Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
EECERA Annual Conference, Bratislava, Slovakya, 25 - 28 Ağustos 2025, ss.178-179, (Özet Bildiri)
The aim of this study is to explore experiences, perspectives, and suggestions of preservice early childhood teachers
(ECT) regarding circle time (CT) during their activities in kindergartens. To achieve this, the study seeks to answer:
How do preservice ECT experience CT? How do preservice ECT perceive CT? What do preservice ECT suggest for
improving practices? Previous studies (Suggs, 2019) underscore the importance of CT in fostering children's social,
emotional, and cognitive growth. However, there is an ambiguity of structure and content of CT which can hinder
the core essence of CT (Zhang and Quinn, 2018). Also, gaps in teacher preparation, particularly its application in
diverse learning environments, have been noted in the literature (Koczela and Carver, 2023). So, grounding the
theorethical framework of responsive teaching and routine-based practices (Hanson and Danyluk, 2022), this study
aims to explore how preservice teachers apply CT in practice. Utilizing a case study design (Creswell, 2013) which is
one of the qualitative research methods, data was collected with interviews, classroom observations and document
analysis, within an interpretivist paradigm. Ethical considerations include obtaining consent, being sensitive during
observations and observations, ensuring confidentiality and obtaining ethical approval from the university. Key
findings indicate a discrepancy between preservice teachers' ideal CT conceptualization and their actual practices.
The study also uncovers the challenges in classroom management, contributing to the difficulties in delivering high-
quality CT. Also, implications for practice and policy include the need for a comprehensive inclusion of CT in teacher
education curricula to implement CT in diverse classrooms.