Conference Program

In contemporary educational contexts marked by democratic fragility and accelerated digital transformation, the cultivation of critical thinking has become a central pedagogical priority for sustaining democratic agency. This paper presents the theoretical framework and pedagogical architecture of PATHS (A Philosophical Approach to Thinking Skills), an educational model designed to foster democratic competencies through structured engagement with ethical dilemmas. PATHS conceptualizes critical thinking not as an isolated cognitive skill but as a socially situated, deliberative practice enabling learners to navigate complexity, ambiguity, and value pluralism.

Democracy requires citizens capable of reflective judgment, moral evaluation, and reasoned participation in public discourse. Contemporary scholarship in democratic pedagogy emphasises that critical thinking entails interrogating assumptions, assessing evidence, detecting bias, and articulating justified positions in dialogical contexts. Within this framework, ethical dilemmas function as pedagogical devices that foreground the normative tensions inherent in collective decision-making. By confronting learners with competing yet defensible alternatives, dilemmas expose structural dynamics of democratic life: negotiation among plural values, recognition of legitimate disagreement, and reason-giving under conditions of uncertainty.

The PATHS model operationalises this nexus through structured engagement with ethically complex scenarios designed to generate cognitive conflict and activate analytic reasoning, evaluative judgment, and dialogic interaction. Students collaboratively examine cases, construct and challenge arguments, anticipate counter-arguments, and publicly defend their positions in regulated debates. These practices align with contemporary models of higher-order thinking, argumentation theory, and dialogic pedagogy, positioning ethical dilemmas as epistemic tools that scaffold reflective deliberation and cultivate democratic “habits of mind,” including intellectual humility, perspective-taking, justificatory reasoning, and respect for dissent. Evidence from the national initiative Olimpiadi dei Dilemmi Etici, implemented across secondary schools within PATHS, demonstrates the model’s capacity to strengthen deliberative competencies. To date, over 4,000 teachers have experimented with PATHS, and these dilemmas have given rise to the Ethical Dilemma Olympics, which this year reached 40 schools with over 100 teams: it is a remarkable exercise in democracy. In this structured yet participatory setting, student teams analyse dual-scenario dilemmas and engage in evidence-based public argumentation, consolidating recognition of plural viewpoints, commitment to reason-giving, and dialogical responsibility. Ethical deliberation thus becomes a pedagogically regulated microcosm of democratic practice.

The relevance of this approach is amplified within AI-mediated digital ecosystems, where algorithmic curation and generative systems reshape epistemic environments and public discourse. Educational research underscores the urgency of fostering “epistemic vigilance” and robust critical AI literacy — the capacity to interrogate sources, contextualise algorithmic outputs, and evaluate AI-generated content within explicit normative frameworks. PATHS integrates ethical deliberation with digital awareness, positioning critical thinking as a safeguard against misinformation and unreflective technological reliance. A key component is Platone 3.0 AI, a maieutic chatbot developed by the PATHS research group, designed to privilege epistemic process over outcome. Inspired by a neo-Platonic dialogical paradigm, it guides students through structured questioning and argumentative refinement, supporting dilemma analysis and reflection on complex real-life issues. By foregrounding inquiry and justificatory reasoning, the model fosters active, digital, and democratic citizenship.