ABSTRACT

The main activity of the community of philosophical enquiry is whole-class discussion where the classroom organisation may vary from week to week. A topic may be carried over several sittings, often enhanced by the interludes that provide time for digestion of ideas. Participants sit together in a way that enables each person to hear and see all the others. Ground rules for working together are agreed and these can be modified as the group develops. These rules are explicitly addressed at the outset but are gradually internalised by the participants and thus become, according to Quinn (1997), the hallmark of real social and intellectual engagement.