Comparative analysis of social cohesion skills in Turkish immigrant children of primary school age in Turkey and Switzerland

Immigration has social, cultural, political, demographic and economic outcomes that go beyond simply being a movement of changing locations. In particular, negative experiences during the post-immigration process affect the development of children and consequently their social cohesion. The survey reported in this paper was carried out in order to make a comparative analysis of the social cohesion skills of immigrant children of Turkish origin attending primary schools in Turkey and Switzerland. The population of the survey was composed of primary school age children of Turkish origin living in Turkey and Switzerland. The sample consisted (with α = 0.5 and 5% deviation) of 351 children of Turkish origin aged 7 to 11. Of these children, 167 came from families that had immigrated to Turkey from the Balkans and were attending primary schools affiliated to the Directorate of National Education of Bursa Province in Turkey. The remaining 184 were emigrant children of Turkish origin attending schools affiliated to eight of Switzerland’s twenty-six cantons. The Scale of Social Cohesion and Skill (SSCS), which was used for data collection, included the following three factors: (i) social cohesion; (ii) social disharmony; and (iii) limited social cohesion. Data analysis was carried out separately for each factor using graphical analysis and the Mann-Whitney U-Test according to their point average by taking into consideration the factors relevant to the scale. It was concluded that the social cohesion level of primary school age children living in Switzerland is higher than that of corresponding children living in Turkey. It was also determined that the limited social cohesion and social disharmony points of primary school age children living in Turkey are higher than the points of those living in Switzerland. In view of these findings, suggestions are made to the Turkish Ministry of National Education and universities regarding state policy.peer-reviewe

Impact of the Interactive Story Reading Method on Receptive and Expressive Language Vocabulary of Children

This study aims to review the impact of the interactive story reading method on 48-72 month children’s vocabulary based on receptive and expressive language. The study group is 52 children in the 48-72 months age group at the nurseries of primary schools at Ankara province. The research employed a combined pattern analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data. The data were collected via "General Information Form" ,"Expressive and Receptive Language Test in Turkish (TIFALDI)" developed under the leadership of Gul Guven and Berument The "Teacher Observation Form", the "Teacher Interview Form" and the "Family Interview Form". In conclusion of the study, a significant difference in favor of the experiment group in the posttest was observed with respect to average posttest scores of experiment and control groups, following the implementation of the Interactive Story Reading Program. The comparison of the follow-up test and pretest score averages revealed a significantly high value in favor of the total for the follow-up test for the children in the experiment group. The agreement among the forms filled out by two observers with reference to the results of the observation and video analysis regarding the implementation of the "Interactive Story Reading Method" by the teachers, was assessed to be good/very good agreement. In the light of these results it can be said that the interactive story reading method have a fundamental impact on receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge of 48-72 months old children

The Effect of “Big Maths for Little Kids” Curriculum on Mathematical Development of 61-72 Month–Old Children

This study aimed to investigate the effect of “Big Math for Little Kids” curriculum on mathematical development of 61-72 month-old children attending kindergartens. This experimental study had a pre-test – post-test design. The sample of the study was composed of a total of 42 61-72 month-old children attending kindergartens of the randomly selected primary schools. In the study, "Progress in Maths 6 Test" was used to collect data. As a result of this study, it was found out that average Progress in Maths 6 Test scores of children in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the ones in the control group

The Validity and Reliability of The Environmental Awareness Assessment Scale for 48-66 Months Children

Objectives: This research was conducted in order to test the validity, reliability of "Environmental Awareness Assessment Scale for 48-66 Months Children". Materials and Methods: The study group of the research consisted of 365 children determined by simple random sampling path from six independent kindergarten tied to Eskisehir Province National Education Directorate in the Central District in Eskişehir. The reliability and validity study of "Environmental Awareness Assessment Scale for 48-66 Months Children" was conducted with the determined study group. The basic premise of the research data was collected via "Personal İnformation Form", "Environmental Awareness Assessment Scale for Children 48-66 Months". Results: For the validation study of Scale, content validity of the scale was evaluated. In order to determine the construct validity of the scale, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. In order to test the reliability of the scale KR-20 reliability coefficient was calculated. Conclusion: The results were statistically adequate, it was accepted that the scale is valid and reliable

Preservice Teachers’ Awareness Levels Regarding the Signs of Physical Abuse in Children

In this study, which aimed to investigate the pre-service teachers’ awareness levels regarding the signs of physical abuse in children, the sample included 173 subjects from the department of Early Childhood Education, 241 from Elementary Education, 221 from Social Studies Teaching and 129 subjects from the department of Turkish Teaching for a total of 764 pre-service teachers at the Faculty of Education. To collect data, a general information form including demographic characteristics of pre-service teachers and “Physical Abuse Signs Rating Scale” developed by Erol (2007) were used. According to the findings, the difference between Physical Abuse Signs Rating Scale’s states, behavioral characteristics and parent behaviors subtest scores according to pre-service teachers’ gender, field of study and years of study was not statistically significant whereas the difference between the state and behavioral characteristic scores according to pre-service teachers’ educational status regarding child neglect and abuse was found out to be significant