Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
16th International Balkan Education and Science Congress, Edirne, Türkiye, 15 - 17 Ekim 2025, ss.15-16, (Özet Bildiri)
Although ethical learning is increasingly valued in early childhood education, young children are often introduced to ethical ideas through teacher-led stories that offer clear and fixed messages. These approaches may limit children’s capacity to explore ethical complexity and restrict their opportunities for independent ethical reflection. Wordless picture books, while widely used to stimulate imagination and narrative development, are rarely utilised as tools for engaging children in open-ended ethical inquiry. Meanwhile, digital tools in early childhood settings are frequently used for passive engagement rather than empowering children to create and express their own ideas. There is limited research on how digital tools can support young children’s ethical thinking—especially when they are invited to interpret and narrate ethically complex, wordless visual stories. There is a need for pedagogical approaches that empower young children to interpret ethical dilemmas independently and express their perspectives using creative, developmentally appropriate digital tools. This study aims to explore how children aged 60–68 months interpret ethical dilemmas presented in wordless picture books and express their ethical reasoning through digital narration. This study was designed as a qualitative case study. The participants were twelve children aged between 60 and 68 months, enrolled in different classrooms of a public preschool in İstanbul. The data collection process involved the interactive reading of eight wordless picture books, each selected for their embedded ethical dilemmas (e.g., inclusion and exclusion, fairness, honesty, and responsibility). The implementation took place over a four-week period, with two sessions conducted each week. During group sessions, the books were explored interactively with the children, who were encouraged to observe, ask questions, and share possible interpretations of the visual narratives. Following these discussions, the children collaboratively created digital narrations of the stories using Book Creator tool. Working in small groups, they selected visuals, assigned roles, and recorded their voices to reflect their collective interpretations of the ethical dilemmas. This process enabled the children to engage in ethical reflection, group decision-making, and shared storytelling through digital expression. The primary data consisted of the children’s group-created digital stories within the Book Creator application. These multimodal narratives were subjected to content analysis to identify how the children responded to the ethical dilemmas and what kinds of ethical understanding were reflected in their proposed solutions. Preliminary findings suggest that children actively engaged with the ethical dilemmas and showed the ability to produce thoughtful, cooperative solutions. In their narrations, they identified moments of exclusion, unfairness, or dishonesty and offered alternatives such as apologising, sharing, or helping. These responses indicated an emerging understanding of ethical concepts. The group narration process encouraged peer dialogue and ethical negotiation, as children discussed and revised their ideas before recording. The multimodal structure of the activity—combining visual storytelling, collective reasoning, and voice recording—appeared to deepen their engagement with ethical questions and gave them confidence in articulating their views. This study highlights the potential of combining wordless picture books with digital narration tools to foster ethical reflection in early childhood. When children are invited to co-construct ethical responses through collaborative digital storytelling, they show an ability to engage with complex ethical ideas in developmentally meaningful ways. Digital tools such as Book Creator amplify children’s voices and support active, participatory learning. These findings point to the value of positioning children as ethical thinkers and digital narrators in early education. Future research might explore how such practices can inform curriculum design and support the early foundations of ethical thinking and digital expression in young children.