Investigation of preschool teachers' and teacher candidates' views on importance and improvement of creativity in the preschool period

In this research, it is aimed to examine the opinions of preschool teachers and pre-school teacher candidates on the importance of creativity and the development of creative thinking in the preschool period. The descriptive case study design with a holistic multiple-state pattern, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the design of the method of this research, which was carried out in order to determine the importance of creativity and the development of creative thinking in the preschool period and to produce solutions. A semi-structured interview form, one of the qualitative research techniques, was used to obtain the opinions of preschool teachers and pre-school teacher candidates. The obtained data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and content analysis together from qualitative data analysis methods. The study group of the research; In the 2020-2021 academic year, 25 pre-school teachers working in kindergartens and kindergartens in Alanya district of Antalya province and 25 teacher candidates from Akdeniz University Education Faculty Pre-School Teaching Department formed. According to the findings, among the views on the importance of creativity and creative thinking in preschool education; The relationship between imagination and creativity, enabling the child to express his/her feelings and thoughts and helping him/her gain communication skills, helping the child develop problem-solving skills and establishing a cause-effect relationship, enabling the child to develop a different perspective, and influencing the child's life were expressed. Among the views on what we should do to improve the creativity and creative thinking of children in pre-school education; creating environments where children can ask questions and express themselves, providing creative environments and including unstructured activities, designing different environments, activities and games that will increase children's sense of curiosity, presenting different materials and asking children to produce something new, allowing children to explore themselves and their environment, They stated that children should be freed, different materials and environments should be provided, and different activities should be prepared that children can do by themselves. Among the activities carried out in and out of the classroom for the development of creativity and creative thinking in the preschool period, the most; including out-of-class activities, taking children on trips, doing art activities, drama activities, mathematics and science activities, giving importance to activities that children can do with their families at home, enabling children to produce original products with different materials, expressing children's feelings and thoughts in a unique way in Turkish activities. They stated that it is necessary to ensure that children can express themselves, to include unstructured and semi-structured activities, to use different methods and techniques in activities, and to enable children to express themselves through drama and game activities. It was stated that the 2013 Pre-School Education Program contributed positively to the development of creativity and creative thinking of children in general.