The Playground of Ideas is a Philosophy with Children (PwC) approach for teachers to facilitate a philosophical Community of Inquiry (CoI) with younger children in the UK. The work developed from the problematization of current education practice in which, while there is acknowledgement that group discussion is beneficial for learning (e.g. Mercer, 2008), in practice children begin formal schooling with differing levels of communicative competence (National Literacy Trust, 2016). This has been linked to early social disadvantage; Hart and Risley’s (1995) study of word-count exposure is now well-known, but further studies also indicate that of greater importance is the nature of the interaction (Fernald and Weisleder, 2015) and the incidence of conversational turn-taking (Gilkerson et al, 2018). In initial research for this study, analysis of class discussions indicated that children from a low socioeconomic background had a different pattern of talk to their peers, characterised by fewer and less-substantiated responses (Kerslake and Rimmington, 2017). The Playground of Ideas was developed, therefore, in the Bakhtinian (1981) dialogic tradition of focusing on the ways in which meaning is made through the relationships between participants in dialogue. Discursive and thinking skills and dispositions are connected to images of playground equipment to engage young learners. These emphasise listening to others, having the courage to express one’s opinion and adding to other’s contributions. This paper reports on the development of the Playground of Ideas through two iterations in a design-based research project which was conducted with teachers and Year 2 classes (children aged 6 and 7) in UK classrooms. Following both iterations the children took questionnaires and participated in group interviews which assessed their attitudes to and understanding of aspects of Playground of Ideas sessions. The class teachers were also asked about the children’s responses to the sessions. The children’s responses were analysed for key words, which indicated that children securely connect each skill or disposition to the playground images, which is corroborated by teachers’ responses. Children used Playground of Ideas terminology to express their own ideas and attitudes toward group discussion and became more aware of the contributions of others. Teacher responses also indicated that a greater range of children were participating in discussion, and that this extended into wider classroom learning. These findings indicate that the Playground of Ideas forms a framework by which children develop communicative competencies through discussion of philosophical questions, and extends the dialogic nature of participation in classroom discussion.

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