Okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin çocuklarla felsefe hakkındaki görüşlerinin çocuklarla felsefe deneyimi yoluyla incelenmesi

The purpose of this evaluative case study was to investigate preschool teachers' views about Philosophy with Children and the use of Philosophy with Children in early childhood education settings, through PwC experience. In this study, eleven preschool teachers participated in PwC implementations for ten weeks. After these implementations, they implemented PwC in their own classrooms at least twice. Data was mainly collected before and after the implementations of the researcher and also after implementations of participants, by means of interviews. Moreover, data was also collected during ten-week implementation program via audio-based observation and field notes. This study indicated that preschool teachers thought that PwC can be easily used in early childhood education in terms of flexibility of ECE curriculum and should be used in ECE. Preschool teachers were found to think that PwC can positively affect both children with special needs and preschool children in general, in diverse areas. It was also found that PwC directs preschool teachers to critically thinking on the established hierarchy between teacher and students, on the understanding of guidance in their teaching and on classroom management in traditional education. Regarding the use of PwC, they foresaw some problems related to teachers' confidence and motivation. On the other hand, the study revealed traditional education structure is the major obstacle in using PwC. As a result, it is recommended that future research and education programs which will be arranged with preschool teachers be organized with more comprehensive content, including the philosophical dimension of PwC.