A Study On The Integration Of Philosophy For Children And The National Curriculum

In the early 1990 s,Philosophy for Children(P4C)was introduced to the United Kingdom from the United States,and gradually formed its own characteristics and system after years of development.Lipman,the founder of P4 C pointed out that P4 C is designed specially to cultivate children's thinking and educate them philosophically.P4C's purpose is to ‘let children experience philosophy through speaking,doing or other specific ways,so as to improve children's reasoning and thinking ability'.The theoretical foundation and ideological guidance of the development of P4 C in the UK largely comes from this presupposition.In fact,though the development of P4 C curriculum in the UK uses the reference from the US,it has developed its own characteristics and strong practice genes,and has formed a relatively completive and effective curriculum development and implementation system.The author finds that P4 C mainly acted on education in the form of curriculum after entering the UK,which is mainly reflected in the independent thinking skills training courses and the later development of P4 C courses with British characteristics which integrated philosophy and thinking skills into other specific subjects.It arises the author's strong interest,thus established the topic and research question of this research: What are the ideas and characteristics of P4 C in the UK? What is the relationship between P4 C and the national curriculum of the UK? Can they be merged,and why? And how? Based on the above considerations,the author carries out the following research:Chapter one,the theoretical explanation of P4 C in the UK.Based on the positioning philosophy,P4 C and the key object of P4 C,this chapter discusses the feasibility of integrating P4 C into the national curriculum.In addition,this chapter starts from the theoretical basis of P4 C in the UK,respectively analyzes the Socratic methods,which influences on children's philosophical thinking,Vygotsky's theory of “Social constructivism”,which supports P4 C from the psychological level,Dewey's hypothesis of “Pragmatism”,which is an important basis for the implementation of P4 C,Locke's empiricism,which is related to the stimulation of children's ability,and Russell's philosophy,which has an impact on P4 C in the UK.Chapter two,the development prospect of P4 C in the UK.This chapter starts with the market economy system of UK,investigates the market economy system and reveals the realistic demand of the development of economic globalization and value orientation of knowledge economy on UK's basic education.Secondly,it analyzes the political background of P4 C in the UK,discusses the important role that the pluralistic democratic system between various policies played by the two major parties in governing the country,and also discusses the education background of P4 C in the UK.Then it analyzes the historical process of the development of P4 C in the UK,which is mainly divided into three stages: in terms of practical philosophy,the curriculum of P4 C in the UK has experienced a process of “aiding from the United States into the UK”,which is mainly transformation philosophy of “transplantation” and “transformation”.On the basis of “transformation”,P4 C in the UK gradually started the efforts of local transformation and innovation,which reflected a strong “multiple” orientation.P4 C in the UK has developed up to now,gradually turning to the subject immersion teaching as the “encircling” curriculum.At the end of this chapter,the author investigates the teaching methods,the development and application of stories and picture books,as well as the main research institutions,and finds that P4 C in the UK has the development characteristics of universal research institutions,emphasizes on story development,the application of picture books,and innovative teaching methods.Chapter three,the possibility of the integration of P4 C and the British national curriculum.The integration of P4 C and the British National Curriculum may be reflected in the interaction between the two,under the background which the impact of science and technology revolution increasingly competitive,the British national curriculum needs P4 C to play the unique role of talent training.P4 C course itself contains and displays the value of cultivating children's critical and creative thinking,which meets the core orientation of British national curriculum setting and reform.This chapter starts from the British national curriculum overall perspective of division of different stages and different content of the curriculum settings;This paper focuses on the transformation of students' ability,quality and knowledge in curriculum concept,content,evaluation method,curriculum implementation and management of the national curriculum in Britain.This Chapter at the end makes a comprehensive analysis of the promoting effect of P4 C on the reform and development of British national curriculum in all aspects.Chapter four,the symbiotic development of P4 C and the British national curriculum.The exploration of P4 C in the UK pays more and more attention to the construction of systematization and institutionalization,emphasizes not only the "integration of disciplines" of curriculum implementation,but also the "independence" of curriculum status.At the end of this chapter,the similarities between P4 C and the objectives of the British national curriculum are analyzed from the cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions.The emphasis of the two on the cultivation of students' ability is investigated.And it combines with the actual case analysis of the complementary effect of the two.Chapter five,contemporary practice of P4 C from the perspective of British national curriculum.This study analyzes the current P4C's practice courses of two main types of fusion,they are ‘a combination of national course subject philosophy thoughts of children' and ‘National curriculum combined with P4 C thinking' respectively,and finds that the former adopts descriptive themes in the design of curriculum content,emphasizes dialogue teaching in teaching methods and attaches importance to the guidance and organization of teachers.The latter one has different characteristics according to the specific objectives of the subject: English subject focuses on continuous dialogue and thinking,reading and viewing texts extensively,and uses philosophical dialogue strategies to ask and discuss questions;In the mathematics subject,logical thinking,exploratory learning and active construction of philosophical inquiry community are emphasized.In addition to developing effective thinking,the science subject has paid special attention to children's exploration of the nature of science and its connection with real life and formes a relatively structured method.In summary,P4 C in practice combines with the actual situation of the country's basic education to improve P4 C,shows a trend of integration of P4 C with the national curriculum.On the one hand,the British National Curriculum provides the soil for the development of P4 C.P4C takes the National Curriculum as an important carrier and "infiltrated" into various disciplines,which greatly promotes the development of British P4 C itself.On the other hand,although P4 C has not officially entered the British National Curriculum System,it has a very important role in promoting the British National Curriculum and has effectively promoted the implementation of the national curriculum philosophy and goals.From this point of view,the integration and development of the national curriculum is the key direction of the current and future development of P4 C in the UK,and the national curriculum also needs the integration of P4 C to improve the quality of education and teaching in order to develop students' multiple abilities.