Preschool teachers' competence on the use of drama in learning processes perceptions and opinions (Adiyaman province example)

The purpose of this study is to examine the competency levels of preschool teachers regarding the use of drama in learning processes in terms of certain variables and to determine their opinions. For this purpose, exploratory sequential design from mixed methods was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 187 female and 18 male preschool teachers working in public and private schools in Adıyaman city center in the 2023-2024 academic year. The qualitative study group of the research consisted of 12 preschool teachers. "Demographic Information Form", "Perception of Competence Scale for the Use of Drama in Education" developed by Tanrıseven (2013), and "Semi-structured Interview Form" prepared by the researcher were used as data collection tools. SPSS 29.0.2 program was used for data analysis. As a result of the analysis, ANOVA test was used in quantitative data where normal distribution was provided, and Mann Whitney-U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used in cases where normal distribution was not provided. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. In the findings obtained from the study, it was seen that preschool teachers' general competence perceptions regarding the use of drama in learning processes and their competence perceptions regarding the planning, implementation and evaluation of drama, which are the sub-dimensions of the scale, had a value above the average. When the sub-dimensions were examined, it was concluded that there were significant differences in terms of length of service, school type and frequency of using drama in the planning and implementation dimension; and in the evaluation dimension, there were significant differences in terms of drama education, school type and frequency of using drama. As a result of the interviews; teachers generally use drama once a week and pay attention to the objectives and learning outcomes and students' interests and requests while using drama, the limitations in terms of the institution they work in are due to the lack of a drama hall and lack of materials, they pay attention to the subject and materials while planning the drama, to the active participation of the students and role distribution while implementing it, they pay attention to asking questions about the objectives by using the question and answer technique while evaluating it, they mostly use role playing and animation techniques; while evaluating the drama, they pay attention to asking questions about the achievements by using question and answer technique, they mostly use role-playing and animation techniques, teachers who did not take applied drama courses during the university period felt inadequate and they had the most difficulties when they encountered students who were reluctant to participate in drama practices. Keywords: Preschool; Drama; Teacher; Perceptions of competence.