Similarities And Differences Research Between Educational Thoughts Of Lipman And Mathews On The Philosophy For Children

Philosophy of children is an emerging discipline that starts in the 1960 s.Lipman,a Philosophical professor from America,took the lead in proposing the concept of ' philosophy of children',and presented systematic thinking and planning for the education of ' philosophy of children'.Almost at the same time,another philosopher,Professor Matthews,elaborated profound insights into philosophy of children in different occasions and writings.Although these two scholars have different research interests and directions,owning different understanding in the problem of philosophy of children,they all have significant influence on the theory and the practice of ' philosophy of children'.Therefore,they have became the pioneers in the field of ' philosophy of children' and enjoyed world-renowned reputation in academic circles.In this paper,methods of literature and comparatives are applied to compare the differences between education thoughts of Lipman and Matthews in philosophy of children.What's more,this paper re-examines and re-thinks their real faces about gains and losses in the aspect of research background,research motivation,theoretical basis,main point of view,educational practices and so on.The basic content of this paper consists of the following basic parts:The first part is the introduction.This part elaborates the following contents: reasons for selecting this subject,purpose and significance of the research,research status at home and abroad,research methods and definition of corresponding concepts.What's more,the life of Lipman and Matthews and their main writings are introduced briefly,and this two educators' theoretical basis of education thought gets main analysis.This part points out that Lipman and Matthews are both philosophy professors in university and they all get profound understanding and theory basis in philosophy,which lays a solid foundation for their creation of philosophy of children and educational thoughts.The third part mainly talks about Lipman's and Matthews' education thoughts of philosophy of children in detail.This part points out that the theme of educational thoughts in Lipman's philosophy of children is to bring philosophy and philosophical thinking into the classrooms and makes the kids know how to think with philosophical thinking.For this reason,Lipman and his assistant made a systematic plan for philosophy education of children,compiling textbooks and teacher's books for children's philosophy course.However,Matthews' philosophy of children mainly elaborates his discoveries: young children themselves have philosophical thinking,while adults often ignore their talents and even suppress their curiosity and desire in asking questions.For this reason,Matthews appeals adults to respect children,to protect their talents in this area,and to learn the desire for knowledge and exploration of things from children.The fourth part is the key content of this paper.This part mainly makes an deep comparison between Lipman's and Matthews' philosophy of children in the aspects of ideological origin,ideological content and value orientation,and makes a detailed analysis of the differences between their education thoughts of ' philosophy of children' and the corresponding reasons for these differences.The same point is that they all acknowledge that children have the potential of philosophical thinking,philosophical thinking can be applied to their education,and they also discuss the necessity for developing the thinking of children's philosophy.Their differences mainly come from different theoretical basis and enlightenment view of children.The last part is conclusion.This part,at a general view,discusses significance of Lipman's and Matthews' philosophy to the theory construction and educational practice of 'philosophy of children' in China,and gives prospects for the development of Philosophy of children in the future.