Turkish Early Childhood Educators’ Perceptions of Child Development and Education in the Preschool Years

Abstract

 Considering the importance of how perceptions of teachers affect their practice in early childhood education, the purpose of the current study was to examine how teachers perceive children’s developmental and educational experiences in relation to children’s learning outcomes perceived by teachers. We recruited 219 preschool teachers (90.9% are female) from different regions of Turkey via an online survey. Teachers’ age ranged from 20 to 53 years old (Mean [ M ] = 27.83, standard deviation [ SD ] = 5.66) and 57.5% of them were single. Average teaching experience was 4.62 years ( SD = 4.85), which ranged from one to 31 years. Teachers reported on their perceptions of the importance given to children’s developmental and educational experiences, and children’s learning outcomes. Results from canonical correlations showed that the importance given to educational and developmental experiences of children, and the importance to children’s learning outcomes were significantly associated. Further, the importance of the current findings in early childhood education is discussed.