Turkish early childhood education curriculum from the perspective of STEM education: A document analysis

2017-12-01
Ata Aktürk, Aysun
Demircan, Hasibe Özlen
Şenyurt, Ezgi
Çetin, Mustafa
The current study aimed to examine Turkish early childhood education curriculum prepared for 36–72 month children relative to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. To that end, 240 developmental features, 65 objectives, and 230 indicators under developmental fields in the curriculum and 40 sample activities in a teacher activity book were analyzed by adopting content analysis. The data were analyzed in the light of “A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas” developed by the Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K–12 Science Education Standards within the National Research Council. Analyses revealed that the curriculum and teacher activity book included core ideas and concepts related to STEM education and it had most of the characteristics of STEM education. Finding out the existence of STEM educationrelated aspects of the early childhood education curriculum inspires conducting further studies that will help early childhood educators’, academicians’, and policy makers’ focus on integrating and implementing STEM education practices not only in Turkey but also in countries adopting similar early childhood education curriculums.
Journal of Turkish Science Education

Suggestions

Development of a STEM based engineering design curriculum for parental involvement in early childhood education
Ata Aktürk, Aysu; Demircan, Hasibe Özlen; Department of Early Childhood Education (2019)
The purpose of the current study was to design and develop a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) based engineering design curriculum that addresses to preschool children, parents, and preschool teachers (EDCPI). In this context, the first aim of this study was to identify the key design principles in designing a STEM-based engineering design curriculum for parental involvement (PI) in early childhood education. The second aim was to explore the possible contributions of the developed curric...
Turkish preservice science teachers' efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching and their beliefs about classroom management
Gencer, Ayse Savran; Çakıroğlu, Jale (Elsevier BV, 2007-07-01)
The purpose of this study was to explore Turkish preservice science teachers' science teaching efficacy and classroom management beliefs. Data in this study were collected from a total number of 584 preservice science teachers utilizing the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument and the attitudes and beliefs on classroom control (ABCC) inventory. Data analysis indicated that preservice science teachers generally expressed positive efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching. In addition, results reveal...
Turkish preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices related to child-centered education
Sak, Ramazan; Tantekin Erden, Feyza; Morrison, George S.; Department of Elementary Education (2013)
The aim of this study was to describe preschool teachers' beliefs, self-reported and actual practices related to child-centered education in Turkey. In addition, the consistency of preschool teachers’ beliefs and their practices about child-centered education was examined. In order to investigate this phenomenon, 20 preschool teachers working in public schools were interviewed related to their beliefs and self-reported practices about child-centered education. Also, 5 of these teachers were observed and the...
Integrating sustainability into early childhood education through in-service training: an effort towards transformative learning
Feriver Gezer, Şebnem; Olgan, Refika; Teksöz, Gaye; Department of Early Childhood Education (2010)
The aim of this study is twofold, first is to create an in-service training example that can be conducted with childhood education teachers in framework of transformative learning towards learning for sustainability and education for sustainable development. Second aim of study is to investigate effects and contributors of created transformative learning example on participants’ perspective transformation. 24 teachers were involved as convenient sample in this research. Research methodology combined two bas...
Preschool teachers' attitudes toward science and science teaching
Sönmez, Sema; Erden, Feyza; Department of Educational Sciences (2007)
This study aims to explore preschool teachers' attitudes toward science teaching and its impact on classroom practices through the frequency of science activities provided in the classroom. In addition, attitudes of preschool teachers' toward science were investigated in terms of affecting factors such as age, educational level, years of teaching experience, undergraduate course work on science, number of children in classroom, and the age group they work with. The present research was conducted with 292 pr...
Citation Formats
A. Ata Aktürk, H. Ö. Demircan, E. Şenyurt, and M. Çetin, “Turkish early childhood education curriculum from the perspective of STEM education: A document analysis,” Journal of Turkish Science Education, pp. 16–34, 2017, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/57291.