Investigation of the effect of philosophy pedagogy for children on critical thinking and problem solving skills of fourth grade students

Philosophy for Children; It is a discussion process initiated with a question over a stimulus such as a text, story, case study or visual. This process starts with a philosophical question and is deepened with questions over philosophical concepts such as happiness, freedom, justice and equality. By deepening the discussion, the child feels like he is in the learning pit. The learning pit allows the child to be active in the thinking process, express their thoughts and listen to the thoughts of others. Philosophical Pedagogy for Children is an investigation that can be done with many age groups from early childhood. Philosophy for Children is not well known in our country. This research aims to determine the effect of Philosophy Pedagogy for Children on the critical thinking and problem solving skills of primary school 4th grade students. It also gives clues about the application steps of Philosophy for Children education. I applied Philosophy for Children practices for 8 weeks and 4 sessions each week, for a total of 32 hours. In this process, I carried out my work using the mixed method. I applied the lesson plans prepared for the application to 12 students during the specified period. I was with the children throughout the process as a full participant observer in the research. As a result of the data obtained in line with the general purpose problem of the research, a significant difference was observed between the critical thinking pretest-posttest scores and the problem solving pretest-posttest scores in quantitative analysis. In the context of the general purpose of the research, in line with the sub-objectives, the students' views on Philosophy for Children Pedagogy as a result of the qualitative analysis, student opinions on the effect of Philosophy for Children practices on critical thinking skills, and student opinions on the effect of Philosophy for Children practices on problem solving skills were obtained. As a result of the data obtained, it was concluded that there were improvements in thinking, self-expression, listening, understanding, asking and questioning skills. I can say that Philosophical Pedagogy for Children should become widespread in our country and that studies can be carried out at every grade level on values education, democracy education, citizenship rights and creativity skills. In addition, studies can be carried out in both public and private schools on the integration of philosophy for children with education programs.