Primary school mathematics teacher candidates experiencing learning theories with creative drama method

Learning theories can contain different abstract information that explains "how learning will take place". Experiencing this abstract information with mathematics, which is an abstract discipline, can be difficult for both teachers and teacher candidates. For this purpose, it is important for learners to experience the Constructivist approach, Sociocultural theory, APOS theory and Intuitive Rule theory, which are thought to be important for the mathematics lesson, with creative drama, which is one of the cognitive and behavioral teaching methods. Based on this context, this study seeks to answer the question "How is it possible for primary school mathematics teacher candidates to experience learning theories with the creative drama method?" In this study, a case study (case study), one of the qualitative research methods, was adopted in order to experience the theories with the creative drama method, to examine and explain this experience in depth. The participants of the study consisted of 21 participants studying in the department of primary education mathematics teaching at a state university and were selected by purposive sampling method. The data collection tool was prepared by the researchers, and it was collected with 7 semi-structured questions to measure the pre-post knowledge of learning theories and creative drama, and in addition, workshop evaluation forms were filled by the participants after each workshop. The data collected from the participants via e-mail were analyzed with the help of content analysis. The findings of the study show that pre-service teachers' experiences of Constructivist approach, Sociocultural theory, APOS theory and Intuitive Rule theory are grouped under three themes and different number of sub-themes, namely mathematics, drama and theory. In addition, the study also includes findings on the ideas of pre-service teachers that they can use learning theories in mathematics lessons with the help of creative drama. Keywords: learning theories, creative drama, Constructivist approach, Sociocultural theory, APOS, Intuitive Rule theory