The effect of community of inquiry method of philosophy for children on citizenship skills

The current study was conducted to evaluate the effect of community of inquiry method in philosophy education program to children on increasing their citizenship skills. Male students of third grade of primary school at a school in Kerman, Iran, participated in this study. The study included on 60 students. The subjects were randomly allocated into control and treatment groups. The philosophy education program for children was performed in the form of community of inquiry method during eleven sessions. The research was performed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Data was collected through observations (qualitative) and researcher-developed questionnaire (quantitative). In order to test the hypothesis, pre-test and post-test were used with the control group. For data analysis, descriptive statistics such as charts, graphs for measuring central tendency, graphs for measuring variance, and also inferential statistics such as independent t-test were used. In the qualitative method of the research, the information obtained from the observation at the time of applying independent variable (philosophy education to children) was used for analytic description and behavioral changes of the students. Data analyses indicated that performing community of inquiry method of philosophy education to children can have positive effects on developing citizenship skills among third grade primary school children.