Practices of philosophy with children in primary education: An action research

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate as how to improve the thinking and communication skills of the third grade of primary school through the Philosophy with Children approach within the scope of Life Science course. It was predicted that the problems identified in the research could be solved cyclically through the development of the teacher. Therefore, action research design is adopted as research method. The participants of the study were 20 third-grade students and the teacher in a primary school located in Bayburt city center, in academic year 2018-2019. Observation, interview, field notes, diaries, validation committee meeting report and personal information forms, which qualitative data collection methods were used in the study. The data obtained during the study were collected between 15.10.2018-30.04.2019. In the analysis of the data, the systematic analytical analysis process was followed and the data were analyzed using the content analysis approach. Within the scope of the research, first of all, the current situation in the classroom regarding the acquisition of thinking and communication skills was determined. In this context, the teacher was taught the Philosophy with Children approach and eight action plan cycles were implemented in the Life Science course. As a result of the observations and interviews conducted during this process, it was found out that there were developments in applying the Philosophy with Children approach and that these developments positively affected some of the skills of the students. It was concluded that the application had positive effects in many aspects for the students. In line with these results, suggestions were made for implementation and further research.