Examination of teachers' views on the development of pre-school children's thinking skills

In this study, it was aimed to reveal the views of preschool teachers on the development of children's thinking skills in preschool education and the use of philosophy with children approach in the development of children's thinking skills. In this study in which qualitative research method was used, data were collected through focus group interviews. The study group was determined using the maximum diversity sampling technique, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. The participants of the study consisted of 40 teachers working in preschool education institutions in Antakya central district and Yayladağı district of Hatay province. Focus group interviews were conducted with 8 groups consisting of 4-10 people. In the study, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher with expert opinion and pilot study was used to determine the views of preschool teachers. According to the findings, teachers stated that the current preschool education program is not sufficient to develop children's thinking skills, that they need a different education to develop children's thinking skills, that children use their thinking skills mostly in storytelling/reading/creating activities, scamper activities, games and science/nature/experiment activities, and that philosophy activities with children can be effective in developing children's thinking skills. In addition, suggestions such as supporting pre-service and in-service trainings on thinking skills and philosophy education with children, conducting family participation activities with the cooperation of the family and the teacher during the education process, and organizing the preschool education program to develop thinking skills have emerged.