The Effectiveness of a Philosophy for Children Program on Aspects of School Engagement

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a Philosophy for Children Course on aspects of students' school engagement. School engagement is a structure indicating that students can create personal relationships with their teachers in addition to the educational content. For this purpose, a quasi-experimental study was conducted on 7th-grade students (n=128) from 4 classes at the same school as the intervention and control groups. In the current quasi-experimental, pre-test, and post-test study, the independent variable was the philosophy for children (P4C) program (ten 60 minute sessions) and the dependent variables were the school engagement aspects including behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agency engagements. To analyze the data ANOVA was used. The findings indicated that the score of all four aspects of school engagement were significantly higher in the intervention group who attended the Philosophy for Children Program than those of the control group. Based on the obtained results, 28.2% of changes in total school engagement were attributed to the P4C program. The results show a significant increase in school engagement and its aspects. Philosophy for Children Program can be used to create an educational atmosphere with the highest relationship to students’ curriculum in which the students can rule out their learning behaviors with high motivation.