Investigating the impact of professional development on Turkish early childhood teachers’ professional growth about education for sustainable development through critical media literacy

Download
2018
Alıcı, Şule
The aim of the present study was to determine changes in early childhood teachers’ Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) awareness and Critical Media Literacy (CML) levels, their practices targeting ESD through CML and their conclusions drawn from their practices after a specifically designed professional development training (PDT). To reach this aim, a case study design in the light of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System Theory (based on its ECEfS adaptation version develop by McCrea & Littledyke (2015) was carried out. The participants of this were four early childhood teachers who were working at public preschools in Ankara, Turkey. Data were collected from various sources, namely interviews, stimulated recall interviews, teacher documentations (daily and monthly plans) and field notes. The findings of this study indicated that after PDT there were changes in teachers’ awareness of ESD and CML levels. They started to design and implemented activities focusing on ESD through CML. Moreover, the great majority of them believed that ESD should start in the early years. They also advocated that CML should give a place in early childhood education. What’s more, they shared their observation about changes in children awareness of ESD issues (such as animal breeding, gender equity, global warming, and recycling) and children’s CML regarding access, analyze & evaluate and create competencies.

Suggestions

Investigating pre-service early childhood teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding education for sustainable development teaching
Köklü, Hasret; Olgan, Refika; Department of Early Childhood Education (2018)
The aims of this study were describing pre-service early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ Education for Sustainable Development (EfSD) teaching self-efficacy beliefs constructed around outcome expectancy beliefs and personal teaching efficacy regarding EfSD, attitudes toward Sustainable Development (SD), and SD knowledge; investigating whether EfSD teaching self-efficacy beliefs, SD attitudes and SD knowledge of pre-service ECE teachers differ with respect to autobiographical factors; exploring predictiv...
Investigating potential of education for sustainable development program on preschool children’s perceptions about human-environment interrelationship
Cengizoğlu, Seçil; Olgan, Refika; Teksöz, Gaye; Department of Early Childhood Education (2013)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of developed and implemented education for sustainable development (ESD) program on preschool children’s perceptions about human-environment interrelationship in line with deforestation, biological diversity and climate change which are the basic components of ESD. The sample of the study is comprised a class of 60-66 month-old eco-preschool children (N=18) living in Ankara, Turkey. For this study, a qualitative case study was conducted. The data we...
Investigating the views of pre-service early childhood teachers regarding mindfulness
Tonga, Funda Eda; Tantekin Erden, Feyza; Department of Early Childhood Education (2018)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of pre- service early childhood teachers regarding mindfulness and its practice in early childhood settings. The participants of the study were 21 pre- service teachers who were senior students in public and private universities in Ankara, Turkey. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted and the data was gathered through a semi- structured interview. Findings of the current study indicated that pre- service early childhood teachers have some p...
An Analysis of the effectiveness of quality indicators in early childhood education on subsequent science competency on a cross-country and Turkish case basis
Kaya, Elif; Olgan, Refika; Department of Early Childhood Education (2014)
The main aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of early childhood education on children’s subsequent science competency in PISA assessment. In doing so, the influence of country-level and student-level factors on children’s later competency on the PISA science literacy were also examined. Country-level indicators were determined following variables from past records: public and private expenditure in pre-primary education, pupil-teacher ratio, enrolment rate in pre-primary, duration in pre-...
INVESTIGATING PRE-SERVICE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE COMPUTER BASED EDUCATION IN SCIENCE ACTIVITIES
Yılmaz, Nursel; ALICI, ŞULE (2011-07-01)
The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service early childhood teachers' attitudes towards using Computer Based Education (CBE) while implementing science activities. More specifically, the present study examined the effect of different variables such as gender, year in program, experience in preschool, owing a computer, and the frequency of computer usage on pre-service early childhood teachers' attitudes towards using CBE while implementing science activities. The study was conducted by survey m...
Citation Formats
Ş. Alıcı, “Investigating the impact of professional development on Turkish early childhood teachers’ professional growth about education for sustainable development through critical media literacy,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.