The Development of Reasoning in Children Through Community of Inquiry

Abstract

Introduction:  What I have to present before you today will be more in the form of work in progress than a finished paper on the subject of reasoning in children.  This work grew out of an NEH Summer Seminar 1988 at the University of Massachusetts, directed by Gareth Matthews.  I had a number of motivations for attending this seminar, but the primary one was to have the opportunity to look at the work of Piaget on children's reasoning.  The primary reason why this interests me is a very pragmatic one.  Often, in the course of introducing the Philosophy for Children program to teachers I am confronted with one or more "Piagetians" or "constructivists," as they sometimes seem to like to call themselves.