The Impact of Philosophical Inquiry Method on Classroom Engagement and Reasoning Skills of Low Achievers

This research project attempted to investigate the impact of applying philosophical inquiry method of teaching onclassroom engagement and reasoning skills of low achievers. Low achievers are those who have the potential tosucceed but lagged behind because of several factors that demotivate them to perform at their highest ability. In thisstudy, low achievers were students who failed or obtained the lowest grades in previous standardized schoolexamination. They were 22 students aged 12-13 years old from a school in Gombak district, Malaysia. The studentswere observed and video recorded while participating in discussing the questions they had formulated in response tothe given stimulus materials. Many assumed and projected that these students would not succeed in school and life;and would not have the intelligence to engage in discussion that employed higher order thinking. However, thefindings revealed that when low achievers were given opportunities to voice out their opinions in dialogic pedagogy,they demonstrated the ability to be focused and engaged in classroom discussion. Furthermore, this pedagogy hasproven effective in stimulating higher order thinking or reasoning skills among low achievers. Specifically, this studyfound indicators of behavioral, emotional and agentic engagement among low achievers; and demonstrated that lowachievers were capable of asking higher order thinking questions, clarifying meanings, giving examples, makingconclusion and inductive reasoning, distinguishing and classifying ideas.