标题：Preschool teacher candidates’ views on functionality of child literature in education Okul öncesi öğretmen adaylarının çocuk edebiyatının eğitimde işlevselliği üzerine görüşleri
摘要：Child literature pieces are significant in terms of solidifying educational attainments in children. Abstract concepts such as cultural background and values need to be solidified in children’s minds that are in the concrete operational stage. Including crucial attainments such as cultural and universal values, child literature pieces are unique educational materials. Child literature pieces include fairy tales, rhymes, drama and poems etc., and are the first materials that anyone encounters during early childhood.Child literature pieces are quite helpful to provide preschoolers with educational attainments who do not like being told what to do, but can assess the events and characters in fairy tales. Enjoying the repetitions in rhymes, preschoolers can gain linguistic enthusiasm and awareness during this period. The benefits of child literature during preschool age can be increased, thus it is an important field of interest that must be considered by preschool teacher candidates.This qualitative research made use of semi-structured interview forms to collect data. The study findings showed that the first child literature pieces that came to preschool teacher candidates’ minds were fairy tales, stories and rhymes. These participants stated that child literature was mostly effective in improving preschoolers’ creativity. This response was followed by finding child literature effective in improving cognitive and linguistic abilities. The participant preschool teacher candidates’ responses as the most important characteristics of child literature pieces were mostly including them to be appropriate for level, simple, interesting and creative. They can be said to approve child literature in terms of improving cognitive, social and creativity skills. The most emphasized issues concerning the use of child literature pieces during preschool were the appropriateness to children’s level, cognitive skills, social skills, being interesting and not covering violence and fear themes.
