Summary


PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S VIEWS ABOUT THEIR SCHOOL: REFLECTIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE CHILD

The quality of the physical environment in the preschool period from birth until the child starts primary school is of great importance in his healthy development and education. For this reason, it is important that children receive pre-school education, which is supported by a qualified program that supports their holistic development from an early age and provides a quality education environment. There are many studies that reveal the importance of pre-school education in terms of reflection on the child's future. How-ever, preschool education becomes more meaningful and positively affects the development of the child when it is presented in a suitable and a richly stimulating environment. The aim of this study is to examine the opinions and expectations of 5-6 year-old children who attend pre-school education about the educational environment they live in. Phenomenology (Fact Science) design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. In the study, 24 children from different types of formal pre-school education institutions were interviewed. In the formation of the study group, outlier sampling from the purposive sampling method, which is thought to be useful in the discovery and explanation of facts and events, was used. For this, before the interviews, classroom and school environments were observed in different institutions, and contrary examples were determined, and the children to be interviewed were selected from institutions with sufficient/insufficient physical environment and facilities. The data were collected by asking each of the children one by one, the questions prepared in line with the purpose of the study. As a result of the research, it was seen that the children generally developed a positive attitude towards the educational environment they were in and liked to come to school. However, it has been observed that these positive attitudes of children are independent of the adequate and inadequate conditions of the environment they live. This showed that the expectations of the children were limited to the opportunities offered to them. At the same time, drew attention to the importance of the responsibility of adults who responsible for the education of children to provide them with qualified and rich educational environments for the best interests of children.



Keywords

Educational environments, early childhood, preschool education, child views



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