Philosophy for Children and Education for Democracy: A Deweyan Perspective

• Main Authors: Tzu-yu Yeh, 葉慈瑜
• Other Authors: Ching-sze Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/72740818873344533187

碩士 === 國立嘉義大學 === 教育學系研究所 === 99 === People have different ideas of what a good society is, and these ideas will affect how we educate the young. This paper intends to focus on Dewey’s perspective about a good democratic society. There is a transcript of a Philosophy for Children (referred as P4C in the following) class session analyzed in order to see if this pedagogy contributes to the realization of Deweyan democratic ideal. The transcript was recorded by Thomas B. Yos, an elementary school teacher in Hawaii. Dewey’s idea of a democratic society is a communicating society in which all can participate in collective problem solving. When engaging in such a community to inquire problems together, people learn and grow in the process of exchanging experiences and thoughts. This kind of effective communication needs certain skills and ability to achieve including reflective thinking and some democratic character traits. These character traits, according to Dewey, are directness, whole-heartedness, open-mindedness and responsibility. People think reflectively help to achieve better thinking and communication. Reflective thinking is not only developed among the dialogues in community, but also from democratic character traits. People with these character traits evaluate their own thoughts and enhance their ability of reflection, so as to help people to make a coherence of their internal thoughts and external behaviors. In Dewey’s view, morality should be practiced in life and cultivated through the give and take of interpersonal communication. People who integrate this moral intelligence into their life can learn to self-direct and self-correct. Each social interaction and interpersonal communication presents an opportunity to realize morality in the richest sense and to achieve Deweyan democratic ideal. However, reflective thinking and effective communication are seldom practiced at school. Lipman advocated P4C’s community of inquiry to provide a community setting, and students can practice their social interaction. Also, through the philosophical dialogues in community, students enhance their thinking skills—which, taken together, help to form Deweyan democratic society and democratic character traits.