An analysis of Tülin Kozikoğlu's books in context of supporting creative thinking skills in early childhood

With the developing technology and changing world conditions, people's needs have changed, and educational programs and philosophies have also changed in order to adapt to these conditions and to catch up with what is current. In the new world order, where communication has gained a lot of importance, language and thinking skills that can meet the needs of people have become more prioritized. For this reason, many thinking skills such as creative thinking, analytical thinking, reflective thinking and critical thinking are among the most important skills and all of them are tried to be developed. One of the areas that serve this purpose is early childhood children's books. Early childhood can be considered an incubation period in which children are prepared for their educational life. In this period, illustrated children's books are interesting for children. Literary texts play an important role in this period when the development of language and thinking skills is most intense. Since the early childhood period has an important role in the formation of personality, the importance of literary texts addressed to children of this period increases even more. In this study, the main purpose was to examine the books of Tülin Kozikoğlu, one of the leading children's literature writers of the modern age, in the context of supporting creative thinking skills in early childhood. In this qualitative study, document analysis data collection method was used. Twenty-seven works of Tulin Kozikoğlu published until 2021 were examined as study materials. The study started with a literature review and sources related to early childhood, creativity, creative thinking skills and children's literature were reviewed. A checklist of creative thinking skills was prepared, and the objects of study were tried to be described in terms of including these criteria. As a result of the study, it was determined that Tülin Kozikoğlu's works have features suitable for creative thinking skills. It was concluded that the objects of study support creative thinking skills.