The aim of this critical review is to connect the concepts of flow and play to understand how childrens culture is affected by adults. Examining adults views of play in different cultural contexts is crucial to understand how play is supported. Children are also faced many difficulties to find space and time to play. The concepts play and flow are discussed to point out the importance of uninterrupted play for children to develop skills in the process of construction of their culture.

Bu çalismada, erken çocukluk dönemindeki çocuklarin maddi degerler düzeyinin belirlenmesi ve demografik degiskenler açisindan incelenmesi amaçlanmistir ve betimsel tarama yöntemi kullanilmistir. Arastirmanin çalisma grubu, 2015-2016 ögretim yilinda Istanbul ilinde ilkokul 2.sinif devam eden toplam 96 ögrenciden olusmustur. Arastirmada veri toplama araci 6 sorudan (cinsiyeti, okul türü, ailedeki çocuk sayisi, anne babanin ögrenim durumu, ailelerinin gelir düzeyi) olusan demografik bilgileri içeren anket formu ve ögrencilerin maddi degerler düzeyini belirleme amaciyla “Çocuklar Için Maddi Degerler Ölçegi” kullanilmistir. Ölçek, Maddesel merkeziyetçilik (6 madde), Maddesel mutluluk (6 madde), Madde basari (6 madde)’’olmak üzere üç boyuttan olusan 4’lü likert tipi ve toplam 18 maddeden olusmaktadir. Demografik degiskenlere göre ögrencilerin maddi degerlere verdigi önemin farklilik gösterip göstermedigini belirlemek amaciyla ‘t’ testi ve ANOVA kullanilmistir. Gruplar arasi farkliliklarin kaynagini belirlemek amaciyla ise “Scheffle” çoklu karsilastirma testi uygulanmistir. Sonuçta, arastirmaya katilan çocuklarin cinsiyetlerine, ögrenim gördükleri okul türüne, babalarinin ögrenim durumlarina ve ailelerinin aylik ortalama gelir durumlarina göre maddi degerlere verdikleri önem düzeyi puan ortalamalari arasinda anlamli bir fark oldugu bulunmustur. Çocuklarin kardes sayisina, kaçinci çocuk olduguna ve anne ögrenim düzeylerine göre maddi degerlere verdikleri önem düzeyi puan ortalamalari arasinda istatistiksel olarak anlamli fark bulunmamistir.

This study equipped with the purpose of investigating problems originated from architectural structural diagram in independent kindergartens. Fourteen Independent Pre-school principals working in Van- Turkey participated in this study. All of them were asked to draw a sketch showing shortcoming of their schools in terms of architectural structural diagram. They were also asked to suggest amendment on their school’s structural scheme to make school building more efficient to meet young children’s and staffs’ needs. To collect data all of the principals were given A3 size papers. Some of the principals draw their schools’ sketch some of them add their schools’ structural plan and make changes and take notes on those plans. After collecting all sketches document analysis was utilized for the current study. Findings of this study revealed that principals have been experiencing several problems because of structure of school buildings. All of the principals working in star-building type kindergarten declared that this school type is not appropriate for eastern region and it has many drawbacks to efficiently educate young children. The main themes emerged from this study are heating, access of children with special needs, storage and space problems.

n this study, before and after they become teachers, the views of preschool teacher candidates on knowledge, skills and practices regarding child assessment and evaluation were determined. This study utilizes qualitative research method, and interview technique was used to obtain data. The study group consists of 20 preschool teacher candidates who are senior students at a public university’s department of preschool education. As data collection tool, 8 open-ended questions were designed and asked to participants. Among study group, nine teachers who work as teachers were volunteered to participate in the study. Four open-ended questions were transmitted to them electronically and descriptive analyses of all obtained data were conducted. As a result of the study, it was found that teacher candidates generally think that they have sufficient level of knowledge regarding assessment and evaluation. Teacher candidates also stated that the knowledge they gain during undergraduate education will contribute to child assessment in their teaching profession. However, participants’ views have changed when they became teachers and they have started to question their competencies.

This paper refers to a research conducted in the region of Patra, Achaia in Greece in spring 2016. Its purpose was a) the assessment of preschoolers narrative skills and b) the examination of its possible correlation with family sociocultural background. The participants were 32 children of the higher level of age in preschool education (5-6 years old), picked up from 2 different public kindergartens, equally separated in terms of gender and social background. Children were called to produce oral retellings of a book that had previously been read to them. Their texts were recorded and analyzed according to The Story Pyramid Framework. The findings of the research seem to confirm that there is a strong and intense correlation between preschoolers narrative skills and their sociocultural background. Children that come from more privileged social backgrounds produced more integrated narratives than their peers who come from less privileged family contexts, while no significant differences were observed between genders.

The purpose of this study is to examine parental attitudes of parents with children between 48-72 months old, depending upon different variables while they are raising their children. Out of quantitative research patterns, descriptive survey model was used in the research. As data collecting tool, Parental Attitude Scale (PAS), developed by Demir and Sendil (2008) and which consists of 46 items in total and determines democratic, authoritative, overprotective, and permissive attitudes of parents in raising children was used. The sample of the research was composed of 422 parents who were selected in accordance with random sampling method and residing in Istanbul Province, Pendik District. Within context of the research, gender of parents, educational background, average income, family structure, number of children, whether or not they joined a seminar on pediatric development, the amount of time they spend with their child and the gender of the child were determined as independent variables and it was examined, based on these independent variables, whether there is a significant difference in parental attitude points which are dependent variables. In the analysis of data obtained from the research, it was concluded that non-employed parents are relatively more protective than employed parents, the fact that parents joined a seminar on pediatric development decreased the authoritative and overprotective attitude average points and parents adopted a more authoritative manner towards boys compared to girls. Also, in line with research findings, a significant difference was detected on parental attitude scale sub-dimension points depending on the independent variables of parents’ ages, educational background, income level and number of children.

The purpose of this study is to develop a scale for the purpose of determining the views of students in the Child Development and Preschool Teaching Department regarding the right to participate in the context of childrens rights. Firstly, 98-article measurement tool which created by scanning the literature was sent to 7 experts. In the light of comments and opinions, 43 articles were passed on the scale, 2 articles added, 10 articles are arranged in line with the suggestions, the articles are ranked according to their degree of similarity and a 5-point 55 article likert-type scale pre-form was created. The draft scale consisting of 55 articles was applied to total of 481 volunteer students of departments of Child Development and Preschool Teaching at two foundation universities in Istanbul during 2016-2017 academic year spring term. In the scale development process, various analyses such as exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, test-retest were conducted. As a result of these various analyses applied in the scale development process, the Child Participation Awareness Scale consisting of 18 articles and 5 subscales proves that; the scale is valid and reliable in determining the opinions departments of Child Development and Preschool Teacher students regarding the right to participate in the context of childrens rights.

The purpose of this research is to examine preschool childrens social problem solving skills in terms of various variables. The population of the study consisted of parents and their children between the ages four-six years who attend independent kindergartens located in Çankaya county of Ankara during the 2015-2016 academic year. The sample of the study selected by simple random sampling method, consisted of 240 parents and their children between the ages four-six years who attend independent kindergartens located in Çankaya counties of Ankara during the 2015-2016 academic year. In this study conducted by descriptive screenning model, General Information Form and Wally Child Social Problem Solving Detective Game Test were used. Kruskal Wallis-H Test, Independent Groups T Test, One Way Anova were used to analyze of data. According to the results of this study, social problem solving skills of children differ based on childs age but do not differ based on gender, number of siblings, montly income, parents age, educational status and working status. The findings were discussed and interpreted within the scope of the literature.

The aim of this research is to understand the effects play-based learning activities on the environmental awareness of preschool children. As the research consists of the effect of learning activities on children, a single-case study (type 1) from qualitative studies was used. Sampling children were from a middle social-economic level public elementary school in Nilufer, Bursa. There were 15 children who were aged 5-6. In the research, the data was collected by a half-structured interviewing method and content analysis and descriptive analysis methods were used for the analysis. The result of the data analysis showed that the activities supported childrens environmental awareness and they widened their point of views.

The questions like how children learn easily, and how they can achieve a healthier growth and development bring us to the idea of “play”. If a child plays, this shows that he/she is healthy and can learn things. In fact, it is a cycle, the more children play, the healthier the child becomes and the more their learning experiences become richer. The power of the play comes from the contributions that it provides for a child’s holistic development. In the process of playing a game, Children gain valuable life skills, such as; social skills, research skills, problem solving skills, thinking skills, communication skills, and self-sufficiency and management skills. The educational reforms that many world countries are now working on essentially makes an effort to provide children with the opportunity to learn at their own pace, to use their capacities at the highest level with appropriate methods. "Play" is the most prominent of these efforts or, in other words, scientifically proven opportunities in the absolute solution of the problems in the field of education. This article is compiled to share the results of play-based school and educational programs in different countries. In our country, while emphasizing the pedagogical value of the play at every occasion, it was aimed to draw attention to concrete studies in the field of application.