The Impact of Teaching Program of Philosophy for Children upon the Development of Critical Thinking in Using Cyberspace

Education is considered to be one of the most important activities of human being in all communities. The increasing spread of social structure and the demand for training and preparing the people for a life in progress on the one hand, and the existence of different approaches concerning the role of man in the present age on the other hand, more than ever, have prompted the upholders of teaching systems to undertake the guidance and organization of teaching process. Modern education seeks to focus on promoting critical and proper methods of reasoning and thought in curriculum. Rapid changes of societies, increasing growth of information, intrusion of cyberspace into human life and necessity of proper confrontation with these changes prompt us to think properly and develop our imaginal faculty and judgment in order to come to term with these changes.
In this regard, three decades ago, a program of teaching philosophy for children was worked out in order to modify and strengthen their intellectual power. This program is considered to be one of the latest methods for strengthening the reasoning, judging and detecting power of children as well. Moreover, this program possesses certain cognitive and social objectives and its main objective is to teach thinking method for children. To meet this end, a kind of qualitative method of study has been adopted in collecting data in this work. The conclusions of this study indicate that in this program a great attention has been made to various dimensions of philosophical mind. But keeping in view the changes in the field of internet technologies and cyberspaces and the confrontation of children with these developments, they should be guided through this program toward criticizing the information that come to their mind. More important, threat of cyberspace against children is an important factor for drawing the attention of the educationists to this crucial issue.