Learning philosophy makes children better at mathematics

Learning to think through this subject shows its positive effects even in childhood.

Learning is an essential process in the development of the human mind. Part of this is thanks to the education we receive in schools and institutes, although it is true that not everyone is given the same way to study the different subjects that are part of compulsory education. As they say, some children are better at numbers and others at letters.

Finding a balance where the level of difficulty of all subjects is accessible to all children is a challenge. for all children is a challenge. But, interestingly, a simple change in the existing curriculum in early childhood education could improve their performance in other subjects.

A project carried out in England shows that if children are taught philosophy, improvements in other subjects such as mathematics and languagea pleasant surprise.

Philosophy helps from a very young age

This project was overseen by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), an independent English charity that aims to make education available to all, regardless of their family's financial status, so that children and young people can unleash their talents without any limitations. The idea of the EEF was to to test the effects of philosophy classes on the youngest pupils, in the form of a control test The idea of the EEF was to test the effects of the philosophy classes on the youngest pupils in the same way as a control test, as is done with drug tests.

Forty-eight different schools participated in the study. Of these, 22 acted as a control group, i.e., they followed the normal rhythm of classes, and in the remaining 26 schools the pupils were given a weekly philosophy class in the same way as in drug tests. received a weekly philosophy class lasting several hours a week, and in the remaining 26, the students received a weekly philosophy class lasting several hours a week.. The lessons had to do with themes such as truth, justice, friendship or wisdom, and included time for reflection, answers and discussion on the topics.

Learning to think from philosophy

After analyzing the effects of the philosophy classes on the degree of competencies acquired by the children (aged 9 to 10 years), the researchers registered an improvement of the participants in their linguistic and mathematical skills..

What was observed is that the children who were present in these classes increased their math and reading abilities as if they had taken two more months of teaching about it.

This improvement was more evident in children with lower grades who showed a greater progression; their reading ability improved as it would have done in 4 extra months; in mathematics this learning advance corresponded to three months, and in writing, two months.

In addition, teachers reported that there was also there was also a beneficial impact on the relationship between their students, and it also appeared both at a higher confidence level and at a lower confidence level. and also appeared to both increased confidence among students and improved communication skills.

Laying the foundation for learning

The beneficial effects of the philosophy lasted for at least two yearsduring which time the intervention group continued to outperform the control group in the subjects analyzed. According to the organizers, this improvement could be due to the fact that the children were given the opportunity to use new ways of thinking and expressing themselves, which allowed them to connect their ideas better, reflect logically more easily and create larger units of knowledge.

Nothing new

England is not the first country to test the benefits of teaching philosophy to children. The program used by the EEF is known as Philosophy for Children (P4C), and it was designed in the 1970s by the was designed in the 1970s by philosopher Matthew Lipman in New Jersey.. This project, already discussed in this article, aimed to teach new ways of thinking through philosophical dialogue. The program has already been adopted by 60 different countries, including Argentina and Spain.

In the case of England, the project was hosted by the Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education (SAPERE), which is now also part of EEF.

The concentrated efforts behind this organization were not focused on the original idea of reading philosophical texts by Plato or Aristotle, but rather on reading stories, poems or even watching video clips that promote discussion of philosophical topics. The goal was to assist children in response generation, as well as to promote constructive conversations and develop arguments.

Pros and cons

Among the advantages shown by the EEF it was also found that. 63% of the students who received this "extra" education did well in their subsequent studies.. As EEF President Kevin Collin also points out, this program is a good support for disadvantaged children, referring to the major benefit seen in this class of students.

Among the drawbacks, as is almost always the case, is the financial barrier, as the program cost each participating school about £16 (€23) for each student who received this class. It would need to be part of compulsory public education to cover the costs.