Public Philosophy @ University of Galway

Public Philosophy @ University of Galway

Our public philosophy team works hard to bring philosophy outside of the classroom through work with: 

-Students (Peer-Assisted Learning and Volunteering) 

-Schools (Service Learning)  

-Community Partners (Projects and research)  

-Special Events 

-Collaborations with other researchers 

For more information, please email or director of Public Philosophy: lucy.elvis@universityofgalway.ie 

The Community of Philosophical Inquiry 

The Community of Philosophical inquiry is the 'pedagogical signature' of Philosophy for Children (P4C).

P4C is a powerful educational approach which has been developed over 40 years, and is practised in over 60 countries. UK studies showed that children participating in P4C experienced improvements in literacy and numeracy. Teachers reported that the dialogues promoted by P4C were effective in improving communication and conflict resolution across diverse pupil groups. In P4C, children develop their own questions in response to a given stimulus, enquiring thoughtfully, and collaboratively, as a group guided by the facilitator. Through reflection on their thoughts and participation, they suggest how they could improve on their learning (skills and content) next time. 

The P4C pedagogy was developed by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp at Montclair State University, New Jersey. This college is the home of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children which develops best practices in facilitation and research into the pedagogy and its history.