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The Impact of Philosophy for Children (P4C) on Middle 

School Students’ Empathy, Perspective-Taking, and 

Autonomy: Preliminary Outcomes  

 
 

Mahboubeh Asgari, Jenna Whitehead, Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, & Barbara Weber  
 

 
  

Abstract: Philosophy for Children (P4C) hopes to cultivate democratic dialogue as well as critical, creative, and 
caring thinking; the latter of which has been associated with students’ social and emotional competencies (SECs) 
like empathy and perspective-taking. Yet, empirical, randomized studies on the effectiveness of P4C on students’ 
SECs and sense of autonomy are scant. This paper reports findings from a pilot randomized controlled trial 
(RCT) assessing preliminary outcomes of the impact of an P4C approach on middle school students’ SECs and 
their feelings of autonomy and classroom supportiveness. Ten classrooms of 6th to 8th grade students (N = 233) 
were randomly assigned to either receive the intervention or serve as controls. The P4C sessions were facilitated 
by two experienced P4C educators for one 90-minute session once a week for 8 weeks. Outcome analyses revealed 
no significant differences between P4C and control students on self-reported classroom supportiveness, empathy, 
perspective-taking, or altruism, however, P4C students were significantly lower on classroom autonomy and 
teacher-rated SECs at post-test, compared to controls. Person-centered analyses revealed higher post-test empathy 
among P4C students who were rated by teachers as having higher SECs as compared to students rated low on 
SECs at pre-test. Taken together, these findings provide preliminary evidence of the impacts of this type of 
program for early adolescent students.   
  
Keywords: Philosophy for Children, autonomy, empathy, perspective-taking  
  

 t the beginning of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) movement in the 1970’s, its founder 
Matthew Lipman wanted to give children the opportunity to think, reflect, and reason 
together. He proposed that the power for resolving conflict lies in being able to see a 

situation and the world from another person’s viewpoint (Lipman, 1982, 2003), by calling one’s own 
thinking and feeling into question. His pedagogical pursuit evolved around the cultivation of the “3 
c’s”, namely critical, creative, and caring thinking (Lipman, 2003). In the years to follow, his research 
companion Ann M. Sharp (2009) theoretically explored and unfolded the notion of caring thinking as 
well as its strong link to reasonableness. In 2009, she writes that while all three types of thinking are 
equally important, they are interdependent and that they “manifest themselves in continual transaction 
with each other. […] it is the mastery of caring thinking that is crucial in motivation and sustaining the 
dialogue in communal inquiry, while at the same time providing for the education of children’s 
emotions” (p. 411). Lipman (2003), likewise, has always seen caring thinking in connection to critical 
and creative thinking. Consequently, and while the idea that reasonableness, empathy, and perspective-
taking are interconnected is not new within the field of P4C (e.g., Lim, 2006; Murris, 1992; Sharp 2009; 
Weber, 2013), both its theoretical and empirical exploration has lagged behind. Something that has 
been lamented, for example by Costa-Carvalho and Mendonca (2016) when they write: “[…] important 

 

A 



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aspects regarding the inter-relationship among reasonableness, emotion and community have not been 
sufficiently theoretically addressed.” (2016, p.127).   
  

Furthermore, previous educational research has identified a number of teachers’ instructional 
behaviors that can foster students’ perceived autonomy such as actively listening to students, allowing 
students to work in their own way, providing time for students to talk, being responsive to student-
generated questions, and making perspective-acknowledging statements (Reeve & Jang, 2006). Because 
those are core elements of a philosophical Community of Inquiry (Lipman, 2003), the question arises 
whether P4C might have a positive impact on students’ perceptions of autonomy. A sense of autonomy 
has been identified as a fundamental psychological need, contributing to motivation and well-being 
(Ryan & Deci, 2017). Particularly for children and adolescents, perceived autonomy has been shown to 
be related to more active engagement and success in school and generally more positive emotions in the 
classroom (Patrick et al., 1993).   

  
The primary aims of this study were twofold. First, we sought to investigate the impact of P4C on 

middle school students’ SECs (social and emotional competencies) as well as their perception of 
autonomy in their classroom. Second, given that research has found that “one size does not fit all” 
(Durlak et al., 2011; Wanless & Domitrovich, 2015) when it comes to the benefits of classroom-based 
programs that promote students’ social and emotional learning (SEL), we also examined whether some 
middle school students benefitted from P4C more than others by exploring individual differences with 
regard to students’ SECs at pretest in relation to intervention outcomes.  

  

Philosophy for Children and Social and Emotional Competencies   
 

Many studies on P4C pedagogies have focused primarily on its impact on students’ academic 
achievement (Gorard et al., 2015) and engagement (Lancaster-Thomas, 2017), or cognitive skills, such 
as reasoning (Fair et al., 2015; Moriyon, 2000; Murris, 1992; Topping & Trickey, 2007a), improvement 
of scientific thinking (Sprod, 1997), critical thinking and social skills (Hope, 1988), and language 
comprehension (Tian & Liao, 2016). There are also important theoretical and qualitative studies as well 
as P4C practitioners who suggest that through exploring philosophical concepts and personal stories in 
a Community of Inquiry, children are expected to engage each other in affective communication and 
facilitate empathic modes (Gardner 2011; Schertz 2007; Sharp 2009; Weber, 2013). But few 
randomized, quantitative studies have examined the impact of P4C on students’ SECs (e.g., empathy) 
or feelings of autonomy and supportiveness in their classrooms (O’Riordan, 2015).   
  

With respect to the few empirical studies that have explored the impact of P4C pedagogies on 
students’ SECs, such as empathy and altruism, results have been mixed (Schleifer et al., 2003; Youssef 
et al., 2016). For example, in a study that examined the impact of a philosophical Community of Inquiry 
program with 280 6th grade students (ages 10 -12), Youssef et al. (2016) found no significant differences 
between intervention and control groups on students’ prosocial behavior and emotional well-being. 
Conversely, in a study of 39 five-year-old children, Schleifer et al. (2003) found that children in the P4C 
group improved significantly more in empathy from baseline to post-test than those children in the 
control group. Considering most research on P4C pedagogies has involved younger children and has 
primarily focused on the impact of these programs on cognitive outcomes, more research is needed to 



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investigate the potential effect of P4C approaches on students’ social and emotional competencies, 
particularly during other developmental stages, such as early adolescence.  
  
Early Adolescence and Middle School Contexts  
 

Early adolescence is considered a transitional phase in development (Steinberg, 2016). 
Fundamental changes occur in almost every sphere of life during this period—intellectual and cognitive 
changes, physical changes due to puberty, and social and emotional changes (Blakemore & Mills, 2014; 
Steinberg, 2016). These changes lead to increased challenges, such as heightened self-consciousness 
(Rankin et al., 2004; Takishima-Lacasa et al., 2014), but also development in other important abilities, 
such as Theory of Mind—the ability to consider others’ thoughts and feelings (Dumontheil, 2015; Flynn 
et al., 2015; Thijssen et al., 2015).   

  
Early adolescence is a time in the life cycle that is characterized by an increasing need for autonomy 

and belonging (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Van Ryzin et al., 2009). However, studies have shown that early 
adolescents report fewer opportunities for choice and connection in middle school and high classrooms 
compared to elementary school classrooms (Eccles & Roeser, 2011; Feldlaufer et al., 1988; Woolley & 
Bowen, 2007). Eccles and colleagues (1993) have posited, in their stage-environment-fit theory, that it 
is this mismatch between students’ needs during this developmental stage and the opportunities 
afforded to them in their various contexts, that can contribute to many of the challenges that early 
adolescents experience, such as decreased school engagement and increased school dropout. In contrast, 
as illustrated by self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017) and demonstrated by a plethora 
of studies, when early adolescent experience support for their autonomy and competence they have 
better motivation, achievement, and emotional adjustment (Roeser et al., 1998; Ruzek et al., 2016; Ryan 
& Deci, 2017). Students with a greater sense of autonomy in schools also have better school outcomes 
such as classroom engagement, persistence, enjoyment, and achievement (e.g., Miserandino, 1996; 
Patrick et al., 1993). Therefore, early adolescence is a pivotal time to investigate the types of programs 
and pedagogies that can either buffer the frequently observed decline in perceived autonomy or promote 
greater perceived autonomy among students.  
  

Method  

  
The P4C Intervention    
 

Most P4C approaches are based on the ground-breaking work of pioneers Matthew Lipman and 
Ann M. Sharp during the 1970s. At the core of most P4C approaches is the philosophical Community 
of Inquiry (CoI), which allows students to view others’ perspectives and observe conflicting ideas. It 
encourages students to empathize with others, give reasons for their thinking, and readjust standpoints, 
while calling their own thinking and feeling into question (Lipman, 2003).   
  

P4C approaches usually involve the reading of philosophical novels or exposure to other stimuli 
(e.g., paintings, children’s books, poems, philosophical aphorisms), developing discussion topics, 
questions, and rules, and discussing those questions (Weber & Wolf, 2017). During classroom 
discussions, children have the opportunity to think, reflect and reason with others, see others’ 



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perspectives, and learn that the power of understanding lies in being able to see a situation and the 
world from another person’s viewpoint (Lipman, 2003).  
  
Duration  

  
This P4C intervention was implemented in participating classrooms for one 90-minute session 

once a week for 8 weeks. Originally, we had planned a minimum of 16 weeks of implementation and 
sessions twice per week for 45-minutes each. This arrangement was not possible due to an ongoing 
teacher-strike in schools.    
  
Facilitators  

  
Two external facilitators, who were trained and experienced in facilitating P4C dialogues, 

implemented the intervention in the participating classrooms. During the sessions, classroom teachers 
remained in the classroom as observers but were told not to participate or influence the discussions. 
Although one teacher decided to listen to the discussions, most teachers attended to their own work. 
Each facilitator had an assistant facilitator (also experienced in P4C pedagogies) accompanying them 
during the sessions who wrote the key points of the discussions on the board, observed the classroom 
discussions, and took notes. Both facilitators were actively involved in the preparation and design of the 
program together with the Principal Investigator (PI) of the study, an expert in P4C. The PI oversaw the 
design of the lessons to ensure that the lessons followed the principles of this pedagogy. Both facilitators 
had backgrounds in philosophy and education, were experienced in facilitating Communities of 
Inquiry, and had teaching experience with children in schools and other educational institutes. During 
the program, the facilitators were in communication with one other and shared their thoughts and 
experiences regarding the sessions while both were communicating with the PI as well.  The lessons 
were designed following the CoI pedagogy as developed by Lipman and Sharp.   
  
Sessions Format  

  
Creating and cultivating a Community of Inquiry (CoI) was central. Therefore, each session 

included the following five stages: (1) the facilitator presented a stimulus, usually a narrative with 
philosophical themes; (2) students formulated questions; (3) students dialogued about the questions as 
the facilitator modeled various skills of inquiry during the discussion (e.g., presenting a position, making 
connections, asking for clarification, giving reasons); (4) students did relevant philosophical exercises 
and activities to deepen their inquiry; and (5) students engaged in a reflective practice (e.g., writing of a 
journal, sharing last ideas). Students always sat in a circle facing one another during these sessions. Each 
of the 8 sessions had a dialogue component, which usually was around 40 to 50 minutes long. We did 
not focus on empathy, perspective-taking or autonomy related topics specifically, but rather wanted to 
see if the CoI in itself would have an effect on those social-emotional competencies. Moreover, it was 
important that the adolescence chose questions that were important to them. Table 1 shows an overview 
of the 8-week outline.   
  
 



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Table 1:   

Week 1  
Introduction  
Meaning of a safe and warm community  
Students develop ‘rules’ for the classroom CoI  

Week 2  
The storybook Frederick by Leo Lionni (2011)  
The role of people in their community  
The importance of making contribution to a community  

Week 3  
Distinguishing between open and closed questions  
The story of Ed Sheeran (“Ed Sheeran,” 2014)  

Week 4  Students develop questions in small groups  

Weeks 5, 6 & 7  CoI on the questions developed by the students  

Week 8  
What is friendship?  
End of the program’ Party  
Meta-reflection assessment of the program  

  

Design of 8-Week Implementation   
 

The first session started with a discussion around the concepts of safety, warmth, and inquiry. The 
concept of community ball—using a physical ball as a tool to facilitate turn-taking in discussion and 
identifying the present speaker—was also explained. The students were invited to autonomously create 
guidelines for their discussions collaboratively and democratically (e.g., We listen carefully and quietly 
to what someone is saying; We think about what we just heard; We respect each other’s ideas.) The 
nature of community was also explored utilizing the thoughtful story of Frederick by Leo Lionni.   

  
The distinction between closed and open questions was cultivated through multiple examples and 

activities. This prepared the students for the next session in which they formulated their own open 
questions.  It was important to us that the questions related to the students’ lifeworlds and truly 
mattered to them. All the questions were then written on the board and categorized. Then, everyone 
voted for their favorite question. Three questions with the highest votes were picked to be discussed 
during the upcoming weeks (Table 2). Even if a question was not chosen, it was still attended to, so no 
child thought that their question was not important. The facilitators worked with the PI to develop a 
lesson plan for the three questions selected by the students. To return to the topic of community, the 



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discussion in the final week of the intervention was dedicated to the concept of friendship. At the end 
of the intervention, there was a short dialogue about the P4C approach and students were asked to 
reflect about how the discussions and activities had been going for them, whether students were 
supporting each other in discussions, and how they could better connect or improve their collaborative 
thinking.   
 

Table 2:  
 

Questions Developed by the Students in P4C   
Grades  Sample questions generated by students  

Grade 6/7  

  
What is the meaning of life?  
Is life too short?   
How do we trust what we see?  
Did unicorns ever exist?  
Why do we feel emotions?  
Why do we name things?   

Grade 7/8  

Is the world made from evolution or creation?  
If there is an end to space, what’s after that?   
What is power?  
What is worth doing?  
What if I could live forever?  
What is the value of life?  
How do we know something is real?   
What is friendship?  

    
  

Each session, as mentioned above, contained a stimulus, philosophical exercises, discussion plans, 
activities, and reflective journal writing. The stimuli included storybooks, video/movie clips, pieces of 
art such as painting, and the like. There were some exercises in each session that would engage students 
in more exploration of the topics/questions. At the end of each session, the students did reflective 
journal writing by answering the following three questions in the notebooks provided for them:   
 

• What did you learn from today’s dialogue?  
• What is your understanding of ‘[the topic]?  
• What is one BIG question you still have?  

  
Depending on how the discussion went during each session, the facilitators asked students to 

meta-reflect upon the CoI. These questions would involve how well the students listened to each other, 
how they transitioned from one topic to another, and/or how well they collaborated and built upon 
each other ideas. This iterative process was designed to make their CoI stronger each week as well as to 
cultivate a sense of ‘ownership’ over the quality of their thinking and dialoging together.  
  



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Evaluation of the P4C Intervention 
 

To investigate the impact on students’ social and emotional outcomes, a randomized controlled 
trial (RCT) was conducted, in which half of the classrooms had P4C implemented in their classrooms 
and half served as comparisons, which means they had no intervention program running during those 
weeks. All participating students and teachers were asked to complete written surveys before and after 
the implementation of the P4C pedagogical intervention.   
  
Participants  

  
The study included a total of 233 6th to 8th grade students (Meanage = 12.60, SD = .86; 45% female) 

recruited from 10 classrooms in one middle school located in a public-school district serving 
approximately 32,000 students in a suburban, predominantly middle-class community near a large 
Western Canadian city. The P4C (intervention) group included 124 students (Meanage = 12.64, SD = 
.89) and the comparison group included 109 students (Meanage = 12.49, SD = .89). With regard to 
language background, 79% of the students reported that English was the first language they learned at 
home. For the remaining students, 12% reported that their first language was of East Asian origin (e.g., 
Korean, Japanese, Mandarin), and 9% indicated multiple additional languages (e.g., Spanish, Punjabi). 
This range of language backgrounds in the sample is reflective of the cultural and ethnic diversity of the 
Canadian city in which this research took place.   

  
Analyses indicated that the students did not differ across study conditions on baseline 

demographic characteristics, suggesting that the randomization process was successful. Of the students 
recruited for participation, 98% received parent/guardian consent and 91% completed both baseline 
and post-test surveys. None of the participating students had received a P4C-based intervention prior to 
this study.    

  
Procedure   

  

Prior to the start of data collection, research assistants visited each classroom and gave a 15-min 
presentation in child-friendly language to describe the study and answer any questions the students had. 
Following, they provided students with parent/guardian permission slips to take home. Students were 
informed that their participation was voluntary and that there would be no consequences if they chose 
not to participate. Only students with signed parental/guardian consent participated in the study. After 
baseline data collection, five classrooms were randomly assigned to receive the P4C implementation 
and five classrooms were randomly assigned to serve as controls.  

  
Trained research assistants administered the questionnaires once prior to the implementation of 

P4C (baseline) and again after the program implementation had concluded (post-test). The surveys were 
read aloud during a 30-min class period to control for any differences in reading ability. Students were 
assured that all their answers would be kept confidential, and that peers, parents, or teachers would not 
be able to access their responses. Teachers stayed in the classroom during administration but were 
advised not to walk around and/or look at the students’ surveys. Teachers also completed student 



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behavior checklists (see Measures section below for more detail) for each of their participating students, 
both at baseline and post-test.   

  
Measures 

 

Outcome Measures  
 

Students completed a battery of measures at baseline and post-test that included demographic 
questions and that assessed their perceptions of their classroom context, namely autonomy and 
classroom supportiveness, as well as dimensions of prosociality—operationalized by measures of 
empathy, perspective-taking, and altruism. Teachers also completed behavioral ratings of students’ social 
and emotional competence.  
  
Demographic Information. Students were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire in which 
they were asked to provide information about their gender, birth date, grade, first language learned, and 
family composition.   
  
Classroom Context: Autonomy and Classroom Supportiveness. Students reported on their own sense 
of support in their classrooms through questions about how much their classmates care, help, and get 
along with each other. They also reported how much autonomy they felt in their classrooms by how 
involved they are in decision making and setting classroom rules (Battistich et al., 1997). Specifically, 
students’ perceived autonomy in the classroom and classroom supportiveness were assessed via the 10-
item Student Autonomy and Influence in the Classroom (e.g., “In my class students have a say in 
deciding what goes on”) and the 14-item Classroom Supportiveness subscales (e.g., “My class is like a 
family”) from the Sense of Classroom as a Community measure (Battistich et al.,1997). Students 
responded to the Autonomy scale using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always) 
and the Classroom Supportiveness scale using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (disagree a lot) 
to 5 (agree a lot). Previous research has shown evidence for the validity and reliability of this measure 
(Battistich et al., 1997). In the present study, internal consistency as assessed via Cronbach’s alpha was 
adequate at both baseline and post-test, for Autonomy (.83 and .85, respectively) and Classroom 
Supportiveness (.72 and .72, respectively).  
  
Empathy and Perspective-taking. Students’ empathy and perspective-taking were assessed via the 
Empathic Concern (6-item) and Perspective-Taking (7-item) subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity 
Index (IRI; Davis, 1983) that has been modified for children (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2012). The 
Empathic Concern scale assesses the tendency to feel concern for other individuals (e.g., ‘‘I often feel 
sorry for people who don’t have the things I have’’), whereas the Perspective-Taking subscale measures 
the tendency to consider things from others’ viewpoints (e.g., “Sometimes I try to understand my friends 
better by imagining how they think about things”). Students rated each item on a 5-point Likert-type 
rating scale ranging from 1 (not at all like me) to 5 (always like me). Supportive evidence for the construct 
validity and reliability of the empathic concern and perspective-taking subscales of the IRI has been 
obtained in previous research (Davis, 1983; Schonert-Reichl, 1993). In the present study, Cronbach’s 
alphas for the empathy subscale were .89 and .82 for the perspective-taking subscale at both time points.  
  



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Altruism. Students reported their altruistic behavior by responding to five modified items from the 
Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire (Developmental Studies Center, 2005) using a 4-point Likert-type 
scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (many times).  In the present study, altruism was operationalized as 
students’ reports of helping others in distress (e.g., hurt, sad) (Developmental Studies Center, 2005). 
Students were asked to think about (“Since the start of this school year …”) how often they had done 
behaviors such as “I helped someone who was hurt” and  “I cheered someone up who was feeling sad.” 
Previous research has shown evidence of good internal consistency ( = .82) for the full scale 
(Developmental Studies Center, 2005). In the present study, internal consistency of the five items was 
assessed via Cronbach’s alpha and was good at both baseline ( =.84) and post-test ( =.82).  
  
Social and Emotional Competence (SEC).  The construct of social and emotional competence (SEC) 
was assessed via a composite of teachers’ ratings of their students’ empathy, helpfulness, prosociality, 
emotional awareness, and acceptance by peers (Kam & Greenberg, 1998). Specifically, teachers reported 
on their students’ SEC related to prosociality (i.e., empathy, compassion, self and social awareness) by 
completing six items of the Social and Emotional Competence subscale of the Teacher Social 
Competence Rating Scale (Kam & Greenberg, 1998) for each of their participating students, both at 
baseline and post-test. The Canadian province in which this study took place includes social and 
emotional competencies as part of the provincial curricular objectives (see 
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/personal-and-social/personal-awareness-and-
responsibility). Therefore, teachers at schools in this province are well versed and practiced in 
responding to questions about their students’ SEL and classroom context. Example items were “shows 
empathy and compassion for other’s feelings” and “provides help, shares materials, and acts 
cooperatively with others” and were rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 0 (almost never) to 
5 (almost always). Previous research has provided evidence of the validity and reliability of this full scale 
(Kam & Greenberg, 1998) and good internal consistency has been found with samples of early 
adolescent students (Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010). Internal consistency of the six items was assessed 
via Cronbach’s alpha and was high in this study, both at baseline ( = .93) and post-test ( = .94).  
 

Findings 

  

The findings are presented in two sections. The first describes the preliminary intervention effects; 
the impact of P4C on students’ prosociality and classroom context. The second section takes a person-
centered approach to investigate the interaction between students’ baseline SEC and the P4C 
intervention on classroom context and students’ prosociality.  
  
Program Outcomes  
 

Intervention Effects   
 

A series of Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVAs) were conducted to investigate post-test differences 
between the intervention and control group on outcomes related to student prosociality (empathy, 
perspective-taking, altruism) and the classroom context, while controlling for demographics such as age, 
gender, and baseline scores on the outcomes. Cohen’s d is provided as a measure of effect size, whereby 
d = 0.2 is considered small, d = 0.5 is medium, and d = 0.8 is large (Cohen, 2013).  
  



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Prosociality. Results from a series of ANCOVAs, controlling for age, gender, and baseline scores, 
indicated no significant differences between intervention and control groups on empathy, F(1, 228) = 
.10, p = .76, d = .05, perspective-taking F(1, 228) = .47, p = .49, d = .11, or altruism, F(1, 228) = .14, p = 
.71, d = .03 (see Table 5 for means). There was, however, a significant difference between groups on 
teacher-rated SEC, with the control group being rated by their teachers as higher in SEC at post-test 
than the P4C group students, F(1, 225) = 4.93, p = .03, d = .29. Specifically, the control group did not 
change significantly in SEC from pre- to post-test, while the P4C group declined.   
  
Classroom Context. After controlling for age, gender, and baseline perceived autonomy scores, a 
significant difference was found between intervention and control group on student-rated autonomy 
at post-test, F (1, 228) = 8.89, p = .003, d = .29. As can be seen in Table 5, students in the P4C group 
reported lower autonomy than students in the control group at post-test (i.e., after the P4C 
intervention). Moreover, as illustrated, the intervention group declined in autonomy from baseline to 
post-test, while the control group remained relatively unchanged. There was no significant difference 
between intervention and control students on classroom supportiveness, F (1, 226) = 2.41, p = .12, d = 
.21. Both intervention group and control group students reported a decline in classroom 
supportiveness from baseline to post-test (see Table 5).    
 

Differential Effects: Teachers’ Reports of Social and Emotional Competence at Baseline  
 

P4C Outcomes.  To further unpack the impact of the P4C intervention and to investigate the potential 
influence of students’ baseline SEC on the effectiveness of the P4C program, a k-means cluster analysis 
was used to create profile clusters of students based on their standardized (baseline) teacher-rated SEC 
scores (Milligan & Cooper, 1988; Steinley, 2004, 2006). K-means cluster analysis sorts cases into clusters 
that minimize differences among members of each cluster, via an iterative process using squared 
Euclidean distances from initial cluster centers (Beauchaine & Beauchaine, 2002; Denham et al., 2012; 
Matsuba et al., 2007). A two-cluster solution provided the best statistical and conceptual fit, by 
maximizing distance between cluster centres and providing distinct groups with adequate n in each 
cluster for subsequent analyses. One hundred and nine students were assigned to the first group labeled 
Low Teacher-Rated SEC (mean scores below 50th percentile) and 129 students were assigned to the 
second group which was labeled High Teacher-Rated SEC (mean scores above the 50th percentile) SEC 
(see Table 6 for means). An ANCOVA validated a significant difference between clusters on the cluster 
variable, teacher-rated SEC (see Table 6).   
  

A series of ANCOVAs were conducted, with dimensions of classroom context and prosociality as 
the dependent variables, experimental condition and teacher-rated SEC cluster as independent 
variables, and age, gender, and baseline scores as covariates. No main or interaction effects were found 
on students’ post-test reports of classroom supportiveness, perspective-taking, altruism or teacher-rated 
SEC.  
 

With respect to students’ reports of empathy, a significant interaction was found between 
experimental condition and teacher-rated SEC, F(1, 223) = 6.89, p = .009, d =.35. Specifically, for 
students with high teacher-rated SEC at baseline, the students in the P4C group reported significantly 



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higher post-test empathy scores (M = 3.67, SE = .06) than students in the control groups (M = 3.48, SE 
=.07), F(1, 223) = 3.94, p = .048, d = .17. In contrast, for students with low teacher-rated SEC at baseline, 
the P4C group had lower empathy at post-test (M = 3.48, SE = .08), compared to controls (M = 3.67, SE 
= .08), F(1, 223) = 3.04, p = .08, d =.16.  

  
Discussion   

 

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the impact of the P4C intervention program on 
students’ SECs and autonomy in a middle-school classroom context. We were also curious to explore 
the potential differential effect of P4C on students with different baseline SECs. In other words, is P4C 
more effective for some students over others and/or does it need to be coupled with prerequisites?   

  
Despite some students feeling as though they learned about perspective-taking and acceptance, 

there were no significant differences at post-test between students in the P4C and control groups on 
students’ reports of their own empathy, perspective-taking, or altruism, after controlling for gender, age, 
and baseline scores. Indeed, these findings align with some previous research that has found no 
differences in prosocial behavior following a P4C intervention (Trickey & Topping, 2006; Youssef et 
al., 2016). There was, however, a significant difference in teacher-rated SEC at post-test, with the P4C 
group being rated by their teachers as having lower SEC than the control group. These results are in 
contrast with previous research and suggest additional research is needed to investigate the impact of 
P4C on students’ prosociality, particularly from the teachers’ perspective.  
  

Findings indicated there was no difference between P4C and control groups on classroom 
supportiveness at post-test, however, there was a significant difference between groups on student-rated 
autonomy at post-test, with students in the intervention group reporting lower levels of autonomy in 
their classroom than students in the control group. This result was contrary to what we expected from 
the implementation of the P4C. However, after taking a closer look at the autonomy survey items, it 
seems that they might assess students’ overall feelings of autonomy at school and not just within the P4C 
program (e.g., “In my class I get to do things that I want to do,” “In my class the teacher and students 
decide together what the rules will be,” “The teacher in my class asks the students to help decide what 
the class should do”).   
  

Moreover, students’ perceived sense of autonomy has been shown to decline in the transition 
from elementary to secondary school, with students feeling they have fewer opportunities to participate 
in decisions, less choice and less self-management (Eccles & Roeser, 2011). A program like P4C was 
assumed to buffer this decline by intentionally providing students with opportunities to exercise their 
autonomy. Instead, however, this program may have drawn attention to the mismatch between the 
autonomy early adolescent students yearn for at this developmental stage and the lack of opportunities 
provided in middle school contexts to enact this important competency. P4C programs have been 
described before as a “Trojan Horse” (Vansieleghem & Kennedy, 2011). Vansieleghem and Kennedy 
(2011) wrote: “This is to suggest that the discursive form that characterizes philosophy for children—
communal dialogue in an ideal speech situation—is inherently subversive of the goals of biopower, and 
as such represents a sort of Trojan Horse wheeled into the ideological state apparatus of Western 
schooling” (p. 179). And it is for this reason that P4C practitioners have discussed whether it is even 



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37 
 

ethical to engage students in P4C, especially when children live in oppressive societies where they have 
not much choice or possibilities to change their environment (Ghazinejad & Ruitenberg, 2014). 
However, more research is needed, which incorporates qualitative investigations with students, to truly 
unpack these findings regarding P4C and students’ perceived autonomy.   
  

The finding of a significant interaction between intervention condition and teacher-rated SEC 
clusters on student empathy is notable. Specifically, for students rated by teachers as having high SEC 
at baseline, the P4C group reported higher post-test empathy than the control group. In contrast, for 
students with low baseline teacher-rated SEC, the results were the opposite. These findings may imply 
that a minimum level of social and emotional skills and competencies is needed to effectively engage 
with and benefit from P4C approaches. However, more research is needed to investigate this further.   

  
Limitations 

 

We recognize that concepts like empathy, perspective-taking, and autonomy are highly complex 
phenomena. With a combination of self-report measures and teacher observations we attempted to 
capture internal reflection on the subscale questions as well as observable behavior. Nonetheless, we 
realize that this is just a small aspect. Additional qualitative data would give even more insight into each 
child’s cultivation of feeling and thinking as well as how those are interlaced. Furthermore, the mix of 
instruments and the revision of instruments might have affected our outcomes and needs to be 
addressed in further research.   

  
Another limitation of this study was that the duration of the implementation was only 8 weeks 

rather than the intended 16-weeks (45-minute sessions twice per week), due to an unanticipated district-
wide strike. Given that most studies of P4C pedagogies that have found positive results conducted the 
interventions for a longer period of time (Collins, 2005; Topping & Trickey, 2007b), the shortened 
duration in the present study may have contributed to the limited findings. However, findings are 
equivocal about the ideal length of SEL interventions and programs targeting prosocial outcomes 
(Durlak & Dupre, 2008), with some studies indicating that a longer duration is not necessarily better 
or more effective (Botvin, 2000). It is possible that a longer implementation period could have allowed 
us to reach out to those students who were less engaged, as it takes time to cultivate a CoI with a larger 
group (e.g., Collins, 2005; Fair et al., 2015; Topping & Trickey, 2007b) and takes some students time 
to develop the abilities and courage to participate in these discussions. Nevertheless, more research is 
needed to determine whether the shortened length of the intervention indeed impacted the findings.  

  
Finally, the large class size of the participating students (n ~30) may have created less opportunity 

for them to share and participate in the discussions, resulting in students’ varying engagement levels. 
Participation in the community of inquiry is an important part of philosophical inquiry approaches 
(Lipman, 2003) and studies that have found positive results have typically had smaller groups (e.g., 
Gardner, 1998; Lipman & Bierman, 1980). It is possible that the large groups of participants in each 
class in this study might have contributed to the limited findings.  
  

 

 



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Conclusion and Future Directions 
 

The exposure to the P4C program resulted in lower student self-reports of autonomy, however, it 
is unknown whether this was a true iatrogenic effect or if it reflects, as posited, an increase in students’ 
critical awareness of their own thoughts and feelings as well as the thoughts and feelings of others, and 
more understanding of their sense of freedom and classroom autonomy. Additional research, utilizing 
focus groups or interviews with students, is needed to further investigate these nuanced effects among 
early adolescents. Moreover, results indicated that SEC may act as an important prerequisite to gaining 
benefits from P4C approaches. Future studies are needed that investigate the effects of implementing 
philosophical or moral reasoning programs such as P4C in combination with SEL programs and 
practices that perhaps more explicitly teach social and emotional competencies. Taken together, the 
present research emphasizes the need for continued investigations of the use of P4C approaches with 
students in middle school.   
  
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Appendix  

Table 3  

Additional Teacher Feedback about the P4C Program  
Question  Sample Responses  

Which parts of the process of the [P4C] 
program did you feel had the most positive 
effect on your class?   
  

“Discussion based on video clips and the process 
 of generating questions for discussion”  
  
“Discussion was engaging with good topics”  

  

https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906X105328
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906X105328
https://doi.org/10.1348/000709907X193032
https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0143034306073417
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00801.x
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00801.x
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0612-5
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0612-5
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2007.00442.x


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“I think the discussions were interesting however 
 wasn’t completely sure how thing were 
 impacting the students empathy”  

  
“The opportunities for all students to share & be 
 heard. The facilitators worked hard to make 
 contact with each student each session.”  
  

Please provide any additional comments that 
you think might be important for us to know as 
part of this evaluation.   
  

“So many other factors influence the children at 
 school, at home, etc. I don’t know to what 
 extent participating in the study raised their 
 overall empathy or whether other factors came 
 into play.”  
  
“They seemed to enjoy the discussions and ideas, 
 but I don’t know if there were any effects 
 beyond class time.”  

  
  

  

Table 4  

Students’ Open-Ended Feedback on the P4C Program  

Questions  Sample responses  

Is there 
anything else 
that you learned 
about in the 
P4C program?  
  

“Almost everyone has different emotions”  
“Be kind to your friends and help them”  
“Everything is the way it is for a reason”  
“How to see things from other people’s perspective”  
“I already knew everything they were teaching”  
“I had learned about acceptance and how people think, act and speak”  
“I learn how to treat others with respect, share opinions”  
“I learned a little about why we need emotions”  
“I learned that people can be brave and scared at the same time”  
“I learned that we are all philosophers”  



ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 43, ISSUE 1 (2023) 

  
 

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What did you 
like best about 
the P4C 
program?  
  

“Being able to learn more about my friends”  
“Everything, literally”  
“How we got to listen to each other share and the journals we wrote in”  
“How we got to open up and tell about ourselves”  
“I liked asking big questions”  
“I liked how they accepted everyone”  
“Talking about death”  

If you were 
going to talk 
about the P4C 
program to 
other children, 
what would you 
say?  
  

“Be open to talking”  
“Don’t judge”  
“[P4C] can learn things and it also can make you think deeply about 
 questions”  
“It’s a program where you talk and discuss a lot”  
“It’s boring, but you learn some stuff”  

 
Address Correspondences to: 
Mahboubeh Asgari, Ph.D. 

Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division 

Vancouver, BC, Canada 

asgarim@gmail.com 

 

Jenna Whitehead, Ph.D.  

Youth Development Instrument (YDI) Implementation Coordinator 

Simon Fraser University  

Burnaby, BC, Canada  

jenna_whitehead@sfu.ca 

 

Barbara Weber, PhD 

Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Student 

University of British Columbia (Vancouver campus) 

Vancouver, BC, Canada 

barbara.weber@ubc.ca 

 

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, PhD 

NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning 

Department of Psychology 

University of Illinois at Chicago  

Chicago, IL, USA 

reichl@uic.edu 

mailto:asgarim@gmail.com
mailto:barbara.weber@ubc.ca
mailto:reichl@uic.edu

