SAPERE
The grant recipient
SAPERE – The Society for Advancing Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education – is a registered charity dedicated to teaching and promoting better thinking.
The Thinking for Better Learning programme
What it aims to do
- improve the oracy and literacy of inner-city London pupils through teaching reasoning and higher order thinking
- support a whole-school approach to independent thinking and motivating children to learn effectively
How it works
The Thinking for Better Learning project is a year-long series of weekly enquiry sessions for primary pupils. The sessions are led by SAPERE’s project team, in conjunction with classroom teachers, and use the Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme. The P4C approach has been developed over 30 years and is practised in 40 countries worldwide. It teaches children to use reasoning and higher order thinking.
SHINE funded a trial of the Thinking for Better Learning project for two classes at Falconbrook primary school in the London borough of Wandsworth.
Results
Pre and post intervention assessment and feedback from the head has indicated:
- reading improvement beyond teacher predictions for 88% of participating year 6 pupils
- progress in considered speaking, active listening, question posing, effective reasoning and thinking
- improved social and emotional interaction for most children
The funding and replication
A SHINE grant was made to fund the delivery and evaluation costs of a trial project. We are currently in discussion with SAPERE about possible replication.
Funding: £18,565 to SAPERE, over one year (2005-06)
Visit SAPERE’s website: http://www.sapere.org.uk
"We struggle to get our children to express their thoughts and ideas... many come from deprived backgrounds where reading and writing are undervalued... without the development of these skills they cannot access the curriculum... I firmly believe that philosophy is the right vehicle to promote, develop and reinforce learning and this project has had a significant impact on the development of 'question posing' in the school."
Headteacher, Falconbrook Primary School
Quotes
"We struggle to get our children to express their thoughts and ideas... many come from deprived backgrounds where reading and writing are undervalued... without the development of these skills they cannot access the curriculum... I firmly believe that philosophy is the right vehicle to promote, develop and reinforce learning and this project has had a significant impact on the development of 'question posing' in the school."
Headteacher, Falconbrook Primary School