The effect of intelligence games course on 7th grade secondary students' higher order thinking skills

The effect of intelligence games course on seventh grade students' higher order thinking skills is examined in this research. The research was designed as a mixed method which combines quasi-experimental model-one of the quantitative methods and case study- one of the qualitative method. For the quantitative dimension of the research, the study group consisted of a total of 40 seventh grade students in a secondary school in Siirt who selected intelligence games course (experimental group, 20 students) and did not select this course (control group, 20 students). As for the quantitative dimension of the research, the participants were the teachers who taught intelligence games course and the students in the experimental group. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Mann Whitney-U tests that are non-parametric tests were used for the analysis of quantitative data, and descriptive analysis method was used for the analysis of qualitative data. It was determined that there was not a significant difference between experimental group and control group according to Mann Whitney-U pre-test results of problem solving, creative thinking and higher order thinking skills tests carried out prior to intelligence games course. This is important for the equality of the groups. Wilcoxon signed-rank test analysis results on whether the problem solving, creative thinking and higher order thinking skills of the experimental group students differed significantly before and after the experiment showed that there was a significant difference between the pre- and post-experiment scores of the participants in favor of the post-test. Wilcoxon signed-rank test analysis results on whether the pre-test and post-test problem solving, creative thinking and higher order thinking skills of the participants in the control group revealed a significant difference demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the scores of the students from the tests. According to Mann Whitney-U test results, among the students whose problem solving, creative thinking and higher order thinking skills were observed, those who selected the intelligence games course and those who did not select this course showed a significant difference in the post-test scores after the intelligence games course. Based on the mean rank, it was determined that the students who chose the intelligence games course had higher problem solving, creative thinking and higher order thinking skills scores than the students who did not choose this course. As for the qualitative data of the research, the following themes were generated; the way followed in the face of the problem, behavioural change in problem solving, courage in a different development situation, developing unique ideas, realizing self-learning and change in self-awareness. Among the opinions put forward by the students in the context of these themes, the most remarkable were the following codes; looking for different solutions and finding the most suitable one, looking for alternative ways without giving up, believing that you can overcome it, feeling strong, trusting your ideas by going beyond the stereotypes, maintaining a determined behaviour, resorting to different sources, books, videos, improving attention and focus.