ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a framework for developing effective dialogue in classrooms. The aim of the original Thinking Together project was to develop children’s capacity to use language as a tool for reasoning and constructing knowledge and understanding. Central to the Thinking Together approach is the use of ground rules to establish a framework for effective discussion and to promote exploratory talk. Philosophy for Children (P4C) is an educational approach originally developed by Matthew Lipman in the 1960s; it is practised in approximately sixty countries worldwide with a demonstrable impact on a range of educational outcomes. Lipman reminds us of the wider aims of the approach when he says: ‘The aim of a thinking skills programme such as P4C is not to turn children into philosophers or decision-makers, but to help them become more thoughtful, more reflective, more considerate and more reasonable individuals.’
