Promoting creativity in early childhood education

• It contributes to the developmental aspects of the child • Creativity contributes to the child’s learning • It helps us to understand the child • It enables the child to express her/ his feelings and thoughts A general evaluation of the subthemes of the first theme In their opinions on the theme ‘awareness for creativity’ teacher candidates drew attention to the fact that creativity and creative thinking was an important factor in helping the child realize her/ his potential, and in strengthening the child’s self-realization. Teacher candidates, who focused on the fact that creativity and creative thinking developed the imagination and the potential of the child, also mentioned the contribution of creativity and creative thinking on the social and cultural life of the child. The fact that creative thinking makes life easier for the child and would provide proactive conditions to the child in social life and in problematic situations in the future is the opinion of teacher candidates that stands out in the subthemes of the first theme. Example statements of teacher candidates that express that developing creativity and creative thinking presents positive contributions to different developmental aspects of the child are as follows: • If we can help them to discover their creativity and develop this potential in this stage, they may create more practical solutions to situations they may experience in the future and have different content (TC4). • The schemes created by the child in this stage contributes to the child’s creativity in the future (TC1).

• The child discovers and gets to know herself/ himself with creative thinking (TC2). • The child may discover herself / himself by thinking differently (TC9). • It is important as they can find different and authentic solutions to problems they may encounter throughout their lives (TC17). • The activities which are used during this stage affect the creative skills of the child in the coming years (TC12). • It is effective for the cognitive, social, emotional, and psychomotor development of the child (TC11). Theme 2. Promoting creativity • The Opinions of Preschool Teachers on Second Theme Table 5 presents the suggestions and the subthemes created by preschool teachers for the theme ‘promoting creativity’. Preschool teachers suggested creating environments in which the child can ask questions and express herself/ himself, providing them with creative environ- ments, having structured activities, motivating children for creative thinking by asking them open-ended questions, creating environments that would arouse interest, designing activities and games, and enabling children to discover themselves and their environment for promot- ing creativity. When the sub themes for the second theme are studied, the topics least PLOS ONE Creativity in early childhood PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294915 December 6, 2023 10 / 21