The Effect of Teaching Philosophy on Metacognitive and Irrational Beliefs of Male Students of Elementary School

Background: Philosophy for children (P4C) is a wonderful way of bringing teachers and children together to discuss crucial topics. It has many benefits for both groups. This study aimed to evaluate the teaching process-approach of P4C on students’ metacognitive and irrational beliefs by using an experimental design with the pretest-posttest and control group. Methods: The statistical population consisted of all male students in the sixth grade of elementary schools, out of whom 50 students were randomly allocated to the experimental and control groups. The measurement tools included the metacognition questionnaire of Jones’s irrational beliefs. At first, the pretest was done on both two groups. Then, 12 one-hour sessions of philosophy process-approach teaching were provided to the experimental group, while the control group did not receive any specific teaching. In the end, the posttest was done on both two groups. Results: The findings showed that the use of a process approach in teaching philosophy has decreased the mean score of negative metacognitive and irrational beliefs among the students in the experimental group; however, there was no significant change in the control group. Conclusion: P4C can affect negative metacognitive and irrational beliefs.