TY - JOUR AU - Deniz Erbil AU - Ayfer Kocabaş PY - 2015/06/30 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Cooperative learning method in the third grade life studies course and students’ reflective thinking skills JF - International Journal of Curriculum and Instructional Studies (IJOCIS) JA - IJOCIS VL - 5 IS - 9 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://www.ijocis.com/index.php/ijocis/article/view/31 AB - The aim of this study is to identify and track the development of 3rd grade students’ reflective thinking skills through the cooperative learning method –learning together techniqueprocess. A qualitative descriptive approach was utilized. Content and descriptive analysis methods were used in this study. The study was conducted in 8 weeks with 34 3rd grade elementary students. “Students Dıaries”, “Reflective Diaries” and “Assessment Survey of Group Process” were used as data collection tools. “Student Diaries” were split into 2 groups in a three-week period and reflection thinking categories were studied (Mezirow, 1997). After the analysis of student diaries, students wrote down their impressions about the process and their teacher, from content level to process level in 6 weeks. “Reflective Diaries” were analyzed with Schön’s (1987) reflective thinking model. Student diaries showed that students were able to perform the behaviors required by reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action processes at a large scale. After the analysis of “Assessment Survey of Group Process”, their survey scores were regularly increasing in the six-week period. Results of the study showed that there were some positive developments in students’ reflective thinking skills in the cooperative learning group. Cooperative learning has positive effects on promoting students’ thinking (Jacobs, Lee & Ng, 1997). It is suggested that cooperative learning should especially be used for developing students’ reflective thinking skills in 3rd grade life studies courses ER -