The effect of pre-school term inquiry activities on children's philosophy attitudes and critical thinking skills

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of preschool inquiry-based activities on children's philosophical attitudes and critical thinking skills. In the study, a quasi-experimental research design with the pretest-posttest control group, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used in order to determine the effect of inquiry-based activities on philosophical attitudes and critical thinking skills in preschool children in a controlled manner. The population of the research consists of children aged 5-6, who continue their pre-school education in independent kindergartens and kindergartens, living in an environment of similar socio-economic level affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in the Battalgazi and Yeşilyurt districts of Malatya in the 2020-2021 academic year. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, children aged 5-6 years from the two schools with the highest number of children were determined as the study group using the purposive sampling method. The two schools included in the study were determined by drawing lots as the experimental and control groups. The research was carried out on 35 children, 17 of whom were experimental and 18 controlled. Children were selected from different schools so that the experimental and control groups did not affect each other. "Checklist for Determining Philosophical Attitudes and Behaviors of Preschool Children" and "Assessment of Critical Thinking Through Philosophical Inquiry for 5-6 Years Old Children" were used to collect data. Inquiry-Based Activities were applied to the children in the experimental group by the researcher twice a week for 10 weeks. The routine programs of the children in the control group were continued by their teachers, and no questioning activities were carried out. The obtained data were analyzed and evaluated using the SPSS statistical program. Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine the difference between the pretest and posttest applied to the experimental and control groups, and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to determine the difference between the pretest and posttest of the experimental and control groups. According to the findings obtained as a result of the analysis of the data, there was no significant difference in the pre-test scores of the children in the experimental and control groups in terms of critical thinking skills through philosophical inquiry; It was determined that there was a significant difference between the post-test scores in favor of the experimental group. According to the findings obtained as a result of the analysis of the data, there was no significant difference in the pre-test scores of the children in the experimental and control groups in terms of philosophical attitudes and behaviors; It was determined that there was a significant difference between the post-test scores in favor of both the experimental and control groups. According to these findings, it was concluded that the inquiry-based activities carried out during the research process contributed to the development of critical thinking skills, philosophical attitudes, and behaviors of the children in the experimental group through philosophical inquiry. When the critical thinking level development in the experimental and control groups was examined, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the groups, and the development in the experimental group was higher than in the control group. Keywords: Critical Thinking Skills in Children, Philosophical Attitudes in Preschool Period, Inquiry-Based Education