Abstract

The purpose of the study is to understand the early childhood teacher candidates’ perception of play and their understanding of teachers’ role in play. Another aim of the study is to disclose pre-service teachers’ thoughts on their college training adequacy regarding the play. In this qualitative research, the data came from written responses of the fifty five participants who are in their 4^th year studying early childhood education at the public teaching college located in the west part of Turkey. The findings of the research suggest that fun is the most distinguished feature of play. The other attributes of play mentioned by participants were relaxation/energy release, freedom, cooperation and rules. Pre-service teachers have different perspectives on teachers’ verbal and physical participation in ongoing play activity. Their thoughts led three different subcategories of teachers’ participation in play which are partial-participation, non-participation, and full-participation. And finally, the findings revealed four different teachers’ roles as Planner/Organizer, Observer/Guider, Play Partner, and Non-involver according to participants’ responds.

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