Examination of early childhood education teachers' creative thinking tendencies, ideas and applications about design based pedagogy

This study aimed to examine early childhood teachers' creative thinking dispositions. In addition, early childhood teachers' ideas about and applications of design-based pedagogy were investigated. In this mixed-methods study, an explanatory sequential design was implemented. 88 preschool teachers working in the Adilcevaz, Tatvan, and Ahlat districts of Bitlis province were selected by using the convenience sampling method. The study was conducted in the fall semester of the 2021–2022 academic year. Quantitative data were collected using the "Marmara Creative Thinking Tendency Scale" developed by Özgenel and Çetin (2017). Teachers' creative thinking score was high, and there were significant differences based on gender, age, and education level. In the qualitative phase, teachers participated in the interviews, provided activity examples, and reviewed activity examples. To select teachers for the qualitative phase, teachers' creative thinking scores were grouped as high, medium, and low. After selecting teachers' from different creative thinking disposition levels, we conducted interviews with 12 teachers. Teachers presented theoretical views on creative thinking, critical thinking, and development areas. Teachers did not discuss detailed examples of design-based activities. Several teachers were also confused about design-based applications since they discussed science experiments as design-based activities. In the final phase of the study, three teachers who had higher creativity tendency scores among the 12 teachers who participated in the interview were asked to share examples of design-based applications they implemented in their classes. In the next step of the qualitative phase, three of the twelve teachers who took part in the interview were asked to provide examples of design-based applications they implemented in their classrooms. These teachers were selected from the high creative thinking disposition group. These teachers examined the activities prepared by another teacher and revised their activities. The activity examples prepared by the teachers included details related to the development levels. However, teachers missed design limitations and parameters that would support creativity and critical thinking in the design process. Teachers also did not include criteria that could make the design better. Teachers missed discussing these ideas when reviewing another teacher's activity. While evaluating each other, teachers focused on the planning and design process but did not mention what should be included in design-based pedagogy. Teachers were presented with implemented design-based pedagogy examples and were asked to revise their activities. Revised activities included limitations, parameters, and criteria for design. Implementing design-based pedagogy in preschool is a new field. Similar to previous studies, low-represented skills in teachers' practices can be supported by the opportunities offered to teachers. Teachers have high creativity tendency dispositions, and they need support to effectively support creative and critical thinking in design-based pedagogy.