Eko-okul olan ve olmayan anaokullarının bahçe özellikleri ile öğretmenlerin bahçe özellikleri ve kullanımına ilişkin görüşleri

The aim of this study is to determine the school-ground characteristics of eco-school preschools and not eco-school preschools, to examine teachers’ views about these characteristics and usage of the school-ground. Mixed methods research design of intertwined history was simultaneously used in this study. Eighteen formal preschools (nine eco-schools, nine not-eco-schools) in Denizli were included in the study. Data was obtained through Teacher Questionnaire, School Observation Form, Semi-Structured Interview Form, photographs and video recordings of the school-grounds, and The School-Ground Exploration Form. Totally 66 teachers in eco-schools and 70 teachers in non-eco-schools answered the teacher questionnaires. As a result of the research, it was found that the ground conditions of eco schools had more varieties; playground equipment varied as wall bars, playhouse, camellia, and they had more natural elements. On the other hand, it was observed that both school types had similar characteristics such as the amount of the time spent and the activity types in the playground, whilst the participation rate of the teachers into free plays of children was higher in the eco-schools. Results were discussed in the light of the literature, and suggestions were made for researchers and practitioners. © 2017, Ankara University. All rights reserved

Children, mothers, and preschool teachers’ perceptions of play: Findings from Turkey and Norway

This cross-cultural study aims to explore children’s, mothers’, and teachers’ current perceptions of play in Turkish and Norwegian cultures by using the Cultural Historical Action Theory framework as an analytical tool. The participants included 40 children enrolled in preschools, 39 mothers, and 10 teachers. In this cross cultural comparative study, structured interviews were used to collect the data. The results revealed one common theme across the participants’ definitions of play, the feelings related to play. All three groups expressed play as a way of having fun. Another common theme for the adults from both countries were the ideas that, play is important for children’s learning and development and, it is impossible to think of an alternative to play. Both Norwegian and Turkish children defined play as different examples, such as cars, bicycles and balls. While Norwegian teachers defined play as a context in which children make their own decisions, both Norwegian and Turkish teachers considered play socialize with friends and to be a way of communication. The concept of adults as the community of play and children as the actors of play deserve more attentio

Early childhood pre-service teachers' concerns and solutions to overcome them (the case of pamukkale university)

The purpose of this qualitative study is to determine early childhood pre-service teachers' concerns and solutions. One hundred early childhood pre-service teachers who were enrolled at Pamukkale University, Turkey, answered two open-ended questions by e-mail. In addition, six of these participants were interviewed for developing a deeper understanding of their concerns and solutions. Five main areas of concerns and solutions were identified as: (1) children, (2) parents, (3) school principals and colleagues, (4) environmental conditions, (5) self-orientation. This paper draws attention to the underlying reasons given by pre-service teachers about their concerns and elicits their ways of overcoming these concerns, in order to identify pre-service teachers' needs, in becoming effective teachers, and to integrate possible areas of concern in management and development of teacher education

THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY OF THE CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES SCALE AND THE NEW ECOLOGICAL PARADIGM SCALE AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

Bu araştırmada; çocuklara yönelik olan Çocuklar İçin Çevresel Tutum Ölçeği (Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale) ve Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeği (New Ecological Paradigm Scale) nin geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmasını yapmak ve ardından anasınıfına devam eden 60-72 aylık çocukların ve ebeveynlerinin çevresel tutumlarını geliştirmeye odaklı uygulanan çevre eğitimi programının çevresel tutum düzeylerine etkisini belirlemek amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada, öntest- sontest, kontrol gruplu deneysel model kullanılmıştır. Çocuklar İçin Çevresel Tutum Ölçeği ve Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeğinin güvenirliğini belirlemek için yapılan uygulamada, araştırmanın örneklemini, küme örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilen 150 çocuk ve ebeveyni oluşturmuştur. Eğitim programının uygulanmasında ise deney grubunda 26, kontrol grubunda 26 olmak üzere toplam 52 çocuk ve deney grubunda 25, kontrol grubunda 26 olmak üzere toplam 51 ebeveyn araştırma kapsamına alınmıştır. Çevre Eğitim Programının uygulama öncesi ve sonrasında deney ve kontrol grubundaki çocuklar ile ebeveynlerinin çevresel tutum düzeylerini belirlemek amacıyla geçerlik ve güvenirliği yapılan Çocuklar İçin Çevresel Tutum Ölçeği ve Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonunda elde edilen bulgulara göre; Çocuklar İçin Çevresel Tutum Ölçeği'nin geçerlik-güvenirlik çalışması sonucu iç tutarlılık güvenirliği =.78 olarak belirlenmiştir. Ölçek içindeki her maddenin çevresel tutum düzeyini ölçüp ölçmediğini ayırt etmek için yapılan madde toplam (item-total) korelasyonlarının oldukça yeterli düzeyde güçlü ve pozitif olduğu gözlenmiştir. Test tekrar test güvenirliğinin ise .97 düzeyinde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, testin ilk yarısına ait güvenirlik katsayısının .60; ikinci yarısına ait katsayının .61; iki yarı arasındaki Spearman Brown korelasyon katsayısının .52 ve Guttman Split-Half iv güvenirlik katsayısının ise .51 olduğu saptanmıştır. Bu sonuçlar testin her iki yarısının da aynı özelliği ölçtüğü görülmüştür. Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeği'ne ilişkin açımlayıcı faktör analizi sonuçları incelendiğinde; toplam varyansın %34.32'sini ifade eden 4.46 öz değerli (eigenvalue) bir temel faktör bulunmuştur. Faktörde yer alan maddelerin faktör yüklerinin ise 0.40 ile 0.74 arasında değiştiği saptanmıştır. Bu sonuç, ölçeğin güvenilir ölçme yaptığını göstermiştir. Test- Tekrar test korelasyonunun ise, .94 düzeyinde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeğine ait düzeltilmiş madde toplam korelasyonlarının .32 ile .63 arasında olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ölçeğin 13 madde üzerinde yapılan iç tutarlılık güvenirliği analizinde ise ölçeğin Cronbach Alpha () değeri .81 olarak bulunmuştur. Güvenirlik için yapılan iki yarı test güvenirliği (split-half) analizlerinde elde edilen bulgular ise, testin ilk yarısına ait güvenirlik katsayısının .70; ikinci yarısına ait katsayının .63; iki yarım arasındaki Spearman Brown korelasyon katsayısının .73 ve Guttman Split-Half güvenirlik katsayısının ise .72 olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu sonuçlar testin her iki yarısının da aynı özelliği ölçtüğünü göstermiştir. Çevre Eğitim Programı sonrasında, deney ve kontrol grubundaki çocukların Çocuklar İçin Çevresel Tutum Ölçeği'nden ve ebeveynlerinin Yeni Ekolojik Paradigma Ölçeği'nden aldıkları puanlar arasında deney grubu lehine anlamlı farklılık bulunmuştur (p<0.01). Eğitim programının kalıcılığına ilişkin yapılan kalıcılık testinde, eğitim programının etkisinin devam ettiği saptanmıştır (p<0.05). Bu bulgular ışığında, okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının ve ebeveynlerinin çevresel tutumlarını geliştirmeye yardımcı olmak amacıyla eğitimcilere, ailelere ve ileride yapılabilecek bilimsel araştırmalara yönelik öneriler sunulmuştur. Anahtar Kelimeler: Okul Öncesi Eğitim, Çevresel Tutum, Çevre Eğitimi, Çevre Eğitim Programı.In this research, it is aimed, by doing the validity and realibility study of the Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale and the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, to apply an environmental program which focuses on improving attitudes of parents and 60-72 months old children who are going on with the preschool and to determine the effects of the program to the environmental attitude levels. In the research, empirical design, pretest-posttest and control group model are used. In the application which is done to determine the realibility of the Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale and the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, research sampling consists of 150 children and parents which are selected by the method of cluster sample. In the application of the education program, there are 52 children and 26 of them is in the experiement group and 26 of them is in the control group and also 51 parents are included in the research. Before and after the Environmental Education Program, the Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale and the New Ecological Paradigm Scale are used to determine the environmental attitude levels of the parents and children who are in the experiement and control group. According to the research results; as a result of the validity-reliability study of the Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale, internal consistency realibility is defined as .78 . To determine whether it measures each items', which is in the scale, environmental attitude or not, it shows that the correlations of total item are quite powerful and positive. Test-retest reliability is .97. Furthermore, it shows that the first half's realibility co-efficient is 60; the second half's realibility co-efficient is 61; Spearman Brown correlation co-efficient which is between these two half is 52 and Guttman Split-Half realibility co-efficient is 51. vi These results show that both half of the test measure the same feature. When the factor analysis results, which are related to the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, are examined; one main factor defines %34.32% (eigen-value is 4.46) of total variance, This result shows that scale makes dependable measurement. Test-retest reliability analysis shows .94. Moreover, item total correlations which belong to the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, alter between .32 and .63. In the analysis of internal consistency realibility is found as .81 . The findings which are obtained from the analysis of two split-half test realibility, which is done for confidence, show that the test's first half realibility co-efficient is .70; the second half's co-efficient is .63, Spearman Brown correlation co-efficient, which is between two half, is .73 and Guttman Split-Half realibility co-efficient is .72. These results show that both half of the test measure the same feature. After the Environmental Education Program, between the scores which are taken from the Children's Environmental Attitudes Scale by children who are in the experiement and control group and from the New Ecological Paradigm Scale by parents, there is deep difference for the benefit of experiement group (p<0.01 and p<0.05). In the permanence test which is done for education program, it is determined that the effect of education program is in progress (p<0.05). With these findings, some suggestions are presented to both scientific research which will be done in the future and parents and educators to help improving environmental attitudes of young children. Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Environmental Attitude, Environmental Education, Environmental Education Program

Risky play and parenting styles

This study investigated the predictive power of parenting styles towards children and demographic characteristics on children’s risky play. 890 parents of 4–6 year-old children enrolled in public preschools and kindergartens in Denizli, Turkey completed the questionnaires related to demographic characteristics of themselves and their children, their thoughts about risky play and parenting attitudes towards children. Results indicated that parenting styles and gender, education level and number of children are significant predictors of parents’ thoughts about practices and benefits of risky play. In particular, overprotective and permissive parenting predicted parents’ practices of risky play while overprotective, permissive and democratic parenting styles influenced their thoughts about the benefits of this play. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York

Comparison of Teachers and Teacher Candidates in terms of Their Environmental Attitudes

It has been aimed to compare the environmental attitudes of teachers and teacher candidates and to present the importance of environmental education in teacher training. The sample of the research includes 605 final year students attending undergraduate programs of pre-school education and child development education in the universities of Konya. Ankara, Afyon, and Denizli provinces during 2008-2009 academic year and 300 pre-school teachers attending National Education Ministry In-service Training Programs conducted in Yalova, Aksaray and Rize provinces during 2008-2009 academic year. "Environmental Attitude Scale" has been used as the data collection tool. According to t-test and MANOVA results, it has been determined that teacher candidates got higher scores than pre-school teachers in terms of the total results of environmental attitude scale, and particularly the sub-factors "Importance of Field Trips in Environmental Education': and "Environmental Conservation Activities". Also, it has been stated that the difference between the scores of teachers and teacher candidates taken from the sub-factors "Requirement of Education for Environmental Problems" and "Environmental Pollution and Conservation" is not significant. In the light of the findings, researchers and practitioners have been provided with suggestions

The use of interactive CD-ROM in early childhood education: Teachers' thoughts and practices

The purpose of the research is to determine the opinions of the early childhood teachers working in Denizli about the use of interactive CD-ROMs in the education programs. The research has been conducted with the qualitative research methods. In the research, semi-structured interview has been used as a way of gathering data, which is one of the interview ways. The research has been conducted with five early childhood teachers teaching different age groups of children. According to the findings gathered in the research, it has been found that the teachers use the interactive CD-ROMs in the classrooms very rarely because of the lack of the computer equipments in the classrooms. Moreover, it has been also found that they aim at children's psychomotor and cognitive development with the use of the interactive CD-ROMs. Among the other findings in the research, it has been found that the teachers recommend the virtual and audio elements of the interactive CD-ROMs to be prepared more elaborately and carefully. Furthermore, It has been found striking that the recommendations of the preparation of interactive CD-ROMs on the topics supporting the development of sociality and the abstract topics that the adults have difficulty in understanding. At the end of the research, considering the findings gathered, the suggestions have been made for the educationists and the teachers. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd