The purp.ose of this study is to determine candidates of pre-school teachers' behavior levels towards sustainable environment. The cross-sectional survey was employed in the present study, which was conducted within the quantitative paradigm. The population of the study consists of pre-school teachers attending the undergraduate programs of pre-school education at state universities in Turkey, and the sample of the study is composed of 1,049 pre-service teachers studying at the undergraduate programs of pre-school education at Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, Anadolu University, Ege University, Kastamonu University, and Muş Alparslan University in their first, second, third, or fourth years and were voluntary to participate in the study. The research data were collected via personal information form and The Behaviour Scale for Sustainable Environmental Education, developed by Demirci Güler and Afacan (2012) for administration to instructors, in May and June 2014. This scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of three subdimensions and 29 items. Its Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.94. Based on the opinions taken from the domain experts specialized in pre-school education for the administration of the scale to the pre-service teachers, no modification was made in any item, and the internal consistency of the scale was recalculated and found to be 0.89 over the data obtained from 493 pre-service teachers. The data obtained from 556 pre-service teachers were analyzed through appropriate statistical analyses. It was found out that the pre-service teachers' behaviors towards sustainable environment vary by gender and the university attended, but do not differ by grade, status of receiving a course about sustainable development, and status of being a member to a non-governmental organization.
This study aimed to investigate parents' views about science and parent involvement in pre-school science activities. According to Cresswell's designs' sequential explanatory mixed-method design, the study was conducted. The participants were composed of parents of 39 children (60-72 months) who studied in two different classrooms, there were 20 children in one of the classrooms, and there were 19 children in the other classroom at a public pre-school in Ankara/Turkey in 2015-2016 school year. The Parents' Views about Science and Preschool Science Activities Scale and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three volunteer parents, each from the parents who got high, medium, and low average scores from the scale. Thus, parents' views about science and parent involvement in pre-school science activities were examined in detail. According to the results of this study, it was determined that the parents who participated in this study had positive views on science and science education in pre-school, realized the importance of science activities in pre-school, were eager to participate in pre-school science activities. Therefore, this study suggests that teachers and parents should be informed that parents' involvement is essential for doing science activities in pre-school.
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