The effectiveness of using the six thinking hats strategy in teaching social studies on developing third-grade preparatory pupils' critical thinking skills

Research summary
The aim of the current research is to identify the effectiveness of using the six thinking hats strategy in teaching social studies and developing third-grade preparatory pupils' critical thinking skills. To achieve this aim, the researcher prepared the educational materials: a teacher's guide for teaching the unit of "Egypt and colonial expansion" which was formulated according to the six thinking hats strategy, and a pupils' activities book of the same unit.
The researcher also prepared the measurement instrument (the critical thinking skills -test which included five skills: inference, assumption, deduction, interpretation, and argument).
The current research used the experimental design which based on the quasi-experimental approach of the two groups (experimental and control). The sample was consisted of (114) pupils, and equally divided into two groups: the experimental group that was taught according to the six thinking hats strategy, and the control group that was taught according to the traditional approach.
Pre and post measurements of the critical thinking skills -test were applied to the two groups. The results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group in the post measurement of the critical thinking skills -test (as a whole test and in each skill individually) in favor of the experimental group, this indicated that the effectiveness of using the six thinking hats teaching strategy in developing third-grade preparatory pupils' critical thinking skills.