The effects of educational program supporting thinking skills on social skills development and social problem solving skills of 60-72 months children

This research was conducted to determine the effects of the Thinking Skills Supportive Education Program, prepared using the Philosophy for Children Approach, on the social skills and social problem-solving skills of 60-72-month-old children. A total of 62 attending a preschool affiliated with the Ministry of National Education 2023-2024 academic year participated in the study. Since the experimental and control groups were to be compared before and after the intervention, a quasi-experimental model with a pre-test and post-test control group design, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. In the study, which lasted a total of twelve weeks, the "Thinking Skills Supportive Education Program," prepared by the researcher, was applied to the children in the experimental group in 24 sessions, held twice a week.. The data collection tools used in the research included the "Preschool Social Skills Evaluation Scale (OSBED) (Teacher Scale) and (Parent Scale)" developed by Omeroglu et al. (2014), and the "Social Problem Solving Skills Scale" developed by Yilmaz (2016). The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences using Independent Sample t Test, Mann-Whitney U Test and Analysis of Covariance. The analysis of the data revealed that after the implementation of the Thinking Skills Supportive Education Program, there was a significant increase in the social skills and social problem-solving skills of the children in the experimental group. This study was funded by Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Trakya University Project number: 2023/105. Keywords: Thinking Skills, Preschool Education, Philosophy for Children, Philosophy Education with Children, Social Skills, Social Problem Solving Skills, P4C