Improving children's oracy skills: the dialogic effect of a philosophy intervention in primary schools

The project starts from a position that effective spoken communication in the primary classroom is integral to learning processes, and explores how philosophy with children can be used as means to improving children's spoken communication - known as oracy skills. Previous studies indicate the philosophy with children can narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, and so the research will draw on emancipatory theories of education as well as constructivist theories of language acquisition.

It has been argued that Continental philosophy provides a less restrictive basis for philosophy with children practice, and also that spoken language is a more valued part of the curriculum in Continental schools. Therefore some observations will be carried out in schools in Germany, where philosophy is a part of the curriculum and practice is aimed not only at broader skill acquisition but also outcomes which are less linked to summative testing and more toward active citizenship.

The observations will be used to inform the lesson plans for the intervention, which provides a framework for structuring philosophical discussion. It is intended that the framework will provide a method for facilitating extended discussion for children in Key Stage 1 and non-specialist primary teachers. Currently, philosophy teaching in primary school is sporadic, partly because there is no curriculum and it is not part of initial teacher training. Therefore the intervention will be aimed at allowing teachers with no philosophy background to facilitate philosophy sessions.

In this design-based research project, the intervention will be developed following input from the class teachers in a school in the UK and then delivered by the teachers initially for a term and a half of the school year. Collaborative ability will be measured pre- and post-test; the children will complete non-verbal reasoning tests individually, and an equivalent test in triads to record any group value-added. Test scores will be augmented by an analysis of the interaction, which will be done with social network analysis. Interviews will also be carried out with teachers to record their experience of teaching the intervention, and then these will be used to change and refine the intervention to carry out further iterations.