Teaching Children to Ask Questions in Philosophy Education

: An Analysis of an American Textbook of Philosophy for Upper Elementary School Students

Abstract

The principal of new philosophy education is to have students ask questions. In this study, the author explores the structures and characteristics of the new philosophy education curriculum by analyzing an American textbook of philosophy for higher elementary school students. The textbook, Philosophy for Kids includes 40 activities, which are organized into four different branches of philosophy. The activities are designed to get children to become aware of a concept and then to reflect on their own experience. Children discover the complexity of the concept and ask questions. Forty activities were selected and sequenced so that the questions assist the children in making connection between different concepts and their own lives. The children’s questions are the most important part of Philosophy for Kids. This is a departure from the way that philosophy education has been traditionally taught in Japan. The new philosophy education offers a modality of learning in which formulation and asking of questions become the aim, which enables children to learn how to think beyond what they have been taught.