The effect of applied six-hat thiking technique on students' academic success and problem solving skilss in primary school 4th grade Social Studies course

The aim of this study investigate the effect of employing the six thinking hats technique on students' academic success and problem-solving skills. In the research, six thinking hats technique-based activities have been prepared for the unit of fourth grade Social Sciences' lesson "Science, Technology and Society". In the academic year 2022-2023, 65 fourth-graders from a public school located in the center of Muş constitute this study's participants. In this research, pre-test, post-test, quasi-experimental design with a control group from the experimental designs has been used. The investigation was conducted in two phases: one for the experimental group and one for the control group. The experimental group consists of 33 students and the control group consists of 32 students. The six thinking hats-based activities were carried out in three lessons a week for five weeks before implementation. The data of the research have been acquired from Senyurt (2022) who developed the "Science, Technology and Society unit achievement test" and "Problem Solving Inventory for Primary School Students" that has been developed by Serin, Bulut Serin, and Saygılı (2010). The obtained data were placed via a computer analysis. The results of the investigation indicate that using the six thinking hats had a positive effect on the experimental group's level of success, whereas the control group's level of success showed no discernible difference. Furthermore, the six thinking hats method outperforms the other techniques and strategies in the current curriculum in terms of enhancing success. Considering the problem-solving skills, it is clear that the six thinking hats strategies did not directly affect the problem-solving skills however they were affected positively gradually. In light of these findings, it is advised that the six thinking hats strategies be applied in different grades in social studies sessions and other subjects to increase students' success levels.