An examination of early childhood education teachers' practices and opinions on mature play within the framework of the teacher's role in the play

The purpose of this study is to conduct an adaptation study of the Mature Play Observation Scale into Turkish and to examine early childhood education teachers' practices and opinions on mature play. Exploratory sequential design of mixed methods research was used in the study. In the quantitative phase, 72 early childhood education teachers and their classrooms, who were determined by convenience sampling method, were studied. As a result of EFA and CFA analysis, it was determined that the scale had a two-dimensional structure as child and teacher and that the teacher dimension predicted the child dimension. In the qualitative phase of the study, a holistic multiple case design was used. The study group of the qualitative research consisted of 6 early childhood education teachers who were determined by convenience and extreme case sampling. Data were collected using a semi-structured observation form, visual documents and a semi-structured interview form. In this research, where the content analysis method was used, multiple case analysis was conducted. In the integration phase, quantitative, qualitative and integrated findings were presented through joint display and meta-inferences were made. According to the observation findings, the teachers in Case 1, who scored low on the scale, did not actively participate in the play and did not exhibit behaviors that supported mature play. On the other hand, the teachers in Case 2, who scored high on the scale, assumed the roles of co-player and play leader in the play and showed behaviors that supported mature play. According to the interview findings, teachers in both cases assumed the roles of safety provider, onlooker and player and exhibited mature play supportive behaviors. According to the integrated findings, teachers in Case 2 support mature play by providing more active participating in children's play than teachers in Case 1. However, considering that teachers in both cases did not support mature play at an advanced level, it was concluded that teachers need theoretical and practical trainings on teacher intervention to support mature play. Keywords: mature play, teachers' roles, teachers' views, mixed methods research