Action research on developing a culture of thinking in a primary school

The accumulated knowledge pertinent to education of thinking gives rise to the gaps between theory and practice. As such, developments in cognitive psychology and social psychology in particular need to be followed in order to adopt these developments into educational reforms. In recent years studies of thinking processes and skills and the social context where these processes and skills are formed have commenced to become centric in the field of education. Therefore, developing a culture of thinking in schools and classrooms has gain considerable importance and attention. This culture of thinking is composed of six dimensions that can be listed as the language of thinking, affective dispositions towards thinking, mental management, strategic attitude, higher order knowledge and transfer and is viewed as a holistic education of thinking emphasizing the social and dispositional importance of thinking. The fact that the culture of thinking emphasizes social and affective features requires this approach to be developed authentically starting from the first grades of primary school education. Derived from this necessity, this study intended to examine the identification of the problems while developing the culture of thinking, the treatment to solve the problems and the views obtained after the treatment. Inasmuch as the study entailed the solution of the problem cyclically, it was designed as qualitative action research.The study involved 37 fifth-grade students and the teacher in a primary school located in Antakya district, Hatay. The data were collected through interview, observation and journals between 28.09.2009-30.06.2010. Personal information form was also used as a tool of gathering data, and the output elicited by the students were examined. The content analysis of the data was performed.The findings were presented and intepreted in accordance with the cycle of the research. The study showed that a culture of thinking should be developed. Six cycles including the teacher were developed. As a result of the observation and interview, some developments in the teacher and children were seen in terms of the culture of thinking.One of the most important developments during the process was that the teacher and the students tried to use the language of thinking, and as a consequence of this use, the teacher and the students exhibited the outputs of thinking such as deduction, reasoning, comparing, guessing, presenting evidence, asking questions. It was observed that both the teacher and the children showed some developments during the process. The second dimension of the culture of thinking was affective dispositions towards thinking. The participants developed affective features towards thinking during the process and positive dispositions towards thinking such as inviting to think, giving time to think, viewing a situation from various perspectives, constituting an atmosphere of debate, approaching knowledge doubting,It was also observed that given the dimension of mental management, the participants gave information or asked for information regarding cognitive processes, expressed whether they agreed or disagreed with each other, made some utterances and showed some behaviours before, after and while thinking. Another dimension of the culture of thinking was the strategic attitude whereby the participants gave information or asked for information regarding the path they followed and produced strategies even if this was rare. The dimension of higher order thinking showed that the participants demanded evidence claimed or showed evidence, asked questions required to show evidence and showed development about doing research even if this development was slight. The last dimension of the culture of thinking was transfer by which the learned knowledge was associated with daily life, various subjects and topics.The findings showed that the last three dimensions (strategic attittude, higher order thinking and transfer) did not completely develop in the participants. From the onset of the study to the last cycle of the study the behavious and discourses that could affect the classroom atmosphere?s psychological freedom and confidence were identified , and as such some problems were encountered while applying the dimensions of the culture of thinking.In conclusion, the six cycle study carried out through the observation, interview and journal showed the evidence that some developments were observed in terms of the culture of thinking as a start point. However, some other domains that need to be focused on were also discovered .Key words, Action Research, Scaffolding, Cultures of Thinking, Language of Thinking, Thinking Dispositions, Mental Management, Strategic Spirit, Higher Order Knowledge, Transfer