The effects of the creative drama on the democratic attitudes, metacognitive awareness and emotional intelligence abilities of the teacher trainees

The purpose of this research is to understand the effects of creative drama on democratic attitudes, metacognitive awareness and emotional intelligence competencies of the 3rd year teacher trainees studying at the Department of Primary School Teacher Training, Buca Faculty of Education in Dokuz Eylül University.The model of the study was 2x2 Solomon four grouped empirical design. The data collection tools were introduced to the first experiment and control group as pre test-post test; however, the second ones only received the post test as data collection tool.The study was carried out through the Human Rights course of the program and was applied by the researcher. The method for the experimental groups was creative drama where the control groups received traditional teaching methods. Experimental Group 1 and Control Group 1 were given ?Democratic Attitude Scale?, ?Metacognitive Awareness Scale? and ?Emotional Intelligence Scale? in the beginning of the study; where the Experimental Group 1, Experimental Group 2, Control Group 1, Control Group 2 were given the same scales as post test. The study group consisted of 120 teacher trainees divided as 30 students for each group.The results of the study were as follows:1. There was no significant difference in the post tests of the experimental and control groups in terms of Democratic Attitudes. There was a significant difference to the advantage of post test between the pre test and post test of the experimental group; however, no such difference was obtained in the results of control group. In addition, there were no effects of the execution of pre test on the learning and sensitiveness (by means of democratic attitudes) of experimental and control groups.2. In terms of metacognitive awareness, there was no significant difference in complete and sub-scales of the posts tests applied to experimental and control groups. There was a significant difference to the advantage of post test between pre test and post test results of the experimental groups (complete scale and sub-scale); however, no such difference was obtained for the control group. In addition, there were no effects of the pre test performance on the experimental and control groups towards the learning and sensitiveness in terms of metacognitive awareness.3. By means of emotional intelligence capability, there was no significant difference between the complete and sub-scales of the posts tests applied to experimental and control groups. Only, there was a significant difference between the post tests of Experimental Group 1 and Control Group 1 to the advantage of the former, through the General Psychological Situation sub scale of Emotional Intelligence Scale. The differences between the pre tests and post tests of the experimental groups and control groups were obtained as to the advantage of post test with respect to complete scale and sub scales Interpersonal Skills, Adaptation, Overcoming the Stress . The difference between the pre test and post tests results of Control 1 group was seen only in the sub scale of ?Overcoming the Stress?. This difference was to the advantage of post test. In addition, there were no effects of the pre test performance on the experimental and control groups towards the learning and sensitiveness by means of emotional intelligence skills.4. When we assessed the democratic attitudes, metacognitive awareness and emotional intelligence capabilities of the teacher trainees in terms of gender;4.a. There was no significant difference in the democratic attitude of the candidate teachers in terms of gender.4.b. The gender differences to the metacognitive awareness of teacher trainees had not been seen for the complete scale and sub scales of Experimental Group 1, Control Group 1 and Control Group 2, however the complete scale and sub scales of Experimental Group 2 had differed significantly to the advantage female candidate teachers4.c. The gender differences to the emotional intelligence capabilities of candidate teachers had not been seen for the complete scale and sub scales; however the sub scales Interpersonal Skills of Experimental Group 2 had differed significantly to the advantage female candidate teachersIt is expected that the results of this study will be used as a source for the further scientific researches related to the democratic attitudes, metacognitive awareness and emotional intelligence of the teacher trainees and to provide contribution and diversity to the studies of Creative Drama in Teaching. Also, this study is programmed to obtain useful results to be used by the studies related to the development of Primary School Teacher Training Program and to provide new thinking, discussing and research areas in teacher education practices.