Improving entrepreneurship competencies of preschool students with vuca based games

Education is affected by the economic, social and political conditions, needs and expectations of the society in which it operates. Accordingly, the changes experienced in the 21st century also have significant effects on the field of education. When the changes experienced are sudden and unexpected, a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) environment occurs. These changes, which led to significant changes in education, especially encouraged students to develop their entrepreneurial skills. This study was carried out using the action research method, which is based on mutual cooperation between the teacher and the researcher, in order to develop the entrepreneurial competencies of preschool students in pre-school education with games prepared on the basis of VUCA. Before the action research, data was collected using different methods. In this context, the opinions of the teachers at the school where the research will be conducted were taken regarding their current entrepreneurial skills and the extent of applying these entrepreneurial skills in game activities. The skills to be included in the implementation process of the research were determined through teacher meetings, parent survey, teacher survey and game activity including entrepreneurship skills in line with the needs analysis. Then, the planning of entrepreneurship game activities in the classroom where the research would take place, the development of the application processes, the findings encountered in the process and the solutions to be found for the findings were discussed and solutions were produced and the next game activity plan was made. The participants of the research were 12 preschool children studying in an official independent kindergarten in the city center of Adana, whose families have low socioeconomic levels, in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. 4 action cycles and 23 action plans were included in the research process. Codes obtained from the student observation form, researcher diary, teacher interview and student observations were used to determine the current situation and during action practices. A general evaluation is included at the end of all action cycles. Solutions to the identified problems were suggested and the solutions were reflected in the action plan of the next game event. The obtained codes were analyzed in one of the programs that perform qualitative data analysis (MaxQ). As a result of the qualitative observations, it was observed that the entrepreneurship skills of creativity, leadership and problem solving skills increased significantly with game activities in the classroom where the application was carried out. It has been observed that there is a significant increase in risk-taking skills as long as play activities related to children's perspectives on risk-taking skills are included. As a result of the study, it is thought that entrepreneurship skills can be developed through game activities in the VUCA environment, and in the light of the findings, children can become ready for VUCA environments by gaining entrepreneurship skills. Key words: VUCA, entrepreneurial skills and competencies, creativity, leadership, problem solving, risk taking, 21st century skills, game-based learning, action research