Sorgulama Temelli Oyunların Çocukların Dünya’nın Şekli Ve Gece-gündüz Kavramlarını Algılamalarına Etkisi

Abstract

This study mainly aims to investigate the effect of inquiry-based plays on children’s perceptions of the shape of the earth and day-night concepts. Children aged between 60-72 months attending kindergartens in city centre (Karesi- Altıeylül districts) within Balıkesir Directory of National Education comprise the universe of the study. The study has two sampling group. The first sampling group consists of a total of 95 children (49 females and 46 males) aged between 60-72 months enrolled in four kindergartens in Balıkesir city center in the 2013-2014 school year. The experimental sampling group consists of a total of 56 children (31 females and 25 males) aged between 60-72 months enrolled in a kindergarten within Balıkesir Directory of National Education. This study is designed as a pre-test post-test quasi- experimental design within embedded experimental mixed method which might aim to embed both qualitative and quantitative data within qualitative interpretation. “Earth-2” test and “Earth and Day-Night Concepts Interview Protocol” are used as data collection tools to reveal children’s perceptions of the shape of the earth and day-night concepts. The designed study has three study groups which are experimental, control and placebo group. 12 inquiry based play activities designed by the researcher implemented in the experimental group and 12 activities which are prepared by the preschool teacher within the framework of the preschool curriculum in Turkey (MEB, 2013a) implemented in the placebo group for six weeks, where no intervention is performed in the control group. Based on the pre-test findings, results showed that all children have synthetic mental models about the shape of the earth and day-night concepts. When the effect of day-night concepts on children’s perceptions of the shape of the earth examined, it is seen that the effect is weak regarding the post-test results butxiii medium regarding the follow-up test. Findings of the consistency of subdimensions of the interview protocol (open-ended questions, model forming/describing and forced-choice questions) indicated weak results for the tasks about the shape of the earth and ranged from weak to coherent for the tasks about day-night concepts in different survey times. This variance is especially seen in the experimental group. The findings of the effect of the intervention activities indicated significant difference (p< .05) for the experimental group both about children’s perceptions of the shape of the earth and day-night concepts and also this difference is found persistent. Perceptions of the shape of the earth in the placebo group found significantly different than the control group according to the post-test. However, this difference is not seen in the follow-up test. There is no difference between placebo and control groups regarding the perceptions of daynight concepts both in the post and follow-up tests.