Views on innovative thinking skills of classroom teachers in the covid-19 pandemic process

The purpose of this research is to determine the opinions of classroom teachers on innovative thinking skills during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within the scope of this main purpose, the views of classroom teachers on innovative thinking skills during the Covid-19 pandemic were tried to be examined by qualitative research method. In this context, phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this study. The study group of the research consists of 23 primary school teachers, who are working in public schools in seven different geographical regions of Turkey, determined by non-random sampling method. During the data collection process, a semi-structured interviews with Classroom Teachers were carried out through communication tools. In the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis method was used. As a result of the findings, primary school teachers define innovation as change and development, innovative thinking as developing a different perspective and openness to innovation; they express innovative thinking skills mostly as creativity, technological skills, an innovative individual is open to change and innovation, creative and researcher must have the characteristics; they evaluated themselves as innovative, questioning and traditionalist the most among the innovative categories; they generally evaluated the change in their innovative skills positively according to their Professional seniority; they use their innovative thinking skills mostly in technological environments, complementary activities and web 2 tools in their learning-teaching processes; the most innovative thinking skills are drama, games, social activities and communication; it is seen that innovative thinking skills are mostly caused by the infrastructure and socio-economic/cultural differences. During the Covid-19 pandemic, classroom teachers mostly need innovative thinking skills due to the inevitable innovations, the transition to distance education, the compulsory use of technology and the increasing importance of creative thinking; in this process, especially technological, creativity and communication skills come to the fore; again, it has been determined that they need technological and creativity skills the most in Mathematics, Turkish and Visual Arts courses. It is suggested that this research should be carried out with more specific studies that emphasize the importance of innovative thinking skills through different study groups and different research methods. Key Words: Covid-19 pandemic, Innovative thinking skills, Classroom teacher, Qualitative research