Investigation of the decision-making process of pre-school children in Reggio Emilia-based project studies

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the development of preschool children in decision making processes through project works based on the Reggio Emilia Approach. A preschool teacher and 14 preschool children took part in the study group of the study, which was carried out by using the collaborative action research method. Data were collected over a period of four months by developing two action plans. In the study, data were collected using interview, observation, diary, self-evaluation forms and the "Decision-making skills assessment tool-child and parent forms". Qualitative data were analyzed with the content analysis technique and quantitative data were analyzed with the wilcoxon analysis technique. The research findings indicate that the children's decision-making skills developed developed and that the decision-making processes repeatedly emerged in the project works through the stages of "goal formation", "option generation/consideration of existing options", "selecting one of the created/existing options" and "evaluating the outcome". Furthermore, it was observed that children were more successful in goal formation towards the end of the process, that they needed less teacher support, that they were able to generate a greater number of options and utilized different approaches such as making use of past experiences and using analogies, in addition to the use of prediction, when developing their options. In the implementation process, it was observed that the teacher developed the behaviour of supporting the decision-making processes of the children and implementing the project works based on the Reggio Emilia Approach. Keywords: preschool education, reggio emilia approach, thinking skills, decision-making process, project