The examination of the development of the creative thinking skills of the students in the preschool teacher training program

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between the creativity levels (in terms of fluency, flexibility and originality) of the preschool teacher training students and their ages, the types of high schools they have graduated from, their status concerning preschool education, their parents' occupations, their parents' education and their class level at the university. The research was conducted on 116 students attending the Preschool Education Program of The Faculty of Education at Dokuz Eylül University. The data of the research were collected through Student Identification Form, Torrance Creative Thinking Test (Oral Form A). Arithmetic Mean. Standard Deviation, Frequency, Percentage, t-Test, Analysis of Variance, Schefle' Test and LSD Test were employed to analyze the data of the research. The creativity levels (in terms of fluency, flexibility and originality) of the students were determined through the research. The research has discerned that the fluency and flexibility of students' creative thinking vary significantly in terms of their ages and preschool education status. The fluency, flexibility and originality of students' creative thinking vary significantly in terms of their class levels at the university. It has also been found out that the fluency, flexibility and originality of students' creative thinking do not vary significantly in terms of the types of high schools they have graduated from, their parents' education and occupations.