Pre-service and in-service preschool teachers' views regarding creativity in early childhood education


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Temel Eğitim Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2011

Öğrenci: SİMGE YILMAZ

Danışman: REFİKA OLGAN

Özet:

This research aimed at investigating pre-service and in-service preschool teachers’ views regarding creativity in early childhood education by determining similarities and/or differences among their views. The data of the study was gathered from 10 pre-service and 11 in-service teachers by asking their views about creativity in early childhood education. This study has been realized by the qualitative research method and the data was gathered through a type of interview, namely focus group technique. The seven basic interview questions developed by Aslan & Cansever (2009) for primary school teachers were rephrased considering early childhood education context. In the data analysis procedure, four basic themes were constituted: “teachers' views on creativity”, “teachers' views on creative people”, “teachers’ views on the importance of creativity in early childhood education”, and “teachers’ views on the obstacles to creativity in early childhood education”. The results demonstrated that although every participant had their own creativity definitions, they agreed on some common ideas about creativity. The participants were aware of the value of creativity in preschool education and they stated that they prepare and implement creative activities to nurture children’s creativity as well as stating that there are many obstacles to achieve this goal. They indicated that these obstacles are mostly based on school administrators, teachers, and parents. Moreover, it was concluded that the most striking difference between pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers’ views was the fact that unlike in-service teachers, only the pre-service teachers gave some recommendations to tackle with the obstacles to children’s creativity.