Development and implementation of concept cartoons based on constructivist view of learning for pre-school children

It is thought that it is important to support science and nature exercises with concept cartoons for children at pre-school era so that they can produce scientific solutions to the problems they meet in their daily lives supporting their sense of wonder and research. The aim of the studies in this regard is to develop concept cartoons based on constructivist view of learning for pre-school teachers to use in the existing science and nature exercises and to find out the reflections on their application. The research was carried out with mixed (multiple) research method in which quantitative and qualitative techniques are used together. Purposeful sampling way was followed in the study. The study was conducted in 2011-2012 academic year in two steps. In the first step, the opinions of 99 pre-school teachers working in Rize related to existing science and nature exercises were determined by a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions. In the second step, making use of the data got from the questionnaire, concept cartoons based on constructivist theory of learning for children at pre-school era were developed. Afterwards, unstructured observations were conducted applying the developed materials. 97 children and 25 pre-school teachers from Rize, Çayeli joined to the second step of the research. In addition, totally 10 instructors working at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University and Sinop University evaluated the materials prepared. Two different forms were developed and applied to pre-school teachers and instructors to evaluate the materials. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data obtained from the forms were made and presented. As a result of the research, it is determined that pre-school teachers find existing science and nature corner insufficient and they cannot use them at a desired level. It is found out that the concept cartoons developed according to the evaluations of the teachers and experts are applicable at pre-school era. In the observation of the application of the developed concept cartoons it is concluded that children share and discuss their thoughts about a subject with each other, support their problem solving abilities by interpreting data with alternative thoughts and student-teacher communication has got better. In this research, encouraging pre-school teachers about designing materials and giving importance to faculty-school cooperation in this regard are suggested.