Abstract:
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching philosophy to children on their self-awareness and national-Islamic identity. This study is applied in terms of purpose and quasi-experimental in terms of method with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all fifth-grade female students in Abadan city in the academic year 1403-1404, and 30 people were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups using the available sampling method. The experimental group received philosophy education based on critical thinking, questioning, and group discussion during 8 45-minute sessions. The data collection tool included standard questionnaires on self-awareness (emotional and cognitive) and national-Islamic identity (in six dimensions: cultural, linguistic, social, political, territorial, and religious), the validity and reliability of which have been confirmed in previous studies. The resulting data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and SPSS software. The results showed that philosophy education had a significant effect on increasing students' self-awareness; so that the scores of emotional and cognitive self-awareness components in the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Philosophy education was also effective in strengthening the components of national-Islamic identity; so that a significant difference was observed in the cultural, linguistic, social, political, territorial and religious dimensions between the two groups.