Investigating the effects of the behavioral development-based learning method on teaching the concepts of "whole", "half", "equal", and "same" to 5-year-old children attending a preschool education center

Preschool period is the time when a child's different developmental domains, such as cognitive, linguistic, motor, social and emotional growth are making the most rapid and active progress. During preschool years, brain is in its most susceptible process to environmental influences. Quality of support provided by environmental factors directly affect children's quality of learning. One of the fundamental concepts that's being introduced according to children's developmental needs is in the field of mathematics. International studies, reports, and various projects specifically stress that mathematics should be introduced in preschool years since the quality of preschool education has a strong impact on success in elementary education. Behavioral development based learning is an effective method of teaching children mathematical concepts as it actively uses effective channels on student learning, identifies the teacher as the role model, requires proactive parental involvement in education, tracks individual progress, relates learning to real life situations, is based on hands-on experience and knowledge acquired through learning by doing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the behavioral development-based learning method in teaching concepts of "whole", "half", "equal", and "same" to 5-year-old children attending a preschool education center. This qualitative and quantitative method was carried out involving five-year-old children selected from preschools in Yenimahalle district in the city of Ankara, Turkey during the 2013-2014 academic year. How teachers represented the concepts stated by Ministry of Education preschool curriculum was observed. As the classes were being held, observation was done to gather data on the activities that take place during instruction and whether the children gained the targeted skills during these activities. As a result of these observations, the behavioral development -based learning method which was approved by the Board of Education in 2012, was foundto be an effective method for teaching mathematical concepts. The researcher observed the children as they were being taught the concepts of "whole", "half", "equal", and "same" using the behavioral development -based learning method. Each child was assessed one-on-one before and after instruction. Keywords: Preschool education, mathematics education, behavioral development -based learning method