Text Box: In response to the Ukrainian report, faculty and staff from MSU enumerated the many ways in which the KSPU-MSU project has benefited them, including new understandings of democratic processes, ideas for pedagogical innovation, and intercultural understanding and friendship. Regarding the latter, the Ukrainian report mentioned as one of the most significant outcomes of the project, that “American and Ukrainian teachers and professors and their families have become friends and now meet each other like family members.” In 2002 the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs included the KSPU-MSU Partnership in a special publication, “Twenty Years of Strengthening Institutions and Bridging Cultures” (2002) that highlighted only 29 out of more than 700 partnership grants awarded over the last 20 years. This publication is available as a PDF document at: http://exchanges.state.gov/education/partnership/brochure.pdf In a separate report given to IAPC faculty, staff and graduate students, Professors Khrypun and Manakin related the following outcomes of the KSPU-MSU Project: As of this year, Philosophy for Children has been implemented in five Kirovograd schools. Initial data gathered on the impact of P4C in these schools suggests that students have, “become more attentive towards their classmates, wish to discuss their problems in group, begun to cooperate with the teacher in performing control and self-control, and begun to reason well.” Seminars on “Philosophy for Children” and “Facilitating in a Community of Inquiry” are conducted by KSPU Faculty in Kirovograd schools on an ongoing basis. The Institute of In-Service Teachers in Kirovograd is interested in conducting regular workshops on Philosophy for Children for elementary teachers in Ukrainian, and in English for teachers of English. Research, including student theses and doctoral dissertations, is being conducted on the issues of critical thinking and philosophy for children. The book We are Learning to Facilitate Now by KSPU Professor Pavel Lushyn has become very popular. Materials from the Philosophy for Children program are used in university courses including “Teaching Critical Thinking,” “Basics of Pedagogical Mastery” and “Critical Analysis of Scientific and Publicistic Texts.”

Ukranian Dignitaries Report on P4C, cont...