Philosophical Inquiry and Reflection as a Pedagogical Strategy for Student Engagement

Professor Shapiro will explore with participants the use of philosophical inquiry and reflection as a means for promoting student engagement in the classroom.  This work is grounded in the practice of “Philosophy for Children,” which Professor Shapiro has been doing in classrooms in the US (and now here in India as part of his Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence grant) since 1995.

Philosophy for Children (often abbreviated P4C) is a widely-practiced pedagogy that brings philosophical inquiry into the lives of pre-college students in classrooms around the world.  It is predicated on the idea that philosophy begins in wonder and that children naturally ponder many of the philosophical questions that have interested philosophers from time immemorial. Rather than focusing on studying the works of important philosophers in the traditional canon, P4C emphasizes doing philosophy by engaging young people in dialogue about philosophical questions in which they are interested.

While P4C lessons often involve thought experiments, classroom exercises, games, or other activities, the most traditional way of conducting a P4C lesson is to read a work of children’s literature and have students generate questions they are interested in exploring together.  The P4C instructor then facilitates a discussion based on these questions (or, often, a single question that emerges), encouraging students to engage philosophically in the shared inquiry that takes place.  In this workshop, Professor Shapiro will lead participants through a number of such activities and readings in an effort to provide participants with a clearer picture of how P4C can be used in an English-language teaching environment.

An important goal of P4C sessions is the creation of classroom “community of inquiry,” in which students and teacher work together on a shared investigation into topics and questions of mutual interest.  It is a student-centered approach to learning that can help engage students in their own learning process, even students who typically may be less than fully involved in the classroom experience.  It is hoped that participants in this workshop develop their own “community of inquiry” for shared inquiry into the topics being explored.

Professor Shapiro has now spent about two months in India, doing Philosophy for Children in a number of different schools in the Mysore area.  As part of this workshop, he will share his observations and reflections on comparison between doing philosophy in the classroom with students in India and the US.  It is intended that this will provide participants an opportunity to compare and contrast their own experiences and explore some “best practices” for working with English language students here in India and abroad, including, if possible, ideas for the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching English language in multi-lingual contexts.