Investigation of Preschool Teachers’ Views on Outdoor Play Activities

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the views of pre-school teachers on outdoor play activities. The research is designed in a qualitative pattern. The study group of the study was determined according to the “Turkish Classification of Statistical Region Units” (2003) by criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods, and 63 pre-school teachers were interviewed. In the research, “Interview Form for Outdoor Play Activities” was used as data collection tool. NVivo 12 Qualitative Data Analysis program and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it was stated that teachers prefer the outdoor play activities “when the air temperature is high and without rain”; it was determined that the reasons for not placing these activities or placing fewer in the program are “weather conditions”, “parental attitudes” and “physical conditions”. It was found out that the teachers allocated “30-60 minutes” to outdoor play activities and generally included these activities “in the middle of the day”. It has been revealed that most teachers conduct outdoor play activities “both planned and free” and that these activities are directed by “teachers and children together”.