Parents' wievs about preschool education and their expectations from this education: The example of Devrek district

The aim of this study was to examine parents' views of and expectations from preschool education according to several variables. The sample of the study was consisted of 231 parents whose (5-6 years of age) children has been attending to 12 kindergartens within 7 public elementary school in the district of Devrek, Zonguldak during 2011-2012 academic year. The data for parents' views and expectations about preschool education were collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The questionnaire included questions aimed to collect demographic information of the parents and information about parents' views of and expectations from preschool education. The data were analyzed by frequency and percentage calculations. In addition, chi-square analysis was conducted to examine weather parents' views of and expectations from preschool education differed according to the above mentioned variables.The great deal of the parents was housewife mothers. The vast majority of parents indicated that preschool education was necessary and it needed to be part of the mandatory education system. Besides, the parents responses indicates that they believe preschool education needed to be offered free of charge by the state. The parents? responses also indicate that chose preschool education for their children regardless of their work status. Parents who believe in the importance and the necessity of pre-school education expect preschool to prepare their children for the primary school and to teach social skills.Parents' response indicates high expectations regarding physical characteristics and equipments of the school buildings and kindergarten classrooms. They also showed high expectations from teachers. Teachers' education level and job experience were important for the parents. As for the preschool education programs, parents' has high expectations regarding child education but has lower expectations regarding parents' participation issues. Furthermore the result indicates that parents pay more attention to what their children might gain as a result of preschool education and high expectations in this regard.According to research results; regardless of all the variables, parents' views and expectations indicate importance and necessity of preschool education and they have high expectations from the school, teacher, the program and their children.Key Words: Preschool education, parents? views of preschool education, parents? expectations from preschool education, kindergarten.