The advocates of philosophy for children contend that the community of philosophical inquiry is an integrative approach to moral education. The purpose of this paper is to clarify it.
For the qualitative data collection, 10 elementary teachers interested in the philosophy for children were interviewed to check the expectations, results and suggestions of the philosophy class. And the 5th grade classroom participated in the philosophy program was observed for 34 weeks, and the teacher and students were interviewed to check effects of it.
The research results showed that the teachers emphasized it helped students to develop skills to converse with others and higher thinking ability, to concern about others, to improve sense of community and an ability to judge uprightly. Students were improved in moral abilities to say logically and listen to carefully, to work well with other people, and to form self-identity.
According to the result of this study, it was found that more opportunities were given to students to learn the program continuously and systematically. Though there were many difficulties in proceeding this study for students who had never participated in the class based on philosophical background, the classes of this type should be encouraged and spreaded to more students.