Learning to Phi losophise and to Argue A THINKING SKILLS PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN,

My purpose in this paper is to offer an account of a thinking skills programme which focuses both on the teaching of philosophy and of argument. The programme is based on three assumptions: (1) teaching critical thinking is essential to any adequate notion of `education for citizenship’; (2) such teaching acts as a counter to certain kinds of indoctrination; (3) young children are willing and able to engage in philosophical discussion and debate. The central goal of my programme, `Teaching Philosophical Thinking and Argument’, is to promote the development of thinking, reasoning and argument skills through the discussion of philosophical issues. In what follows, I shall examine the theoretical underpinnings of the programme and how it is conducted, in practice, in the classroom. My interest in the theory and practice of `argument ’ derived from a prior involvement in the teaching of philosophy to young children. This, in turn, came about as a result of research interests I had in the philosophy of education- in particular the notion of `indoctrination’. Having made a distinction between justifiable and unjustifiable indoctrination and argued that certain indoctrinatory outcomes of the teaching process are to be combated (Costello, 1987), I looked for an appropriate educational vehicle to accomplish this task. I became aware of Matthew Lipman’s ̀ Philosophy for Children ’ programme through his Thinking. The Journal of Philosophy for Children and subsequently developed my own programme for undertaking philosophy with pupils of primary school age (see, for example, Costello, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995a, 1995b). In Britain, the idea of engaging childre