The thesis presents the critical analysis of the work Thinking in Education by M. Lipman It deals with the problemc of fostering thinking through education. It explains the reasons of the relevance of the dialoque ability, critical thinking and also use of the creative and caring thinking. Also it explains that the thinking skills should be the effect of the education not only as a preparation for a life in the democratic society. The thesis summarize the views of it's critics.

The work deals with ethical education, which can be used in different areas of child's life through the program of Philosophy for Children. The theoretical part characterizes the child in a period of younger school age, describes his cognitive and moral development including important psychological aspects. Psychological knowledge becomes an important starting point for the practical part of the work. Education in different areas of child's life carries specific features of the environment. Educational subjects, such as family, school, leisure time, can participate in the upbringing of moral behavior. The development of children's moral reasoning can be supported by the knowledge of different ethical systems. Ways to work in Philosophy for Children can become a means of ethical education. The role of teachers, parents and leisure teachers has an important place in this educational process, especially in the implementation of ethical dialogues. The practical part offers three philosophical stories, with the main ideas and plans for discussion. The stories serve as an inspiration for cultivating the morals of children in different environments of their lives.

The thesis is focused on finding the philosophical dimension of a story, with respect to stories for children. It is also concerned with the variable possibilities how to use stories in the Philosophy for Children dialogue. Using the knowledge of literally science and using the articles about the role of story in Philosophy for Children, the thesis elaborates the definition of the philosophical dimension of story. Its further attempt is to suggest general method how to seize the philosophical dimension of every possible story for the purpose of philosophical dialogue with children. The suggested method is applied on the stories The Little prince by A. Saint-Exupery and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis in the last part of the thesis.

The thesis presents possibilities and hazards resulting from the combination of experience-based education methods and those of doing philosophy with children. Having defined the terms used, it introduces the aims, key features and basic methods of leisure education; furthermore, experience-based education is described in more detail together with its fundamental elements: dramaturgy, adventure, reflection and games. The latter two elements are understood to be the links between experience-based education and Philosophy for children program. Then, the follow-up reflection on the interface between Philosophy with children and experiential activities is the substantial part of the thesis. Besides other topics, the philosophical aspects of games and reflection (review) as possible ways of experience-based philosophical inquiry are dealt with. Thus, in the closing part of the thesis, the potential for connecting philosophical inquiry and the experience itself is outlined.

Abstract This thesis concentrates on investigating the social construction of learning and teaching in a classroom that was encultured into working and acting as a community of inquiry across the curriculum. The theoretical and methodological premises of the study draw on sociocultural and sociolinguistic views on learning and instruction. Through this framework, the study aims at investigating the development, implementation and evaluation of the processes and conditions for communal inquiry across different pedagogical situations and across the curriculum in the case study classroom. In addition, the study aims at creating a pedagogical rationale for supporting meaningful, student-centred and problem-based learning in classroom. The research project was realised as a series of qualitative case studies. The subjects of the study were seventeen third-grade students from a Finnish elementary school and their teacher. The empirical data corpus consists of nine hours of videotaped classroom sessions gathered from the domains of philosophy, science and mathematics. Detailed, micro- and multilevel analyses were completed on the transcribed video recordings of whole classroom interaction. The results of the research project indicate that social interactions in the case study classroom were quite dominantly characterized by multilateral interactions amongst classroom members. Instead of mere information exchange, the nature of knowledge in this classroom was largely based upon sharing and defining views as well as negotiating evidence. In general, the students in this classroom clearly took charge of the cognitive work whereas the teacher’s responsibility was more directed towards managing the interactional practices during the joint discussions. However, there were occasions when the teacher stepped in as an analytic authority. The teacher scaffolding was grounded in the on-going interactions and varied in both quantity and quality whilst engaging in dialogue with individual students demonstrating different participation modes. Overall, the results of the study indicate that teacher scaffolding in this classroom supported communal inquiry from both the cognitive, social and socio-emotional perspectives. / Tiivistelmä Väitöstutkimus tarkastelee oppimisen ja opetuksen sosiaalista rakentumista luokassa, jonka toimintakulttuuri rakentuu tutkivan yhteisön periaatteille yli oppiainerajojen. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys perustuu sosiokulttuurisille ja sosiolingvistisille oppimis- ja opetuskäsityksille. Tästä teoriataustasta käsin tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella tutkivan yhteisön periaatteille rakentuvan toimintakulttuurin prosesseja ja ehtoja tapaustutkimusluokassa. Lisäksi tutkimuksen pedagogisena tavoitteena on kehittää suuntaviivoja merkitykselliselle, oppilaskeskeiselle ja ongelmalähtöiselle oppimiselle. Tutkimusprojekti toteutettiin laadullisten tapaustutkimusten sarjana. Tutkimuskohteena ovat seitsemäntoista suomalaisen alakoulun 3. luokan oppilasta ja heidän opettajansa. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu yhdeksästä tunnista videoituja oppituntitilanteita filosofian, luonnontiedon ja matematiikan oppiaineissa. Koko luokan vuorovaikutustilanteita sisältävät litteroidut videotallenteet analysoitiin yksityiskohtaisin, mikro- ja monitasoisin analyysimenetelmin. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että tapaustutkimusluokan sosiaaliset vuorovaikutustilanteet rakentuivat vahvasti jäsenten väliselle, monenkeskiselle vuorovaikutukselle. Pelkän informaation vaihdon sijaan tiedon luonne tutkimuskohteena olleessa luokassa perustui yhteiselle näkökulmien jakamiselle, tarkentamiselle ja perustelemiselle. Luokan oppilaat ottivat vastuuta tiedollisista neuvotteluista, kun taas opettajan vastuu kohdentui enemmänkin vuorovaikutuksen ohjaamiseen yhteisten keskustelujen aikana. Kuitenkin opettaja astui esiin luokan vuorovaikutustilanteissa välillä myös analyyttisenä asiantuntijana. Opettajan tuki määrittyi luokan vuorovaikutustilanteiden kautta, ja se vaihteli määrältään ja laadultaan opettajan ollessa vuorovaikutuksessa osallistumiseltaan erilaisten oppilaiden kanssa. Kaiken kaikkiaan tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että opettajan ohjaus luokkayhteisössä tuki tutkivan yhteisön rakentumista niin tiedollisesta, sosiaalisesta kuin sosioemotionaalisesta näkökulmasta.

This diploma thesis focuses on dealing with controversial issues in primary schools. The main aim of this work is to find out why it is appropriate to integrate these issues into teaching, whether it is even possible for primary school pupils to deal with them and how these topics can be taught and integrated. The theoretical part begins by defining the term controversial issue, then it is devoted to developmental presupposition of primary school children for dealing with controversial issues, then how these issues relate to Citizenship and Global Education, and which methods can be used for dealing with controversial issues. By using questionnaire and interviews it was explored whether teachers are integrating these issues into their teaching, why and which way they do that. keywords: controversial issues / problems, global issues, current issue, cross-curricular themes, primary education, Citizenship Education, Global Education, Philosophy for children

This thesis considers two questions, "How children aged 12 to 15 years rethinking of biblical texts? And how can using the Philosophy for Children stimulate thinking about faith of children aged 12 to 15 years?" To answer these questions, I chose the qualitative research, which consisted in various discussions in selected focus groups. This dialogue was guided by the principles of philosophy for children. The theoretical part of my thesis deals with the definition of important concepts, such as religious education, catechesis from the perspective of various documents of the Church and other educational programs, and specifying the key differences between these two concepts, define the structure and principles of philosophy for children, but also the historical development of this program. The practical part deals with the qualitative research in focus groups. This research includes discussion of selected focus groups, where individual statements are encoded and then included in the table of frequencies. According to these tables discussions is evaluated in terms of statements frequencies. Subsequently the content of discussions is also evaluated. The codes are divided into categories from which discussions are evaluated in the final summary with answers to the key questions.

This thesis describes the proces of implementation of selected elements of Philosophy for Children in the activities of an after-school club. Philosophy for Children and the school club are presented in the theoretical part. The case study describes twenty Philosophy for Children sessions carried out in the morning and afternoon school club programme. Furthermore, factors influencing the programme that have been encounte-red during the philosophical sessions are discussed.

This thesis deals with the possibilities of using the programme Philosophy for Children to fulfill the objectives of the cross-curricular subjects at Primary school. The theoretical part includes a summary of the objectives of elementary education, then it describes the cross-curricular subjects of the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education and Philosophy for Children and their interconnection. In the practical part, seven lessons using methods of Philosophy for Children, taught in the 5th year of Primary school, are described and they are analyzed from the philosophical point of view and from the point of view of including the cross-curricular subjects. In the reflection, these lessons are evaluated and the possibility of developing certain skills of pupils in case of longer-term using of this programme is mentioned.

Philosophical inquiry as a pedagogical approach develops higher order thinking and problem solving skills. Inquiry-based learning is an important approach for sustainable development, considering the fact that today’s societies has to deal with everyday challenges. Philosophical inquiry is a powerful educational approach that has cognitive, social and practical benefits. This study examined the challenges faced by the Nyadire Teachers’ College (NTC) student teachers in Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe in engaging pupils in philosophical inquiry and ways of overcoming them. The study employed the qualitative design because of its focus on participants’ perceptions and actions. The researcher viewed participants as reflective beings whose actions were influenced by their thoughts. The study sample comprised forty student teachers on campus who had just completed their Teaching Practice (TP), eight student teachers on TP and ten lecturers from various departments. The data were collected through individual interviews, focus group discussions, non-participant observation of lessons and document analysis. The evidence from literature indicates that philosophical discourse and pedagogy develop learners’ ability to be responsible and accountable for their actions. It has also indicated teachers’ inability to introduce children to thoughtful discussion as one of the barriers to the use of philosophical inquiry as a pedagogy. The findings of the study indicated that NTC student teachers lacked skills and dispositions to engage pupils in philosophical inquiry. This was attributed to lack of critical pedagogy in teacher education at NTC. The findings also indicated that there were challenges in practicing schools. The study established knowledge and competence gaps amongst NTC student teachers as one of the challenges. The study suggested that NTC teacher education should expose student teachers to theory and practice of critical pedagogy. It also suggested in-service education on mentoring for teachers in schools, as mentoring demands more skills and knowledge than mere teaching. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)