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• Experiential projects enhanced pre-service teachers' creativity and practical skills. • Reflection practices supported growth in confidence, resilience, and adaptability. • Ambiguity in tasks encouraged creative problem-solving and critical thinking. • Real-world challenges linked learning to authentic contexts for deeper engagement. • Weekly reflections tracked progress, fostering creative and professional growth. This study aimed to analyze the creative experiences of early childhood pre-service teachers enrolled in a semester-long course designed to enhance their creative potential through experiential projects. Using a qualitative research design, this study explored the subjective experiences of 16 pre-service teachers, aged 21 to 23-years-old, who participated in a 14-week course focused on integrating creativity into early childhood education. Data were collected through weekly reflections, project reports, and multimedia documentation, capturing each pre-service teacher’s creative journey. The findings revealed four key themes which characterized the pre-service teachers’ creative experiences: (1) learning a new skill, (2) expressing creativity and experiencing a sense of accomplishment, (3) overcoming challenges related to fear and insecurity, and (4) achieving personal fulfillment and professional growth. These open-ended projects fostered an environment where the pre-service teachers could take risks, embrace failure, and reflect on their development, building essential skills such as problem-solving, creative confidence, and resilience. This approach equipped pre-service teachers with the skills and mindset necessary to foster creativity in their future classrooms, supporting both their personal and professional growth.
Sevimli-Çelik et al. (Fri,) studied this question.