Evaluation of Maarif Model 2024 Preschool Curriculum according to teachers' opinions

Preschool education is the education implemented to support children's cognitive, motor, language, social emotional development areas and self-care skills in the 0-72 month period. The curriculum covers all learning opportunities provided by the school. The curriculum evaluation process is also a study aimed at determining how effective a curriculum is in practice and which aspects need to be improved. Evaluation results help make decisions about the curriculum and provide guiding information about the future of the curriculum. In this way, deficiencies can be identified and eliminated. This study aims to evaluate the Maarif Model 2024 Preschool Curriculum according to the opinions of teachers working in preschool education institutions. This evaluation will be in terms of learning outcomes, skills, tendencies, values, learning activities, teaching materials, measurement and evaluation tools in the Preschool Curriculum. The "Maarif Model 2024 Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Scale" consisting of 35 items was used as the data collection tool in this research. The sample of the study consists of 250 preschool teachers working in kindergarten classes of primary schools in the districts of Beşiktaş, Sarıyer, Fatih, Bayrampaşa, Kağıthane in Istanbul in the 2024-2025 academic year. Data were collected through face-to-face scale application and Google Forms. The research was conducted according to the descriptive scanning approach of the quantitative method. According to the findings obtained in the research, it was seen that the learning outcomes in the curriculum, the learning activities and teaching materials recommended in the program did not fully meet the necessary qualifications according to the curriculum development principles. It was found that the skills, tendencies and values in the curriculum were not fully sufficient in gaining students. While field skills, conceptual skills, and literacy skills were not found to be fully suitable for the individual development periods of the students, social-emotional skills were found to be suitable. At the same time, values and tendencies were also found to be suitable for the individual development periods of the students. It was determined that family and community participation and out-of-school activities were supportive in gaining the skills, tendencies and values in the program to students. It has been observed that the measurement and evaluation tools have the necessary qualities according to the curriculum development principles in terms of student evaluation, but they do not have the necessary qualities in terms of teacher self-evaluation. It is thought that the suggestions in the research will contribute to the development of the new preschool curriculum.