ 6.Problem Solving cooperation 7.Moral Imagination 8.Cognitive Conflict Table 1 indicates the conceptual framework utilised in this study for analysis of the intervention sessions. A review of literature within the philosophy for children and cognitive developmental approaches (Power, et al, 1989; Lipman, et al, 1980; Sprod, 2001; Evans, 1978) helped identify and develop the categories for the cognitive dimension. Each transcript of the intervention session was analysed in accordance with the cognitive coding scheme. For each sub-category, the number of instances/ responses that occurred in the intervention session was counted and tabulated. Within the social dimension a list of twelve goals for dialogue (Sutcliffe and Williams, 2000) was utilised in each intervention session to assess children’s group interaction. Each goal was marked ‘followed’ only if it had been adhered to for the entire session by every student. The time spent on disciplining consisted of a total count of minutes during the intervention session, wherein the focus was to bring back order to class, rather than engaging with the topics under discussion. Instances of disrespect included a count of the number of times a child or group of children prevented another child from participating, laughed at another child, made faces, called another child names, or angrily dismissed another’s opinion. Similarly, instances of respect and cooperation included a count of the number of times during each intervention session, a child or group of children listened carefully, gave up their chance to speak to let someone else have a turn, expressed appreciation of or acknowledge others’ ideas, stopped a child from teasing a co-participant or did something to encourage or enable another child or group of children.


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The emotional or affective domain and the two preceding dimensions are clearly interdependent. Moral psychology and moral philosophy researchers (Power, et al, 1989 and Lipman, et al, 1980) have argued that greater participation from a greater number of children is required for a genuine moral enquiry. Critical thinking and reasoning ‘by the rules’ will result in a positive atmosphere resulting in increased confidence and self-confident children will in turn contribute more positively to a ‘community of inquiry’. ii) Analysis of thinking diaries, feedback forms and student interviews Table 2: Conceptual framework for analysis of feedback forms, thinking diaries and student interviews in relation to the philosophy for children programme Student Perspective of Impact on self Intervention Likes Dislikes Suggestions Domain Application 1.Nature of programme 1.Nature 1.Nature 1.Cognitive 1.At home 2.Content 2.Content 2. Content 2.Social 2. In school 3.Teaching 3.Teaching 3.Teaching 3.Emotional 3. With friends 4. With family 5.With teachers Table 2 indicates the categories and subcategories for coding the data obtained from the feedback forms, thinking diaries and student interviews. Students’ perceptions of the programme, its impact on their thinking and behaviour and the application of these changes in various contexts were determined from the responses provided and counted, tabulated and summarised according to the categories shown above. Data obtained from discussions with teachers and researcher’s field notes was not analysed separately, but in conjunction with the data obtained from the other sources to enable comparison and corroboration of responses provided by the children with the observations made by their teacher and the researcher. iii) Analysis of pre and post assessments Children’s responses were coded for the main themes in relation to ideas about justice, inter-personal conflict resolution, role models, and compared for the two assessment periods. With respect to the standardised inventories, the responses were scored and statistically analysed for any change.

5.

Results

For practical purposes only a certain amount of the data will be presented and discussed as part of this paper. The data presented here has been taken from the session transcripts, thinking diaries and feedback forms and its relation to the cognitive, social and emotional areas explained. The remaining data from the student interviews and pre/post assessments is not included here. A. Cognitive, social and emotional outcomes based on the analysis of session transcripts The main outcome of the sessions from the cognitive perspective (Table 3) was that the children were equally able to respond to and discuss moral concepts earlier on in the intervention as compared to the latter sessions. For this particular group the Philosophy for Children programme had not resulted in any obvious change across the cognitive dimension. Their thinking was contextual and they responded appropriately to the nature of the stimuli..

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Table 3: Impact of the Philosophy for Children Programme on the Cognitive Dimension based on Analysis of Session Transcripts Justification

Sessions 1-6 Sessions 10-19

53 (40.1%) 47 (31.9%)

Autonomous/ principled 23 (17.4%) 21 (14.2%)

Heteronomous/ Conventional 22 (16.6%) 26 (17.6%)

Perspective taking

Quest -ioning

Consis -tency

Problem Solving

Moral Imagination

Cognitive conflict

13 (9.8%) 21 (14.2%)

2 (1.5%) 3 (2.04%)

9 (6.8%) 16 (10.8%)

3 (2.2%) 7 (4.7%)

3 (2.2%) 1 (0.68%)

4 (3.03%) 5 (3.4%)

However, significant changes within the intervention sessions did emerge in the social and emotional dimensions. With regard to the social dimension (Table 4), cooperation and interpersonal sensitivity improved in relation to both whole class discussions and small group work (Costello 2000 and Fisher, 1998). Children gradually displayed an attitude that was more accepting of their classmates’ opinions. Adherence to goals for dialogue increased steadily over the course of the intervention, especially those which related to mutual respect. Table 4: Impact of the Philosophy for Children Programme on the Social Dimension based on Analysis of Session Transcripts. Number of Time spent on disciplinary Instances of Instances of rules followed issues from session disrespect/ mutual respect/ of 45 minutes uncooperativeness cooperation Sessions 30 58mins 24 8 1-6 Sessions 58 16mins 6 21 13-19 Within the emotional category (Table 5), an increase in confidence (Quinn, 1997; Lipman, 1993) could be observed soon after the first two intervention sessions. Gender discrepancy (Dillon, 1994) (dominance of boys in the discussion) disappeared after a few initial sessions. Moreover, the average length of contribution from the participants also increased as less time was spent on dealing with interruptions and other disciplinary problems over the course of the intervention. Table 5: Impact of the Philosophy for Children Analysis of Session Transcripts No. of No. of girls participated boys participated Sessions 68 105 1-6 Sessions 63 51 13-19

Programme on the Emotional Dimension based on Avg. length of contribution 1-2 sentences 3-4 sentences

B. Cognitive, social and emotional outcomes based on the analysis of feedback forms and thinking diaries The data from the feedback forms (Table 6) showed that while some children mentioned cognitive changes, they did not clearly illustrate the application of these changes.

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Table 6: Data obtained from feedback forms regarding cognitive outcome Group Impact on At At With With cognitive domain School home friends family Boys 12 (57.1%) 2 0 1 0 n=21 Girls 14 (58.3%) 1 0 0 0 n=24 Total 26 (62.2%) 3 0 1 0 n=45

With teachers 0

Others

0

0

0

1

1

Analysis of the thinking diaries (Table 7) showed that the children were reasoning using similar cognitive concepts as in the intervention sessions and were perfectly capable of engaging with various abstract concepts. While the application of these concepts was again not explicit, it did reveal children’s interest to engage with the cognitive processes and moral concepts that were being discussed in the intervention sessions. The main themes under cognitive changes, both for boys and girls were, improved thinking, increased thinking, better judgement ability, alternatives seeking and a few academic related changes, such as, improvement in spelling, grammar and spoken language ability (Quinn, 1997). This was an unexpected result since there was no attempt to enhance academic ability or to encourage children to assess their academic skills. Table 7: Data obtained from thinking diaries regarding cognitive outcome Group Presence of Total At At With cognitive instances Home School Family Categories of cognitive outcome Boys 10(66.66%) 27 0 1 1 N=15 Girls 14(70%) 52 0 0 1 N=20 Total 24(68.57%) 79 0 1 2 N=35

With Friends

With Teachers

0

0

2

0

2

0

The results obtained from the feedback forms (Table 8) and thinking diaries (Table 9) corroborated some of the results obtained from the intervention sessions. Children mentioned positive changes in their interpersonal interactions leading to harmonious conflict resolutions and more interpersonal sensitivity leading to sharing and cooperative behaviour. The application of these changes were explained with more concrete illustrations (unlike the cognitive category). Table 8: Data obtained from feedback forms regarding social outcome

Group

Boys n=21 Girls n=24 Total N=45

Impact on social domain 8(38.09%)

Nature of change CooperaRespect/ tion/ DisciplHelpful ine 5 4

Application of change At At With School home friends

With family

0

5

3

12(50%)

16

6

1

11

20(44.44%)

21

10

1

16

4

With teachers 0

0

4

11

1

3

7

15

1

3

Others

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Table 9: Data obtained from thinking diaries regarding social outcome

Boys N=15 Girls N=20 Total N=35

Presence of Social Categories 6 (40%) 12 (60%) 18 (51.4%)

Total instances of Social outcome 7 16 23

Nature of change Sharing Respect

5 (71.4%) 6 (37.5%) 11 (47.8%)

2 (28.5%) 5 (31.2%) 7 (30.4%)

Application of change Interper At At -sonal home school Understanding 0 4 2 5 (31.2%) 5 (21.7%)

With family

With friends

With teachers

5

1

1

4

4

4

4

0

8

6

9

5

1

There were a few students in the group who mentioned emotional changes in their selfassessment both in the feedback forms and thinking diaries (with more girls mentioning it than the boys) (Tables 10 & 11). These changes were categorised as increased confidence, security and emotional awareness. These results indicate that the social changes may have influenced emotional changes and vice versa. This may have enabled more students to engage in the cognitive process of socio-moral reasoning. Table 10: Data obtained from feedback forms regarding emotional outcome Nature of Emotional Change Group Impact on Confidence/ Secure Patient Feel At emotional Assertive positively School domain Boys 3(14.28%) 0 1 1 1 1 n=21 Girls 8(33.33%) 4 1 0 3 3 n=24 Total 11(24.44%) 4 2 1 4 4 N=45

Application of change At With With home friends family

With teachers

0

0

0

1

1

0

1

1

1

0

1

2

With family

With friends

With teach -ers

0

0

3

1

2

3

1

2

6

Table 11: Data obtained from thinking diaries regarding emotional outcome Nature of change Application of change Group PresTotal FeelIncreas- Confid- EmotiAt At ence of insting ed ence/ onal home school Emotio- ances secure Patience SelfIdentifnal of esteem ication/ CategEmotSelfories ional awareoutness come Boys 2 3 2 0 0 1 0 3 N=15 (13.3%) (66.6%) (33.3%) Girls 10 12 2 1 5 4 1 5 N=20 (50%) (16.6%) (8.3%) (41.6%) (33.3%) Total 12 15 4 1 5 5 1 8 N=35 (34.2%) (26.6%) (6.6%) (33.3%) (33.3%)

6.

Discussion and Conclusions

Within the present study, the Philosophy for Children programme was implemented in a Southern Indian school to enhance children’s socio-moral reasoning and behaviour. The outcomes indicate more positive gains in the social and emotional dimensions in comparison with the cognitive domain. Gender


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differences with regard to the outcomes were found with girls demonstrating more gains than the boys, especially in the social and emotional areas. Previous research has tested for the effectiveness of the programme by utilising objective tests of math, reading and critical reasoning. However, these tests are an assessment of the product and not the process. Moreover, they provide no information on social and affective elements of the programme and the transfer of these skills (Costello, 2000). By tracking the observable indicators of positive interpersonal dynamics and those related to confidence (based on how many spoke and length of contribution, Fisher, 1998) it was possible to trace the changes in the social and affective domains over the entire length of the intervention. Children became more cooperative and confident as the intervention progressed. While the same outcomes have been identified by other researchers, the method and criterion used to detect these outcomes has not been clearly identified. Moreover, most researchers have confined their analysis to the intervention per se not accounting for the transfer of the outcomes to other contexts. Based on children’s self-reports, teacher’s observations and researcher’s field notes, it was determined that the transfer of changes such as cooperation, increased sharing, conflict resolution and increased confidence emerged in other formal and informal contexts, at the same time when these changes were taking place in the intervention sessions. The transcripts of the intervention sessions have been analysed for their cognitive characteristics by most researchers in the form of providing commentary corresponding to the transcript and attending to the overall philosophical nature of the responses. However, this study identified specific cognitive skills and identified their presence or absence for each response in each session (Fisher, 1998). By carrying out such rigorous analysis it was possible to make continuous assessments for the entire group. From this it emerged that the children were as capable of abstract reasoning and thinking at the beginning of the programme as at the end. The nature and extent of reasoning, problem solving, perspective taking and so forth, appeared to be mainly dependent on the topic under consideration. These results are similar to findings from a previous study concerned with the assessment of moral reasoning (Mehta and Whitebread, 2003). The application of these cognitive skills was not adequately illustrated by the children in their self-reports, with most children only indicating general awareness of their cognitive capacities. Some typical responses provided by the students were as follows: I have become more attentive in all the classes and my vocabulary has also improved…I try to discuss different topics with my friends and use all the new words that I have learnt (Boy, Cognitive Change: Application with friends) I feel that my spellings and grammar have improved……I am using these in all the examinations and tests given in school (Girl, Cognitive Change: Application at school) I went on a picnic with my cousins and we decided to have a discussion on pollution. I set it up like your philosophy sessions. During the discussion all my cousins started laughing at one person in the group because they disagreed with her. I used the goals for dialogue ‘disagree with someone without making fun of them or getting angry with them’ to explain how we should have these discussions. They understood what I said and stopped making fun of each other. (Girl- her focus is on the use of goals for dialogue to bringing about interpersonal understanding and sensitivity). I feel that I am able to talk freely without feeling shy in these sessions……we get enough time to think about our answers and don’t have to answer in a rush (Boy, Emotional effect: feelings of security, application: school) Today I was so relieved when I gave 3 to 4 answers without feeling shy. I think today no one laughed at each other and I have lost my fear of speaking in the sessions (Girl, Emotional effect: increased confidence, application: school) Today I was so happy when I saw my name on the board next to my idea. When you asked me to speak in front of the class, I was very scared, but then I spoke perfectly and stopped feeling scared. I would like you to ask my friend to speak in front of the class. She really wants to but is afraid. (Girl, Emotional effect: increased self-esteem, application: at school)


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These particular outcomes from the programme may have emerged as a consequence of a range of features of the programme and the specific context in which it was conducted. These factors would include: The novelty of the sessions: “I would suggest children are fascinated initially by philosophical inquiry precisely because it is so different from anything else which they are offered in the school curriculum” (Costello, 2000, pp.37) The task of maintaining thinking diaries: This may have facilitated the capacity to make associations between their new learning and its application in various aspects of their life. This may be a relevant assumption especially since their others subjects did not provide enough opportunities for them to engage in this process of thinking and meta-thinking (Swan and White, 1994). The role and attitude of the facilitator: “Teachers who are non-authoritarian in their outlook offer an excellent opportunity to children to develop their abilities to think, to reason and to argue. By demonstrating a willingness to engage in the critical scrutiny of beliefs, teachers are encouraging a similar disposition in their pupils” (Costello, 2000, pp.93). An important theme that emerged in all such statements was that of ‘feeling secure’ in the environment. Most teachers in this particular school maintained an authoritarian attitude towards the children (due to pressure of the curriculum and handling large number of students) and the children deferred to authority mainly out of fear of punishment. In such a hierarchical system they were unable to look upon the teachers as their friends or confidants. However, their attitude towards the researcher was completely different, taking her to be more of a friend or counsellor rather than a ‘teacher’. This relationship which entailed more mutual respect brought about changes in the children’s personality making them more self-confident and selfaccepting. The content of the sessions: This afforded the children an opportunity to discuss issues in a manner otherwise impossible with in the school. “Students are given insufficient opportunities to develop social skills and values of cooperation and communication through discussion and group work” (Fisher, 1998, pp.19). A child in her personal interview said that her discussions with her parents about these sessions had encouraged them into forming a ‘Philosophy club’ in the neighbourhood wherein the children would assemble at one person’s house each Sunday and read stories to stimulate such discussions. Once again it appears that because the majority of the school day for these children was structured around didactic lectures and individual work that they were never afforded an opportunity to work as a team and to develop skills of interpersonal understanding and group sensitivity. The Philosophy for Children sessions placed greater responsibility on the students to work together and support each other. They not only learnt these skills by actively engaging with them in the sessions, but also transferred the skills to other contexts. Thus it may be possible to conclude by saying that elements of the programme (opportunity to reason about ethical issues and encouragement to make associations between contexts), the attitude of the facilitator (unbiased, friendly and encouraging) combined with this group’s general educational experience in the Indian context (structured lessons, absence of social components and hierarchical relations in the school, novelty of this programme) may have resulted in some of the positive outcomes, particularly in the social and emotional dimensions. The issue related to gender difference may also be connected with the Indian culture (male-dominated). It could be that the teachers were favourably biased towards the male students, whereas in this intervention equality was stressed as a result of which the girls felt more secure and became more self-confident. However, this outcome may also be related to the method of analysis. A major finding of an earlier study of moral reasoning (Mehta & Whitebread, 2003) concerned the context specific nature of children's responses to different modes of assessment. These results indicate the need for more rigorous analysis in different cultural contexts and in relation to different areas of individual functioning.


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Nanda, R.T. Contemporary Approaches to Value Education in India. New Delhi, Regency Publications, 1997. Power, Clark, F., et al., Lawrence Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education. New York, Columbia University Press, 1989. Quinn, Victor. Critical Thinking in Young Minds. London, David Fulton, 1997. Sprod, Tim. Philosophical Discussion in Moral Education: The Community of Ethical Inquiry. London, Routledge, 2001. Sutcliffe, R. and Williams, S. The Philosophy Club; An Adventure in Thinking. Newport, Dialogue Works, 2000. Swan, S. and White, R. The Thinking Books. London, The Falmer Press, 1994. White, S.H and O’Brien, J.E. “What is a Hero? An exploratory study of students’ conceptions of heroes.” Journal of Moral Education 28 (1999) 81-95.

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