Efficacy of Philosophy for Children Program (P4C) on self-esteem and problem solving abilities of girls

This study investigated the effects of Philosophy for Children (P4C) Program on self-esteem and problem solving abilities of secondary school students in the City of Broujen during 2009 – 2010 academic year. A pre-test post-test design with control group was used. From among 1720 students, two classes was selected using random cluster sampling and students were assigned to either an experimental or a control group through randomized placement technique. Both groups completed the Cassidy & Long Problem-Solving Styles Questionnaire (1996) and the Cooper and Smith Self-Esteem Questionnaire (1967) in the pre test phase. After this, the Philosophy for Children Program was performed in 15 sessions for the experimental group during a time span of 45 days. At the end of this intervention, post-test was performed on participates of both groups. In order to control the effects of pre-test, Covariance analysis (ANACOVA) was used for analyzing the data. Analyzing the data with SPSS software showed that the program increased self-esteem significantly in the experimental group. Furthermore, the experimental group, showed a significant increase in problem-oriented problem solving style and a significant reduction in emotion-oriented style. P4C can be a useful program for promoting social and cognitive skills in students. As the program creators also believe the intended purpose in Philosophy for Children Program is that children become more of a thinker and tend to learn to be more flexible, thoughtful and rational humans.