An action research on developing thinking skills of third grade primary school students

In this study, the contribution of the teaching activities applied in line with the philosophy pedagogy for children to the critical, creative, attentive, and cooperative thinking skills of the third-grade students was examined. The study was conducted in the participatory action research design, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The study was carried out with 12 third grade students in a public primary school in the Karatay district of Konya province in the spring term of the 2022-2023 academic year. In the study, a total of 10 action plans, prepared by the researcher in accordance with the philosophy for children pedagogy, were applied. The data of the study were collected and descriptively analyzed through camera recordings, observations made by the researcher and the school guidance counselor, reflective diaries kept by the researcher and the school guidance counselor, and semi-structured interviews with the students after each teaching activity. According to the findings, it was observed that the students showed improvement in all four basic thinking skills and there were improvements in some of their undesirable behaviors. In addition, it was understood that students developed positive feelings towards the teaching activities and enjoyed these activities.