Abstract:

Childhood stage is very important during the life-long continuing developmental stages of people. Children develop rapidly by taking many basic skills during this period. There are a number of reasons that affect the development of children, especially in this cycle. The most important of these is the willingness of children to play. Therefore, we can say that the concept of play in childhood is important for the development of children. The purpose of this study is to reveal the evaluation of pre-school teacher candidates' views on the concept of game. Developed open-ended questions by the researcher as a data collection tool were presented to pre-school teacher candidates. The data obtained from 20 pre-school teachers who are studying in the pre-school education section were analyzed by content analysis method using the interview method which is one of the qualitative research methods in the research. As a result of the research, the teacher candidates according themselves that the play is giving happiness and pleasure to the person, that the individuals recognize themselves through the play and that the play activities and the learning environment are more effective. According to teacher candidates participating in the research are said the game indispensable element in terms , by of game,entertainment, freedom, imagination, reality, learning and development. In addition, the research group concerned with the effects of the game on children; they indicated that lessons are more active and fun, and that task and responsibility features have improved. Besides, they expressed that children develop their personality, adopt social values, develop their creativity skills and develop communication skills.

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