Dialogue and critical thinking skills
Should humans and animals have the same rights? Do we have free will? And what is the point of going to school? These thought-provoking questions often arise in our daily lives, and we call them philosophical questions. Engaging with these questions is a great way to explore issues that are important to us.
People are full of wonder. The ability to ask questions is crucial to the development of dialogue and citizenship skills. We believe that it is our collective responsibility to approach children and students as open and creative minds. They are much more than just hard drives to be filled with information and knowledge.
To help young people develop their dialogue and critical thinking skills, we work with schools in Estonia. There’s no such thing as too early a start to the joy of open discussion and dialogue. We offer different elective courses using the Philosophy for Childeren (P4C) and Thinking Moves A-Z methods. Here the students’ ideas, observations and questions play a central role.
Asking philosophical questions comes naturally to us; our wonder at ideas, situations and observations of the world around us. We encourage this spontaneity. The history and theory of philosophy is not the main focus of our courses. But it can be a useful source for students to understand who else has thought about what they think. Curiosity and dialogue first, theory second.
This is a short explainer by UNSW about Philosophy for Children:
And this video by Small World School explains the shift in power that underlines the Philosophy for Children method: young participants have an important say in what they learn and how they learn:
Schools in Estonia
Currently we are working with the following schools:
What does such a course look like? You can download an example here.
Would you like to know more about the possibilities for your school? Please feel free to get in touch with us.
