The impact of creative movement education on the creativity and self-actualization levels of 5-6 years-old children

This research was conducted to determine the impact of "Creative Movement Education" on the creative thinking skills, creativity levels in movement and self-actualization levels of 5-6 year old children. In order to determine the effect of "Creative Movement Education" on children's creative thinking skills, creativity levels in movement and self-actualization levels, the paired design of the quasi-experimental model was used. The study group consisted of 40 children, 20 of whom were in the experimental group and 20 of them were in the control group, determined among the children aged five-six who were studying in kindergartens affiliated to the Adıyaman Provincial Directorate of National Education in the 2019-2020 academic year. The "Creative Movement Education Program" was applied to the experimental group for 11 weeks. The control group, on the other hand, continued the daily education flow given within the scope of the 2013 Preschool Education Program. Data were obtained through "Personal Information Form", "Torrance Test of Creative Thinking", "Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement Test" and "DeMoulin Self-Concept Development Scale (5-6 years)". The data obtained were analyzed for the sub-dimensions where the precondition of normality of distribution was met, by using ANCOVA in order to compare the experimental-control group post-test and to evaluate the effectiveness of the education given, by using the Independent Groups T-Test to determine the levels of the scores of the experimental-control groups of the " DeMoulin Self-Concept Development Scale (5-6 years)", by using Dependent Groups T-Test for post-test – follow-up test comparisons; for the sub-dimensions where the normality of the distribution condition was not met, by using the Mann-Whitney U test for the post-test comparison of the experimental-control group, by using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test for posttest- follow-up test comparisons. As a result of the research, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups' "Torrance Test of Creative Thinking" and "Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement Test" post-test scores in favor of the experimental group (p<0.05), and the effectiveness of the education provided was high (η2≥0.15). There was no significant difference between the "DeMoulin Self-Concept Development Scale" post-test scores of the experimental and control groups (p>0.05); It was determined that the impact of the education given in terms of "Self-Efficacy", "Self-Esteem" and "Self-Perception" sub-dimensions was low (η2≤0.05). No significant difference was found in favor of the follow-up test in the sub-dimensions of the "Torrance Test of Creative Thinking", "Figural Originality", "Abstractness of Titles", "Elaboration", "Resistance to Premature Closure" and " Creative Strengths" (p>0.05). In favor of the follow-up test in the sub-dimension of "Figural Fluency"; On the other hand, it was concluded that there was a significant difference in favor of the post-test in the dimension of "Total Figural Creativity" (p<0.05). It was concluded that there was a significant difference in favor of the follow-up test in the sub-dimensions of "Fluency in Movement", "Imagination" and " Total Creativity in Movement" of the " Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement Test " (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in favor of the follow-up test in the "Originality in Movement " sub-dimension (p>0.05). In line with these findings, it was concluded that "Creative Movement Education" was highly effective on the creative thinking skills and creativity levels in movement of 5-6 year old children.