Preface
Part I: Encouraging Children to Be Thoughtful
1. The Need for Educational Redesign
Educational Dysfunction • Failure of Remedial Approaches • Meeting Expectations • Discovery • Frustration • Meaningful Experiences • Need for Adventure • Meaning versus Rationality
2. Thinking and the School Curriculum
The Child's Hunger for Meaning • Thinking Skillfully • Thinking Skills and Basic Skills • Thinking Skills and Other Academic Disciplines • The Relationship between Dialogue and Thinking • Thinking Well about Things That Matter
3. Philosophy: The Lost Dimension in Education
Philosophy Begins in Wonder • Wonder and Meaning • Scientific Explanation • Symbolic Interpretation • Philosophical Investigation
4. Some Educational Presuppositions of Philosophy for Children
Preserving the Integrity of Philosophy as a Discipline • Converting the Classroom into a Community of Inquiry • Preparing the Teacher and the Curriculum
Part II: Aims and Methods of Philosophy for Children
5. The Philosophy for Children Curriculum
Description of Curriculum • Aims and Objectives of Philosophy for Children • Improvement of Reasoning Ability • Development of Creativity • Personal and Interpersonal Growth • Development of Ethical Understanding • Development of the Ability to Find Meaning in Experience
6. Teaching Methodology: Value Considerations and Standards of Practice
Getting Children to Think for Themselves • Conditions for Teaching Philosophical Thinking • Teaching Behavior Conductive to Helping Children Engage in Philosophical Thinking
7. Guiding a Philosophical Discussion
Philosophy and the Strategies of Dialogue • Guiding a Classroom Discussion • The Role of Ideas in a Philosophical Dialogue • Fostering Philosophical Dialogue • Eliciting Views or Opinions • Helping Students Express Themselves: Clarification and Restatement • Explicating Students' Views • Interpretation • Seeking Consistency • Requesting Definitions • Searching for Assumptions • Indicating Fallacies • Requesting Reasons • Asking Students to Say How They Know • Eliciting and Examining Alternatives • Orchestrating a Discussion
Part III: Applying Thinking Skills to School Experience
8. Encouraging Children to Be Logical
Formal Logic as an Aid to Philosophical Thinking • Giving Reasons: The Good Reasons Approach • Acting Rationally • Conclusion
9. Can Moral Education Be Divorced from Philosophical Inquiry
The Presumption of Rationality • Setting the Stage for Moral Growth • Socialization and Autonomy in Moral Education • Dangerous Dichotomies in Moral Education • What to Do to Help the Children Know What to Do • Imagination and Moral Education • Where to Begin • Why Moral Education Cannot Be Divorced form Philosophical Education • The Relationship between Logic and Morality • The Improvement of Moral Judgment
10. Philosophical Themes in Ethical Inquiry for Children
The Relation of Logic to Ethics • Consistency • The Right and the Fair • Perfect and Right • Free Will and Determination • Natural • Change and Growth • Truth • Caring • Standards and Rules • Questions and Answers • Thinking and Thinking for Oneself in Ethical Inquiry
Appendix A: The Reform of Teacher Education
Appendix B: Experimental Research in Philosophy for Children
Bibliography