The effect of of hypothetical thinking method in philosophy education for children on creative thinking skills of primary school BILSEM students

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of hypothetical thinking method in Philosophy for Children education on the creative thinking skills of the Science and Art Center (BİLSEM) primary school students. Our research topic is whether the activities in which the hypothetical thinking method applied within the scope of the Philosophy for Children lesson have an effect on the creative thinking skills of the gifted primary school 3rd and 4th grade students who have creativity skills above the innate standards. When the literature is examined, there are studies on Philosophy and Thinking Education for Children. However, these studies do not include gifted primary school students and do not use the method of hypothetical thinking. A single-group experimental design was used in the study. The sample of the research was formed by means of appropriate sampling. The sample of the research consists of 36 primary school students studying at the Science and Art Center in the Menteşe District of Muğla. "Torrance Creativity Thinking Test (TYDT)" was used in the research. At the beginning of the research, TYDT Verbal A form was applied as a pre-test. Then, Philosophy for Children education was given to the students as an activity with the method of hypothetical thinking in the form of 2 sessions of 40 minutes for 8 weeks. After the training, TYDT Verbal B form was applied as a post-test. The research data consists of the answers given by the students to the TYDT tests. For each student from TYDT's A and B forms; verbal total scores and sub-score types were obtained. SPSS(26) program was used to analyze the obtained data. After examining the normality distribution of the data, the data were analyzed with the Unrelated Samples T Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the hypothetical thinking method used in Philosophy for Children education had a positive effect on the verbal creativity total, fluency, flexibility and originality scores for all groups and at the 3rd grade level, but did not make a significant difference in the fluency and verbal total scores for the 4th graders. As a result, it was seen that the hypothetical thinking method used in Philosophy for Children education given to BİLSEM primary school students improved the creative thinking skills of the students positively. Keywords: philosophy education for children, BİLSEM, gifted, hypothetical thinking, creativity