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This book demonstrates the value of approaching education from a sociological and philosophical perspective. Specifically, it addresses current and long-standing educational issues in the Asia-Pacific region, integrating sociological and philosophical insights with practical applications in four key areas: educational aims, moral education, educational policy, and the East-West dichotomy. It discusses educational aims in terms of rationality, philosophical thinking, and sustainable development and presents the literary, religious, and analytical approaches to moral education. Four educational policies are then considered: Hong Kong's language policy, Hong Kong's policy on the internationalization of education, East Asia's policies on English education, and Australia's policy on teacher education. Different aspects of the East-West dichotomy are analysed: Confucian rationalism versus Western rationalism, Confucian learning culture versus Western learning culture, and Asian research methodology versus Western research methodology. Taken as a whole, the book shows that issues in education are rarely simple, and looking at them from multiple perspectives allows for rich and informed debates. It presents a rare philosophical and sociological analysis of the cultures and experiences of education in the Asia-Pacific region, and promotes research that leads to more culturally rooted educational policies and practice

Karl Popper developed a falsificationist epistemology in which knowledge grows through falsifying, or criticizing, our theories. Since criticism plays such a vital role in Popper's falsificationist methodology, it seems natural to envisage his heuristic as a helpful resource for developing critical thinking. However, there is much controversy in the literature over the feasibility and utility of his falsificationism as a heuristic. This study argued that Popper's falsificationism is justified on the grounds that it not only solves, theoretically, the problem of the bounds of reason in the form of comprehensively critical rationalism, but influences, practically, the research work of scientists from diverse fields. It also found that there is cause for cautious optimism about the effectiveness of falsification as a strategy for solving scientific problems. Popper's falsificationist epistemology carries profound political and educational implications. On a political level, it is necessary to establish and maintain an open society by fostering five core values, viz. freedom, tolerance, respect, rationalism, and equalitarianism, as well as three crucial practices, viz. democracy, state interventionism, and piecemeal social engineering. On an educational level, the overriding aim is to nurture in children the requisite abilities, skills, and dispositions characteristic of critical thinking for full participation in an open democratic society. In order to achieve Popper's educational ideal, this study proposed implementing Matthew Lipman's Philosophy for Children (commonly known as P4C) programme in schools, arguing that the programme can fulfil the requirements of Popper's educational ideal through using community of inquiry as methodology of teaching, philosophy as subject matter for inquiry, logic as both means and ends of inquiry, and Socrates as a model teacher for inquiry. The present study then conducted an experiment to assess the effectiveness of Lipman's P4C programme in promoting Hong Kong children's critical thinking. Forty-two Secondary 1 students volunteered for the experiment, from whom 28 students were randomly selected and randomly assigned to two groups of 14 each: one receiving P4C lessons and the other receiving English lessons. The students who were taught P4C were found to perform better in the reasoning test than those who were not, to be capable of discussing philosophical problems in a competent way, and to have a very positive attitude towards doing philosophy in the classroom. It was also found that P4C played a major role in developing the students' critical thinking. Considering that the construction of children by adults as incompetent in the sense of lacking reason, maturity, or independence reinforces the traditional structure of adult authority over children in society, it runs counter to the goal of fostering critical thinking in children. As a way to return justice to childhood and to effectively promote critical thinking in children, the present study suggested reconstructing the concept of childhood, highlighting the importance of establishing a coherent public policy on promotion of agency in children and also the importance of empowering them to participate actively in research, legal, and educational institutions. ; published_or_final_version ; Education ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy