Investigation of the effect of philosophy activities for children on the perceptions of moral and social rules of children

With the effect of the change and digitalization brought by the age, the interests, desires, needs and priorities of individuals and societies have begun to change. While children's environmental stimuli and their interactions with these stimuli differ, their needs for education also differ. Along with the changes occurring in our age, education systems have adapted to changing conditions over time in order to meet the individual's need for education. Education systems aim to raise individuals who can criticize, question and solve the problems they encounter, instead of individuals who passively acquire knowledge. The "Philosophy for Children" approach is a thinking education approach that overlaps with these purposes. The main purpose of the research; The aim of this study is to examine the effect of philosophy activities for children on children's perceptions of moral and social rules. For this purpose, "Philosophy Activity Set for Children (ÇİFES)" was prepared and applied by the researcher. The research was carried out with a total of 48 children, 23 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group, from the five-six age group attending a kindergarten affiliated to a public institution in Ankara province Çankaya district in the 2022-2023 academic year. In the determination of the experimental and control groups, the principle of easy access was observed. In the research, a mixed method quasi-experimental model with qualitative and quantitative data was used. In the qualitative dimension of the research, an observation form, interview questions and anecdotal records reflecting the experiences of children regarding the philosophy activity set for children were used, and the qualitative data obtained were analyzed using content analysis. In the quantitative dimension of the study, the "Moral and Social Rule Perception Scale", developed by Smetana (1981) and adapted to Turkish culture by Seçer and Sarı (2006), was used to determine the moral and social rule perception levels of children. In the analysis of quantitative data, the Shapira-Wilks normality test was used to determine how the tests would be used in the analysis of the scores obtained by the children before CIFES and the scores obtained after CIFES, and since the values showed normal distribution, it was decided to use the parametric test in the research. As a result of the research, it has been determined that Philosophy Activities for Children contribute to the development of moral and social rule perceptions of children.