The impact of introducing thinking skills through ‘Philosophy 4 Children’ (P4C) into a Year 2 class

In the 1970s, Professor Matthew Lipman advocated the introduction of philosophy into schools as a way to convert the classroom into a ‘community of enquiry’ ((Lipman, 2003), p. 15) and develop children’s ability to reason. Philosophy for Children (P4C) provides a way to develop skills in critical thinking, discussion and problem-solving. This article discusses the impact of P4C on enquiry and discussion, both in the classroom and at home. A study by Topping and Tricky (Topping and Tricky, 2007), in which eight schools introduced P4C into upper Key Stage 2 classes for 16 months, found significant gains in verbal cognitive ability and reasoning. A more recent large-scale study by Gorard et al. (2015), involving Key Stage 2 pupils across 48 schools, concluded that through the implementation of P4C, pupils made further progress in attainment and cognitive ability tests. Examination of this in practice in the classroom with Key Stage 1 pupils has been less extensive, however. Tri