P4C is a methodology that
develops, enhances and enriches thinking and questioning skills. It is a
discipline concerns with logical, critical and reflective thinking and the
development of reasoning. It emphasis on process rather than the end result.
P4C encourages children to think and share their opinions with others.
P4C encourages collaboration by
thinking, discussing, and cooperative working to build communication and
conversional skills. Besides, it enables caring as P4C is regards as an
excellent thinking tool through healthy debate, social responsibility and moral
citizenship. Moreover, it builds children’s confidence, self-awareness,
motivation and emotional strength through reasoned and good judgement in
everyday life.
There is a formal structure for
P4C. Children have to sit in a semi-circle, horseshoe or circle. Then, the
facilitator will decide on rules. There will be 2 minutes warm-up session to
make the children focus. After that, stimulus will be presented. The children
will be given thinking time, depending on their age. The more time given, the
more idea will be generated. Finally is the discussion session. For this
session, the children will talk and express their ideas or opinion about the
topic given. Usually, the optimum time for each session is about ¾ of an hour
to an hour.
As a conclusion, P4C is good and
beneficial for children nowadays as it promotes children to think in order to
make even a simple decision in their life. If all children are trained with P4C
from their early age, social problems and social illnesses which happen among teenagers
might be lesser as they have been practiced to think deeply before making any
decision in their life.
