Abstract:

Play is especially an indispensable part of primary education. During this process, the attitude, and beliefs of teachers, who design, plan, and teach, towards play is important. In this study, it was aimed at analyzing the primary school teachers’ perceptions of play in terms of different variables. The survey model among the quantitative research methods was used in the study. The study was carried out with 293 primary school teachers working in primary schools in Kahramanmaraş, Hatay and Gaziantep in the 2021-2022 academic year who were selected through the simple random sampling method. The data of the study were collected through the “Perception of Play Scale” developed by Güneş, Tuğrul and Öztürk (2020). The data of the study were analyzed with the SPSS 22 software. According to the results of the study, a significant difference was found between the teachers only in the function of play and interest-curiosity-exploration sub- factor in favor of female teachers in terms of gender. A significant difference was found in the authenticity and purpose of play sub-factor in favor of higher grades and in nature and source of play sub-factor in favor of lower grades in terms of the grades the teachers teach. A significant difference was found in favor of teachers with lower service period in terms of professional seniority.

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