Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy Lesson for Students Aged 8-16 [P4C]

This multi-use interactive learning session is an ideal way to introduce philosophy to young learners.

This session uses our unique format for philosophy teaching resources and features an integrated menu that allows teachers to select from a variety of starter, main, plenary, assessment and end-of-lesson reflection activities. With a massive selection of activities designed to trigger philosophical discussions, debates and reflections: you can re-use the resource numerous times with the same group.

We designed this lesson not only to introduce philosophy as an intellectual discipline but to inspire a love of philosophical thinking. To this end this session explores topics such as:

• The nature of philosophy
• The different fields of philosophy (epistemology, metaphysics, ethics etc.)
• The philosophical method (of reasoned argumentation)
• The difference between knowledge and mere belief

The big question asked in this session is “What is Philosophy?”. Using a variety of engaging activities students will discuss and debate a range of other philosophical questions such as

• Why is it important to think deeply about things?
• To what extent is it important to question and challenge the assumptions we live by?
• What is the difference between intelligence and wisdom?
• To what extent is certain knowledge possible?

Students will analyse and evaluate an eclectic mix of philosophical claims that have been chosen to represent the extensive range of philosophical enquiry such as:

• “We should not trust our senses as they are too limited, easy to trick and unreliable”
• “It’s important to be a sceptic and to doubt claims we hear and read on the internet”
• “The biggest moral problem of our age is how we treat animals”

Aside from a wide range of debate and discussion activities, teachers can also choose from a variety of more substantial activities such as essay writing, poetry writing, and speech writing tasks.

This resource is suitable for teachers of all school subjects who are looking to introduce philosophy, philosophical thinking and critical thinking. As with all our resources, this session will help students to develop vital communication, social and interpersonal skills: healthy debates will help learners to practice ‘disagreeing in an agreeable fashion’.

This resource is suitable for students aged 8-16; due to the flexible nature of the sessions design it can be used for multiple hour-long sessions or as a stimulating tutor-group activity. The file is a PowerPoint Show: no planning or preparation is required.