2019/3, стр. 320 - 338

PHILOSOPHY RELATED VIEWS AND PHILOSOPHY RELATED METAPHORS OF PRE-SCHOOL TEACHER CANDIDATES FOR CHILDREN

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Introduction

The aim of pre-school education is, to contribute to the development of the child as a whole by creating a suitable educational environment, to develop positive experiences of the family environment to the child, and to support the areas that are missing, before the child starts primary school (Başal, 2005). The pre-school period, where development is extremely fast, is very important. The educational activities that will take place in this period are undoubtedly very important. Children acquire knowledge and experience of many concepts, including scientific concepts, in the pre-school period. In this process, activities should be developed to encourage children to apply new concepts they acquire, to expand existing concepts and to produce concepts (Akman, …stün & Güler, 2003). According to oktuksöken (1994), concept is a frame of mind that is created in the outside world or in relation to the existence of mind.

Matthew Lipman, who believed in the importance of thinking about concepts, asking questions, seeking answers, and thinking about concepts, developed the approach for Philosophy for Children (Philosophy for Children, P4C) in the 1970s. The objective of this approach, which also includes an educational program by Lipman, is to improve the ability of children to be curious and ask questions, and to teach children how to think what, rather than thinking about what to think.

According to Lipman, philosophy has been adopted from the theories of children’s teaching program, which focuses on teaching to think and refuses to learn by memorizing (Marashi, 2008). Instead of memorizing and teaching the children to remember, they should be taught how to try, analyze, and experience the topic. In philosophy activities for children, the children are taught methods of judging, on basis of evidence and reason by offering various stimuli. It only opens up the child’s horizon and the child learns how to think (Marashi, 2008).

According to Cevizci (2013), philosophy, which cannot be described with an absolute definition, is more than the sum of the finished and final thoughts, it is a search for a reality, based on arguments, a thought-based activity. For this reason, what makes philosophy the philosophy, is thinking, questioning and debating; not texts and books containing philosophers’ opinions (Cevizci, 2013). The purpose of the Philosophy for Children approach is not to make children memorize philosophers’ thoughts and ideas, but to make them question from a critical and objective point of view (Direk, 2016).

According to Marashi (2008), when children integrate their natural curiosity and their desire for exploration into philosophy, they can become more flexible and effective people. However, this does not mean that children should be taught directly in class sessions of Plato, Aristotle and Kant’s philosophy. While they are being tried to gain concepts such as reality, freedom, beauty, justice, rights and rules in philosophy for children, activities should be given together with a problem situation (Marashi, 2008). Therefore, what is important here is philosophy education, not philosophy teaching. In the pre-school period, when children are extremely curious to ask questions and explore, it is extremely important to begin inquiry-based philosophy education at an early age.

Lipman has done his first applied lesson tryout for children by reading the stories together with the 5th grade students in primary school and talking with the children on the questions there. Lipman, while speaking with his students, has realized that their thinking skills were weak; and has thought that the reason for this needs to be sought in childhood and even intellectual skills must be acquired in childhood (Karakaya, 2006). According to Lipman and Sharp (1978), one of the biggest obstacles to the implementation of philosophy with children, is our traditional reluctance to discuss philosophy with children. This is an outcome of our dependence on traditional education.

The people who will address the philosophy approach for children are the teachers in the institutions. The role of the teacher in the education of pre-school children is great. Teachers should support children’s debates, questionings, and have them listen to each other during discussions.

Throughout the process of Philosophy for Children, the primary task of the teacher is to encourage the children to discuss the questions they are curious about, without interfering with their perspective. The teacher should be able to ask reasonable, open-ended questions to help children freely express their opinions, be conversational, and reduce the number of “I do not know” answers to questions (S‰re, Tulviste & Luik, 2016).

The Purpose and Importance of the Research

Some of the aims of pre-school education are to support the child to be a flexible and effective individual, to teach the concepts of being nice, rightful and fair to children. At the same time, the aim of pre-school education is to support the creativity of the child, to teach them to look at the events from different angles, to be confident and to improve their thinking skills. The aim of Philosophy for Children is to help children achieve all these skills.

In this sense, there are very important tasks for teachers in supporting these skills of children in pre-school period. Teachers who have a very important influence on children are thought to have a background related to philosophy so that children can gain these skills and teachers are to support them in this manner. According to Günay (2015), giving philosophy lessons in teacher training institutions is more important than giving philosophy lessons to children. Because only teachers who have developed a philosophical attitude can gain this attitude to children.

There are limited number of studies held on Philosophy for Children in our country. In literature, there has been no study of preschool teacher candidates’ views on philosophy for children. In this direction, the aim of this study is; to examine the opinions of preschool teacher candidates, who are studying in Uludağ University Faculty of Education in 2017 – 2018 academic year, regarding Philosophy for Children.

Within the scope of the research, the following questions were sought:

1. What are the opinions of pre-school teacher candidates regarding philosophy with children in pre-school period?

2. What are the opinions of pre-school teacher candidates on the subject of participation in a seminar / training on Philosophy for Children?

3. What are the pre-school teacher candidates’ metaphors regarding philosophy?

Method

In this study, a mixed method has been used to examine pre-school teacher candidates’ views and thoughts on philosophy with children and their metaphorical perceptions about philosophy. In this study, the phenomenological method of qualitative research methods has been used. Phenomenology, creates a suitable research ground for studies that we are not entirely unfamiliar with, but at the same time aims to investigate phenomena that we cannot fully understand (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2006). In this framework, teacher candidates’ metaphorical perceptions about philosophy have been tried to be determined. In addition, questions have been asked to pre-school teacher candidates about their views on philosophy with children. The obtained data have been interpreted using frequencies and percentages. Chi Square analysis have been applied while examining the relation between the groups of nominal variables.

Study Group

The study group of the research was composed of 136 candidates in total who are seventy first grade students and sixty-six fourth grade students in Uludag University, Faculty of Education, Pre-school Teaching Department in the 2017 – 2018 academic year. The participants of the study are 128 women (94.1%) and 8 men. There are 128 (94.1%) teacher candidates between the age scale of 18 – 25, and 8 (5.9%) between the ages of 26 – 30. 70 (51.5%) of the pre-school teacher candidates participated in the research are first-grade level and 66 (48.5%) of them are fourth-grade level. With 41.2%, Vocational High School graduates are in the first place, and with 7.4% General High School graduates are in the last place. 7 of the candidates (5.1%) have stated their alma mater high school by marking the “Other” option. The majority of teacher candidates (96.3%) have taken philosophy courses before.

Data Collection Tool

In the research, Personal Information Form and Opinion Form prepared by researchers has been used as data collection tool. With the Personal Information Form, data have been collected regarding the teacher candidates’ gender, age distribution, grade level, high school type they graduated, and whether they had taken philosophy courses before. The questions, prepared by the researchers, have been asked in order to gather data about their views on philosophy with children in the pre-school period. Teacher candidates have been asked to respond to the question “Philosophy is like …. Because …” by pretending the philosophy to be an object. In this research, with the phrase, because..., teacher candidates have been asked to provide a justification for the metaphors they produce. After that, the metaphors have been analyzed and the metaphors with the same meaning have been transformed into categories. Metaphor; is a concept used through analogy by establishing a meaningful connection with a word that has a different meaning in order to be able to express the word (Aydın, 2006).

Data Analysis

In the analysis of quantitative data collected within the scope of the research, percentage and frequency calculations have been made on the collected data. The chi-square analysis was applied when the relationship between the groups of nominal variables was examined. For a significance level of differences and relations, p<0.05 has been considered satisfactory. With the Personal Information Form teacher candidates have been asked to respond to the question “Philosophy is like …, because…” by pretending the philosophy to be an object. The purpose here is to identify the metaphors of teacher candidates related to philosophy.

Metaphors produced by teacher candidates about philosophy have firstly been examined by researchers and listed with their reasons one by one. After that, produced metaphors have been grouped under the conceptual categories using the method of content analysis. For reliability, the percentage of correspondence in the categories in which researchers match metaphors has been taken into account. By using Miles and Huberman’s (1994) reliability formula (Reliability = Consensus / Consensus + Dissidence) concordance percentage has been calculated and the reliability of the study has been found to be 0.82. When the percentage of correspondence in the reliability calculation is 70, it is assumed that the percentage of reliability has been reached (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).

Findings and Comment

Findings obtained in the research has been presented in charts and interpreted using literature data.

In Table 1, pre-school teacher candidates’ status of being interested in philosophy have been indicated according to their class and graduation status. No statistically significant relationship has been found between pre-school teacher candidates’ grade level and graduation status and their interest in philosophy. 53 (39%) of the preschool teacher candidates participated in the research stated that they were interested in philosophy and 83 (61%) of them stated that they were not interested in philosophy. Depending on the graduated high school, most of the teacher candidates (42.2%) who are interested in philosophy are Anatolian High School graduates, and most of the teacher candidates (72.2%) who are not interested in philosophy are Teacher Training High School graduates. Although not statistically significant, it can be said that the majority (61%) of the pre-school teacher candidates are not interested in philosophy.

p<0.05

When Table 2 is examined, 124 (91.2%) of pre-school teacher candidates participating in the research are thinking on concepts and 12 (8.8%) do not think on concepts. 67 (95.7%) of pre-school teacher candidates at first grade and 57 (86.4%) of pre-school teacher candidates at fourth grade indicated that they think on concepts. No statistically significant relationship has been found between thinking on concepts and the class level. Although not statistically significant, it is seen that the vast majority (91.2%) of pre-school teacher candidates at both grade levels think about concepts. These concepts are expressed as “Independence, freedom, beauty, justice, equality, happiness, etc.”.

p<0.05

As seen in Table 3, 67 (49.3%) of pre-school teacher candidates like to read books or watch series / movies related to philosophy and 69 (50.7%) of them do not like to read books or watch series/movies about philosophy. No significant relationship has been found between the liking of reading books or watching series / movies about philosophy and the class level. Though there is no statistically significant relationship, it is seen that 37 (52.9%) of the pre-school teacher candidates at the first grade participating in the survey and 30 (45.5%) of the pre-school teacher candidates at the fourth grade like to read books or watch series/movies related to philosophy. It is seen that 33 (47.1%) of the pre-school teacher candidates at the first grade and 36 (54.5%) of the pre-school teacher candidates at the fourth grade do not like to read books or watch series/movies related to philosophy.

*p<0.05

As seen in Table 4, there is a statistically significant relationship between preschool teacher candidates’ attitudes towards philosophy and thinking on concepts (p<0.05). Those who are interested in philosophy, also think on concepts.

In Table 5, there are opinions of pre-school teacher candidates about making philosophy with children during pre-school period. 57.4% of the pre-school teacher candidates have indicated that making philosophy with children during pre-school period is favorable, however 51.5% of them have indicated it is not favorable. First grade pre-school teacher candidates have a higher positive opinion on how to make philosophy with children than the fourth-grade preschool teacher candidates.

In table 6, there are positive views of pre-school teacher candidates about making philosophy with children in pre-school period. 111 opinions have been obtained according to the data resolved with content analysis of the pre-school teacher candidates’ positive views on philosophy with children in pre-school period. According to Chart 6, pre-school teacher candidates 29.7% (f=33) often find it useful, provided that the philosophy activities, which are to be done in the pre-school period, are adapted to the children’s developmental levels. However, pre-school teacher candidates who do not consider any adaptation condition 25.2% (f=28) have frequently stated that pre-school philosophy activities will contribute to children’s thinking skills, and 18.9% (f=21) philosophy activities in pre-school period will improve children’s questioning skills. T26, who has given views in this direction, expressed opinion as follows: “I believe in making philosophy with children and its importance. Because children need to gain thinking skills, and this should be done in this period when development is fastest. So, the child learns to solve problems on his/her own.” T69 has expressed opinion as follows: “With philosophy activities organized with children, children reach a conclusion by thinking about certain subjects. For this is the result they have reached, they have a better understanding of the idea of thinking. At the same time, I think that it will have a positive contribution to the children’s mental development.

As seen in table 7, 50 opinions have been obtained according to the data resolved with content analysis of pre-school teacher candidates regarding their negative opinions about philosophy with children in pre-school period. While pre-school teacher candidates 48.0% (f = 24) have frequently stated that children could not think abstractly for the philosophy activities to be held in preschool period, 46.0% (f = 23) of teachers have frequently stated that they did not find the philosophy activities fit for the development levels of the children in pre-school period. T93, who has given views in this direction, has expressed opinion as follows: “Pre-school period is an early stage for making philosophy with children. Because children’s abstract intelligences have not been developed much during this period.”; And T72 has stated selfopinion as follows: “We have been taught that abstract concepts in pre-school education should not be taught. Therefore, we should not be make philosophy with children at this period.”

In table 8, there are opinions of pre-school teacher candidates about participation to a seminar / training related to philosophy for children in the pre-school period. While most of the teacher candidates (72.8%) have indicated that they could participate in a seminar on philosophy for children, 11% of the teacher candidates have not considered participating in such seminar and 16.2% of the teacher candidates have had no idea. There is a statistically meaningful relationship between pre-school teacher candidates at the first grade level and pre-school teacher candidates at the fourth grade level in terms of a desire for participation to a seminar / training about philosophy in favor of the pre-school teacher candidates at the fourth grade (p<0,05). Most of the teacher candidates at the fourth grade (81.8%) are interested in participating in the seminar related to philosophy. This may be due to the fact that fourth grade teacher candidates, who consider giving philosophy to the children of pre-school period conditionally, think that such seminars will support their professional development and assist them in downgrading to the child’s level.

The categories determined by pre-school teacher candidates as a result of the metaphors produced by the answers given to the question “Philosophy is like ..., because ...”, are as follows; “philosophy as a source of epistemology”, “philosophy as a source of unhappiness”, “philosophy as a source of abstract thinking”, “philosophy as a source of chaos”, “philosophy as a source of enlightenment”. In Yapıcı and Kösterelioğlu’s (2016) study, conceptual groupings have also been made under the same categories.

The frequency values and the reasons for the metaphors that pre-school teacher candidates produce in the category of “philosophy as a source of epistemology” are shown in Table 9.

When we look at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of epistemology, the emphasis on “information” on the grounds of the metaphors created by the three pre-school teacher candidates draws attention. In the category of philosophy as a source of epistemology, it can be said that pre-school teacher candidates producing metaphors perceive philosophy as philosophy equals knowledge.

The frequency values and the reasons for the metaphors produced by pre-school teacher candidates in the category of “philosophy as a source of unhappiness” are shown in Table 10.

When we look at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of unhappiness, it can be said that these views are a reflection of the negative thoughts and prejudices of pre-school teacher candidates about philosophy. “Bright Mobile Screen” is justified with the explanation of causing headache metaphor.

The frequency values and the reasons for the metaphors produced by preschool teacher candidates in the category of “philosophy as a source of abstract thinking” are shown in Table 11.

When we look at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of abstract thinking; pre-school teacher candidates have produced 27 metaphors in this category. It is noteworthy that in the metaphors of “symbol of infinity” and “eternal light”, the infinity of the philosophy is expressed by an abstraction effort. In the metaphor of “Le Penseur (The Thinker)”, the emphasis on pure thinking action is noteworthy. It can be said that in the metaphor of “soul” the philosophy is reasoned by an abstract nature, while in the metaphors of “ball” and “water” the philosophy is seen as an activity consisting of passive and fuzzy thoughts.

The frequency values and the reasons for the metaphors that pre-school teacher candidates produce in the category of “philosophy as a source of enlightenment” are shown in Table 12.

By looking at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of enlightenment; preschool teacher candidates produce 35 metaphors in this category. While emphasizing that “Oxygen” metaphor is an activity based on questioning of philosophy and is an indispensable necessity for life, it is emphasized with the metaphor of “washing machine” that this world is only meaningful with philosophy.

The frequency values and the reasons for the metaphors that pre-school teacher candidates produce in the category of “philosophy as a source of chaos” are shown in Table 13.

Looking at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of chaos, it can be said that pre-school teacher candidates produce 40 metaphors in this category, and that the vast majority of pre-school teacher candidates who participated in the research, regard philosophy as a mental confusion. The emphasis on “confusion” on the grounds of metaphors such as “headphones”, “ball of strings”, “mixer” that preschool teacher candidates make is remarkable. This is followed by the reasons which contain expressions of “endless and unachievable”.

Discussion and Results

In this study, pre-school teacher candidates’ opinions about philosophy with children in pre-school period have been examined. A total of 136 pre-school teacher candidates, 128 (94.1%) female and 8 (5.9%) male, have participated in the research.

70 (51.5%) of pre-school teacher candidates participating in the survey were in the first grade while 66 (48.5%) were in the fourth grade. A large majority (96.3%) of pre-school teacher candidates participating in the survey has taken philosophy class at least one time before. On the other hand, the majority (61%) of pre-school teacher candidates have stated that they were not interested in philosophy. A large majority (91.2%) of pre-school teacher candidates think on concepts (freedom, justice, happiness, etc.). Those who are interested in philosophy from pre-school teacher candidates also think on the concepts.

In order to identify their metaphors of philosophy, the pre-school teacher candidates have been asked “Philosophy is like..., because ...” Pre-school teacher candidates participating in the research have been found to produce 3 metaphors in the category of “philosophy as a source of epistemology”, 7 in the category of “philosophy as a source of unhappiness”, 27 in the category of “philosophy as a source of abstract thinking”, 35 in the category of “philosophy as a source of enlightenment”, and 40 in the category of “philosophy as a source of chaos”. When the categories are examined, it is observed that the produced metaphors concentrate on the categories of “philosophy as a source of chaos” and “philosophy as a source of enlightenment”. In the study conducted by Yapıcı and Kösterelioğlu (2016) in order to determine the metaphors of the teacher candidates about the philosophy class, the metaphors produced by the teacher candidates on the philosophy class has also been concentrated on the categories of philosophy as a source of chaos and philosophy as a source of enlightenment. The results obtained in the related study also support the results of this research. Looking at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of chaos, it can be said that the vast majority of pre-school teacher candidates who participated in the research regard philosophy as a mental confusion. …nsal’s (2016) research has stated that one of the causes of problems encountered in philosophy classes in secondary school is socio-cultural reason. It can be said that the evaluation of the philosophy with a prejudice that causes darkness, a feeling of upset and a mental chaos is also reflected in the metaphors produced by preschool teacher candidates. According to the findings obtained in the research, the reasons stated in the metaphor of “Rubik’s cube” obtained in the category of philosophy as a source of chaos is: you think on it, you work on it but you cannot figure it out, you cannot solve it; while similarly the reason given in “stacking doll” metaphor is: as we scrutinize each thought, new ideas, new questions arise after every answer. After the category of philosophy as a source of chaos, the most metaphors generated category is the category of philosophy as the source of enlightenment. According to this, as we look at the metaphors in the category of philosophy as a source of enlightenment, while emphasizing that “Oxygen” metaphor is an activity based on questioning of philosophy and is an indispensable necessity for life, it is emphasized with the metaphor of “washing machine” that this world is only meaningful with philosophy. In the “Google” metaphor however, the stated reason is that the questioning is the cornerstone of the philosophy and the answers to the questions can be found with it. According to Cevizci (2013), philosophy is an attempt to make a meaning-based interpretation that develops people’s reasoning and original thinking. Taking into account the metaphors in the category of philosophy as a source of abstract thinking in the third place, the emphasis on the act of pure thinking with and endless abstraction effort of philosophy is noteworthy. It can be said that in the metaphor of “soul” the philosophy is reasoned by an abstract nature, while in the metaphors of “ball” and “water” the philosophy is seen as an activity consisting of passive and fuzzy thoughts. In their studies, Ergün and Yapıcı (2006) and Tozlu (1986) have often pointed out that the subjects of the philosophy class are very abstract and that the subjects are disconnected from contemporary life. The results obtained from these studies, support the ideas reflected in the pre-school teachers’ philosophical metaphors of philosophy as a source of abstract thinking. In the fourth place, when we look at the metaphors of philosophy as a source of Unhappiness, it can be said that these views are a reflection of the negative thoughts and prejudices of pre-school teacher candidates about philosophy. Direk (2016), states that our country is faced with philosophy not at the primary education level, but at the secondary education level, so in this case, a student who has taken only one year of philosophy class at a late time like secondary education cannot make philosophy and love the philosophy. Because the true content of the philosophy cannot be correctly reflected in the schools and its purpose cannot be achieved, it seems that the students have perceived this as just a class and that the discipline of philosophy reflects negatively on the metaphors of pre-school teacher candidates. In the fifth place in the category of philosophy as a source of epistemology, it is perceived as philosophy equals knowledge. It is stated that philosophy courses are seen by students as an accumulation of theoretical knowledge and as a class based on memorization (Kefeli, 2011).

57.4% of pre-school teachers who participated in the research have stated that it is appropriate to make philosophy with children in pre-school period and 42.6% of them said that it is not appropriate. Pre-school teacher candidates have suggested that philosophy activities with children in the pre-school period help children to develop their questioning skills, give them different perspectives, help them acquire new knowledge, help them to know and understand themselves, improve their creativity, support their cognitive development, help them to attribute meaning to life and develop problem-solving skills. However, according to the results obtained, most of the positive opinions (29.7%) about making philosophy with children in pre-school period can be done with the condition that the philosophy activities, to be done with the children in pre-school period, should be appropriate to the level of the child.

In this study, it has been found that pre-school teacher candidates think that philosophy is necessary for children but does not have enough knowledge about how to apply it. In this direction, most of the teacher candidates (72.8%) want to participate in a seminar / training on philosophy for children. They think that seminars and trainings are useful for figuring out how to make philosophy for children and how they can downgrade to children’s levels. This shows that most of the teacher candidates are eager to develop themselves. Also in Mutlu and Aktan’s (2011) study, it has been found that pre-school teachers fully believe in the necessity of thinking in early childhood, but generally have poor knowledge about the detailed purposes of thinking. Nevertheless, it is stated that teachers are willing to develop themselves in this regard. This result supports our study.

According to the results obtained, pre-school teacher candidates who have given a negative opinion about making philosophy with children in pre-school period, have shown that pre-school children cannot think abstract and philosophy activities are not fit for their developmental levels. Looking at the content and purposes of preschool activities, developing children’s imagination, creative and critical thinking skills, communication and understanding and expressing their feelings are among the basic objectives (Ministry of Education, 2013). A pre-school teacher must create environments to support critical and creative thinking of children and make activities compatible with their developmental levels while carrying out teaching activities.

Recommendations

To promote the child to be an individual who can think flexibly and effectively, to teach the concepts such as being nice to children, to be right and to be fair, to support the creativity of the child, to teach them to look at the events from different perspectives, to be confident and to develop their thinking skills are aimed at pre-school education and philosophy for children. Therefore, there are very important tasks for teachers in supporting these skills of children in preschool period. It is thought that teachers who have a very important influence on children should have a philosophical background so that children can gain these skills and support them in this aspect. For this reason, teacher training curriculum may include lessons about philosophy with children so that teachers can acquire knowledge and experience. The content of Philosophy of Education class which is being taught in the teacher training faculties can be enriched to understand how philosophy can be applied with children and how children’s thinking skills can be improved. Throughout the country, various seminars and trainings on philosophy for children can be organized so that teachers and teacher candidates can gain knowledge on this issue. There are limited number of resources for philosophy with children, which may be a guide to children, teachers and parents. Publishers, authors, translators and cartoonists can provide diversification of resources in this context. Further studies can be done more extensively by increasing the number of samples.

NOTES

1. This article was presented as verbal announcement in the 1st International Basic Education Congress (UTEK 2018) performed by Bursa Uludag University Faculty of Education in 2018.

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