This paper attempts to formulate specific criteria for measuring competence and progress in philosophy, specifically in children. In detailing these criteria, previous evaluation criteria for philosophical thinking in children are described and three main tendencies of philosophical thinking are identified: those involving analytical and reasoning qualities, those dealing with ambiguities or borderline explorations, and those stressing contact with real life experience. Finally, the authors address problems relating to the recognition of these qualities and catalogue seven groups of indicators that help (...) to identify (or exclude) them. (shrink)

For a period of two years I used the Dutch translation of Kio & Gus in the classroom. I will shortly report on a number of sessions, notably those on sense-knowledge, on substance and on killing animals. I will also relate some of the views of children on what doing philosophy is.Following this report, I will elucidate how the philosophical discussion is a subtle interplay between concrete themes or subjects on the one hand, abstract philosophical questions and notions on the (...) other hand. This interplay makes the course of a discussion unpredictable and every discussion about the same story or subject matter different from the foregoing ones.The variability of the philosophical discussion requires much flexibility and insight from the teacher, who should not force his or her point of view or interest on the discussion, but should at the same time guarantee progress in the discussion. I will lay stress on some of the particular difficulties which teachers meet when they do philosophy in the classroom for the first time and try to formulate some requirements for teacher training. At the same time I will try to indicate which kind of course material could be of maximum help to the teacher. (shrink)

"Philosophy for Children" has preponderantly started from the assumption that there is no fundamental difference between the thinking of adults and the thinking of children: both make use of the same mental operations. Moreover, children seem to be interested in the same basic questions about life and its meaning as adults. So children and adults apparently perform the same activities when they join in philosophical discussions. It is also easily assumed that children are particularly apt to philosophical thinking, because they (...) are inquisitive, unconventional and - contrary to traditional educational opinion - rational, often even more so than adults. (shrink)