Investigating the effects of STEM enriched implementations on school readiness and concept acquisition of children

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of STEM enriched preschool education implementations on children's school readiness and concept acquisition. The study was conducted with experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. The sample group of the study consisted of thirty-three children from the age group of 60-68 months. While 16 of the children were included in experimental group, 17 were included in control group. Before the implementations, the activities which were based on STEM skills and for which expert opinions were taken were developed. All activities were completed in nine weeks. Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised Form was used as the data collection tool in the pretest-posttest. As a result of the study, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between the total scores of both school readiness and concept acquisition in favor of the experimental group. Based on the results, it can be asserted that early STEM activities supported preschool education program in school readiness and concept acquisition.The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of STEM-enriched preschool education implementations on children's school readiness and concept acquisition. The study was conducted with experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. The sample group of the study consisted of thirty-three children from the age group of 60-68 months. While 16 of the children were included in experimental group, 17 were included in control group. Before the implementations, the activities which were based on STEM skills and for which expert opinions were taken were developed. All activities were completed in nine weeks. Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised Form was used as the data collection tool in the pretest-posttest. As a result of the study, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference between the total scores of both school readiness and concept acquisition in favor of the experimental group. Based on the results, it can be asserted that early STEM activities supported preschool education program in school readiness and concept acquisition

Investigation of the Parents’ Perceptions towards Children with Special Needs

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the awareness and knowledge of parents with normally developed children regarding children with special needs; how they perceive and how they describe individuals with special needs to their children. Method: In this study, the qualitative research method was adopted. And the descriptive analysis method was employed because situation determination and opinions were examined in the analysis of the data obtained from the study group. Snowball sampling method was used to form and gather up the study group. 17 parents who have children with normal development and go on preschool education institution constituted the study group of the research. The parents were composed the mothers have given informed consent and voluntarily participated into the study. The interview method was used as the data method of the research. In order to conduct the interviews, researchers formed a semi-structured interview form and thus, it would be possible to conduct indepth interviews with the parents. After the interviews, the data was documented and categories and themes were formulated in the light of descriptive analysis principles. Result and Conclusion: When the findings of the study were examined, it was found out that parents have a genuine awareness concerning children with special needs in that they emphasize the importance of interaction between their children with normal development with the children with special needs by coming together in the same environment, and they also have an awareness regarding the need of the public spaces’ regulations according to the children with special needs