The effect of education by creative drama method on acquisition of respect for diversities by 5- to 6- year-old children

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of respect for diversity education with creative drama method given to children aged between 5 and 6. The study was conducted in a private school of the Ministry of National Education in the province of Istanbul in the academic year of 2018-2019. The experimental method was used in the research. The participants of the study consisted of 24 children (5- to 6- year-old), 12 children as experimental group and 12 children as control group. The research is a quasi-experimental study because the random assignment method is not used when determining the sample. In the study, "The Scale of Respect for Diversities" was applied to the experimental and control groups as a pretest. As an experimental procedure, the experimental group was instructed in respect for diversities with the creative drama method in 12 sessions during 7 weeks, while the control group continued the normal training flow. After the experimental process, "The Scale of Respect for Diversities" was applied again to the experimental and control groups as a posttest. As a result, there was no significant difference among the pretest total results and sub-fields results as regards to gender, family and social structure, disability status and different cultural backgrounds of the experimental and control groups. However, there were a statistically significant differences among the posttest results involving the total and sub-fields between the experimental and control groups. The significant differences detected in posttest results are in favor of the experimental group in both total and all sub-field results. It was concluded that respect for diversities education given by creative drama method had a positive effect on increasing children's level of respecting diversities. Keywords: Respect for diversity, Creative drama, Early childhood education.