Basic factors that influence critical and creative thinking skills in pre-school period

The aim of this study is to identify the prime factors that influence critical and creative thinking skills in the pre-school period. This research is a qualitative study and has been studıed on the basis of study case. The data has been collected via 6 teachers, 30 students and 30 parents. Within this period, the inteview questionnaire and observation sheets had been prepared by the researcher herself. The data gained from interviews and qustionnaire were analyzed by content analysis; whereas those and data obtained from observation forms were analyzed by observational evaluation method. According to the data of this study, teachers think that unstructured and student-centered activities, questioning and creating free thinking environments support thinking skills. Moreover, teachers find that the existing preschool education program is inadequate to support thinking skills. According to the data gained from the classroom observation forms, the teachers are excessively inadequate to support students' questioning behaviors. Students are inadequate to ask and aswer qualified questions. There is a positive line between teacher attitudes and student behaviors. According to the data gained from the individual observation forms, students mostly have difficulties to produce different solutions and qualified ideas, to put out different unusual products and to think about concepts thoughtfully. According to the information gained from the surveys, parents who have a high educational level of education are more active in their non-school facilities with their children and they pay more attention to the curiosity of each other. When we take into consideration the facilities parents do and the thinking skills of the students; there is no significant relationship between the economical income level and the age of the parents. There is a positive line between parents' pushing questioning and curiosity skills and also students' critical and creative thinking skill levels. According to the resolutions; however both teachers and parents emphasize on the importance of critical and creative thinking skills, it is obvious that none of them have enough information about it.