Determination of pre-school teachers' opinions, planning and application skills about project approach

The current study conducted to learn the pre-school teachers' opinions about the project approach and to investigate their project work planning and implementation skills employed the holistic single case design, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group of the current research is comprised of four pre-school teachers working in pre-school institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Menteşe Province of the city of Muğla in the 2018-2019 school year. The data of the current study were collected by using a personal information form prepared by the researcher, a teacher interview form, a project planning criteria form and a teacher observation form. The collected data were analyzed by means of the descriptive analysis technique. The most important finding of the current study is that the works defined as project works by the pre-school teachers are in fact not works prepared and implemented on the basis of a project approach philosophy. The findings of the current study have also revealed that the teachers do not have enough information about the project approach. It has also been revealed that the teachers performed teacher-centred planning in the works they defined as project works, considered the daily flow of the curriculum and children's level of preparedness in the selection of topics, mostly used the lecturing and question-answer techniques in their works and mostly preferred art activities as the type of activity and focused on the outcomes coming from these art activities. Moreover, it was found that the teachers used only one of the large group, small group or individual works in the works they conducted under the name of project work, that the duration of the works they conducted varied, that most of the teachers allowed family participation in project works and that this family participation was allowed so that the family could provide the required material. The teachers were also found to have no common opinion about the evaluation of the works and to use only the question-answer technique in their classroom applications. Majority of the teachers stated that the works contributed to the social-emotional development of children and that the teacher assumed the role of a coordinator. While the opportunity provided for children to work in groups and learning by doing was seen to be the strength of the project work by the teachers, there is no consensus on the weak sides of the works among the teachers. The teachers stated that they need support staff and material support to make their works more effective. KEY WORDS: Pre-school period, project approach, pre-school teacher