Social problem solving skills of children: a phenomenological study of preschool teachers’ views and practices

2022-9
Şakar, Gizem Nur
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the views and practices of preschool teachers regarding children's social problem-solving skills. The participants were 15 preschool teachers working in public and private early childhood education institutions in Trabzon. The study was conducted as a phenomenological study within the scope of qualitative research method and data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The findings of this study revealed that teachers find the early childhood period very important for the development of social problem solving skills, but it was determined that most teachers focused on preventing social problems from arising rather than improving children's social problem solving skills. While most claimed to use the drama method in their self-reported activities to develop children’s social problem solving skills, and that they taught children to solve problems with verbal expressions, some teachers stated that they did not engage in such activities. On the other hand, all teachers feel that parent related issues account for the difficulties some children experience while developing social problem solving skills. Teachers stated that the most common problem they encounter in their classrooms is only physical aggression, yet instances of relational and verbal aggression were more frequently seen during in-class observations. As a way of coping with these problems, the majority of the teachers said that they talk to the children about a social problem and lead them to a solution, but in-class observations revealed that in practice they mostly prefer other approaches such as apologizing, ignoring, giving an eye and punishment. Furthermore, in this study, teachers emphasized that they need to be guided about how children should be followed in social problem situations.
Early childhood education, Preschool teachers, Social problem solving skills
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/99398
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats
G. N. Şakar, “Social problem solving skills of children: a phenomenological study of preschool teachers’ views and practices,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.
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