Investigation of the effect of intrinsic motivation supportive education program on the motivation levels and self-regulation skills of 48-72 months old children

The aim of the study is to examine the effect of the Intrinsic Motivation Supportive Education Program on the motivation levels and self-regulation skills of preschool children. The study was carried out in a mixed design. The quantitative dimension of the study included the use of pretest-posttest experimental design with control group while the qualitative dimension included the use of case study and oberservations of the researcher which are among the qualitative study designs. Random cluster sampling method was used while selecting the study group which consists of 22 children in the ages of 48-72 months attending to the kindergartens of the primary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the city centre of Erzurum. Data were obtained by using Motivation Scale for Preschool Children (DMQ18), teacher form, Self-Regulation Skills Scale, children form, Preschool Self-Regulation Scale and Teacher Interview Form. Motivation education program was implemented. As a result of the analysis of the posttests taken before the program, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the motivation and self-regulation scores of the experimental and control groups. As a result of the analysis of the posttests of motivation taken after the program, the difference between the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups was statistically significant in favor of the experimental group (p<0.05). In the retention test regarding the permanence of the education program, it was determined that the effect of the education program increased in the experimental group (p<0.05) in all subscales excluding the subscale of Gross Motor Perseverance. In the posttests of both scales regarding self-regulation, it was found that the difference between the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups was statistically significant in favor of the experimental group (p<0.05). In the retention test regarding the permanence of the education program, it was determined that the difference in all subscales of the Self-regulation Skills Scale was in favor of the retention test and the difference in the retention test of the Preschool Self Regulation Skill was in favor of the posttest. Descriptive statistics was used in the analysis of the qualitative data. It was determined that the teachers views and researchers observations obtained in the qualitative part of the study supported the quantitative findings. Key Words: Motivation, Self-Regulation, Intrinsic Motivation, Preschool.