A Study of the Effects of Philosophy for Children Program on the Achievement Motivation of Students

This study was conducted in order to explore the effects of the Philosophy for Children Program on the achievement motivation of sixth grade male students. The initial sample of this study consisted of 86 students who were chosen from among all the sixth grade male students of the city of Shiraz following the method of cluster sampling. Firstly, Hermans’ Achievement Motivation Test was given to all the participants as a pretest. Later, in order to test the research hypotheses, 30 students who had scored lowest on this test were chosen and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. During the treatment period, the experimental group received instruction following Lipman’s method of community of inquiry in the Philosophy for Children Program for 10 sessions, each 75 minutes. During these sessions, some stories in accordance to the purpose of research were chosen and read collaboratively. At the end of the treatment, the same test was given as a post-text to both groups. Analysis of covariance was used to compare the performances of the experimental and control groups with each other. The findings indicated that the teaching of philosophy had significantly improved the experimental students’ scores on the second administration of the Achievement Motivation Test.