The effect of philosophy for children (P4C) technique on problem solving skills of preschool children

This thesis aims to examine the effect of Philosophy for Children (P4C) technique on developing problem solving skills of preschool children. P4C is a teaching approach that supports children's skills such as critical thinking, logical inference and ethical judgements. The study was conducted to understand the effects of this method on preschool children. In the study, mixed research methods were utilised by using quasi-experimental design as a quantitative method and case study design as a qualitative method. The research design is an explanatory sequential design. The main hypothesis of the thesis is that the P4C technique will have an increasing effect on children's problem solving skills. In order to test this hypothesis, an 8-week application was carried out with the participation of 46 children aged 5-6 years from preschool classes of two different kindergartens using a predetermined experimental and control group. In the research process, dependent and independent t-test comparative analyses were carried out between the experimental group, in which P4C technique-based teaching methods were used, and the control group, which was subjected to routine preschool education programmes and no philosophy activities, using SPSS25 software. In the qualitative dimension of the study, a semi-structured Problem Solving Skills Interview Form was applied to the selected experimental and control group students. In qualitative data analyses, content analysis was performed using NVivo12 software. According to the t-test analysis performed to determine whether the difference was significant or not, it was seen that the post-test scores of the PSSS differed significantly between the experimental and control groups and that the scores of the experimental group students in which P4C-based teaching was applied were highly significant in favour of the scores of the experimental group students. From the data obtained from the interview form, it was seen that the experimental group students offered more different and diverse solutions to various problem situations. This thesis emphasises that P4C technique can be an effective teaching tool to improve problem solving skills of preschool children. In addition, these findings may contribute to educators' and researchers' understanding of the potential for integrating philosophical thinking to support children's cognitive, social emotional and language development in preschool education.