The influence of Six Thinking Hats application on the improvement of critical reading skill of 7th grade students in secondary school

In this study, the effect of six-hat thinking technique on developing critical reading skill was investigated. In the study, it was aimed to determine the effect of reading education based on thinking with six hat in the experimental group and traditional reading education applied in the control group on students' critical reading skills. For this purpose, the study is designed as a mixed method research. It was designed with a parallel model converging from mixed research models. The sample of the study consists of 7th grade students studying in the spring term of 2017-2018 academic year in a public school in Menteşe district of Muğla province. 15 students constitute the experimental group and 15 students constitute the control group. In the research, critical reading training was carried out in the experimental group for six weeks with reading activities based on six-hat thinking technique, and no activities were applied to the control group. The teacher in the control group had their own activities done in line with the Turkish curriculum throughout the research and no intervention was made to the teacher. The research data were collected through critical reading scale, critical reading achievement test and interview form. The data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 (Statistic Package For Social Science) program, and the data were tested for t-test and repeated measurements by testing two-factor ANOVA for any significant difference between the experimental and control groups. The analysis of the qualitative dimension of the research was made with the descriptive analysis method. The scores are supported with direct quotations from the students' answers. Semi-structured interviews with the experimental group students at the end of the application were also analyzed descriptively. Quantitative and qualitative findings are combined and results are given. As a result of the analysis, there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of critical reading level before the experimental process; shows that there is a significant difference between the two groups in favor of the experimental group in terms of critical reading level after the experimental process using six-hat thinking technique. As a result of the research, it was found that the learning approach based on six-hat thinking technique significantly increased the students' critical reading skill scores according to the teaching based on teacher guidebook activities prepared by MEB. According to the research, it was revealed that reading activities carried out according to the six-hat thinking technique had important contributions to students. Suggestions are included according to the research results.