Lipman claims that this philosophical discussion will improve students‟
ability in: “cognitive skills, making distinctions, seeing connection, identifying
fallacies, finding analogiesdisanalogies, seeing boarder perspectives, formulating and testing criteria, sticking to the point, open mindedness, being
willing to offer and accept criticism, valuing reasonableness, increasing tolerance against opposing ideas, drawing inferences, etc.”
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4. The Procedure for Running Philosophical Question in the Classroom
Teaching learning started with students reading a text not even practiced before. After students reading the text, the students are asked by the teacher to make
one or two philosophical questions individually or in pairs. These questions, however, should be in line with reading material given. Each student then read hisher
questions to the whole class and the most interesting one is selected by the students will be discussed. In order not to lose their train of thoughts, students will be allowed
to code switch when necessary while discussing the issues.
During oral discussion, the teacher takes some personal notes: writes down the main points discussed, the important words used, and translates the difficult
words used by students. At the end of the discussion and while students have a break, the teacher divides the board into two halves and outlines the main points raised
under one column and places the important words and those translated into English. After that, the instructor gives conclusion to what students have learned. Each class
session lasts for an hour and a half with the following time allocation: reading the text and making question: 20 minutes and oral discussion: 50 minutes, writing and
conclusion: 20 minutes.
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Matthew Lipman, Thinking in Education: Second Edition, New York: Cambrigde University Press. 2003, p. 164.
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Gholamhossein Shahini Samani Siamak, The development of L2 speaking skill and the related components: Insight from philosophical questions, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences,
Vo. 5, 2010, p. 717.
The role of the teacher in PBLT is as a facilitator and instructor. Shehe should be able to make students keep on track while doing group discussing. They
also should help students to clarify and formulate their ideas and to use appropriate dialogues and interaction. According to Gregory, teachers can handle the class by
asking the following questions:
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For „clarity’:
Do you mean that.....? By.... do you mean....or....or maybe something else?
When you say.... are you supposingassuming that...?
For “exploring disagreement’:
Why do you think you are right? What makes you think she is wrong?
Can you justify your answer? Can you think of a better reason?
For „considering alternatives’:
Does anyone have different idea? How else could we look at this?
For „appealing to criteria’:
According to what criteria do you say that?
For „jumping to a conclusion”:
Can we be certain that just because of so-and-so, it must be the case that such and-such?
D. Previous Relevant Study
There are some previous studies that can be reference for the writer research. The first relevant study was done by by Shahini Gholamhossein and A. Mehdi Riazi in
2011. The title of the study is ”A PBLT Approach to the Teaching ESL Speaking,
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Gholamhossein Shahini A. Mehdi Riazi, A PBLT Approach to the Teaching ESL Speaking, Writing, and Thinking Skills, English Language Teaching Journal, Vol. 652, 2011, p. 176.
