Movement education in early childhood education: The views of parents and school administrators

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Beden Eğitimi ve Spor Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2008

Öğrenci: SERAP SEVİMLİ

Danışman: SADETTİN KİRAZCI

Özet:

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of parents and preschool school administrators about preschool movement education and the practices regarding the teaching movement education to young children in early childhood programs. Participants (8 preschool administrators and 21 parents) were from 8 randomly selected private preschool in the region of Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey. Semi structured interview and document analysis methods were used for data collection. Content analysis method was used for data analysis. The results suggested that play and movement activities had no effects on parents’ school choice and parents did not seem to be influential on curriculum decisions about movement education activities. Structured play and movement activities were not considered as an academic subject by both groups. Instead participants perceived structured play and movement activities as a free play. Parents were aware of subjects as math, science and language; but they had limited knowledge about movement education activities. Parents generally focused on children’s such sport specific activities as swimming, tennis, horse riding which were not developmentally appropriate for children’s fundamental movement skills. Demands about the additional skills related with the movement education focused more on sport specialized activities and large environments for children to play comfortable. To conclude, parents and administrators have little knowledge about movement education so they are needed to be informed about the subject through educative workshops or seminars given by the people who are professional in their field.