There is substantial evidence that regular involvement in a community of enquiry leads to the following outcomes for children:

• Independent thinking

• Higher order thinking skills

• Excitement, motivation and engagement with learning

• Increased reading comprehension, particularly in less able readers

• Increased maths and science achievement

• Increased co-operative skills

• Increased self esteem, particularly in children with lower self esteem

• Transfer of skills to other areas of study

• Improvements in behaviour, and a diminution in bullying and playground aggression

• Better relationships with peers and parents

In a large scale study in Scotland in 2001 conducted by Professor Topping of Dundee University and Steve Trickey, an educational psychologist, children in the experimental group had a P4C session once a week. This modest intervention led to a statistically significant increase in children’s IQ scores over a period of a year, compared with no increase in the scores of the control group. The same research showed:

• significant gains in verbal and non-verbal reasoning
• improvements in listening, communication, behaviour, questioning, reasoning, reading and understanding.

There is also evidence that regular involvement in a community of enquiry helps “close the gap” by disproportionately benefitting the lower achievers and children with specific learning difficulties.  For more details and other research reports P4C RESEARCH