P4C research at VCS

THIS RESEARCH on P4C in a secondary school is old (1992) but it will still be of interest. The full report is attached. Here are the main points.

Two Year 7 classes were split in half to give a balance of boys and girls and reading ability. One half were given one hour each week of philosophy for 27 weeks using 'Philosophy for Children' materials and methods. The other half were given an extra English lesson. Before and after these lessons, the children were tested using a variety of methods:

1. The London Reading Test, a common test of reading reading comprehension for 11 year olds, was given.
2. A questionnaire was devised to assess the pupils' intellectual confidence in response to 10 statements on a 7-point scale.
3. Small group discussions were evaluated using pre-determined criteria relating to cognitive and inter-personal performance.

Reading Test Results

• Overall, the philosophy sessions had a modest though reliably positive effect on the reading ability of our year 7 pupils as tested by the London Reading Test. 12 out of 15 pupils in the philosophy group improved their scores by more than would have been expected over the eight months. Only 8 out of 17 pupils in the non-philosophy group did so and 5 of these made very small gains. One third of pupils in the philosophy group made large gains. We would conclude with confidence that, far from philosophy being a luxury, it can playa valuable part in improving reading ability within an overall school approach to enhancing literacy.

Questionnaire Results

This study is on a small scale. Where percentages are quoted, about 7% is equal to one pupil

• Pupils doing philosophy made gains in their total scores on 10 tatements tbat were very consistent and sometimes quite large. The non-philosophy group did not make any significant gains. Some interesting responses were as follows:

• In the philosophy group, the percentage of pupils answering 'not very often' or less to the question: I give up when my work is too hard, rose from 57% to 71 %. In the oon­ philosophy group, it fell from 64% to 49%. Only 7% of philosophy pupils said that they gave up more than 'some of the time'.

• In the philosophy group, the percentage of pupils answering 'often' or more to the question: I enjoy trying to solve problems, rose from 14% to 64%. The percentage of pupils answering 'never' went down from 36% to 7%.

• In the philosophy group, the percentage of pupils answering 'often' or more to the que tion: I am happy to question other people's ideas, rose from 36% to 64%. In the oon­ philosophy group, it fell from 43% to 21 %.

• In the philosophy group, the percentage of pupils answering 'often' or more to the question: I enjoy asking questions about all sorts ofthings, rose from 57% to 64%. In the non­ philosophy it fell from 63% to 49%. Only 7% of the philosophy group answered less than 'some of the time' to the the question: If someone disagrees with me I am able to defend my point ofview.

• The philosophy pupils built on their early sense of achievement at the school. The percentage answering 'often' or more to the question I feel I am making progress in my learning at school rose from 71 % to 79%. It fell from 71 % to 50% for non-philosophy pupils. No pupils in the philosophy group felt they were making progress less than 'some of the time'. 21 % in the non-philosophy group did.

• The percentage of philosophy pupils answering 'often' or more to the question: When I get stuck I can think my way through a problem, rose from 21 % to 50%.

Discussion analysis

The pupils who did philosophy showed a wider range of reasoning skills and used them more consistently. They also showed a wide range of inter-personal skills. Improvements were made in both these areas by the philosophy group but not by the other group. In particular, the philosophy group showed a greater ability to apply relevant criteria before making a judgement and could make distinctions between concepts in their discussions.

• The results of the reading test and questionnaire were analysed statistically and found to be 'significant' and 'highly significant' respectively.