The study of the relationship between teachers' ways of perceiving the relationships they form with children and children' social skills

The teacher-child relationship in the preschool period and the nature of this relationship are both very important. The ways teachers perceive the relationship is essential in terms of evaluating and changing the interactions of teachers with children who struggle socially and emotionally. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between teachers' ways of perceiving the relationships they form with children, and children's social skills. The study was conducted based on quantitative research techniques and made comparisons using the relational scanning model. The population for the study consists of children who are in preschool education and their teachers in Isparta province central district in the 2013-2014 academic year. The study group was formed with 209 children who were randomly selected and 16 volunteer preschool teachers randomly selected among the children attending these schools. The data for the children and teachers in the research sampling were acquired through "Child Demograpfic Information" and "Teacher Demograpfic Information" forms. Teachers filled out the "4-6 Year-Old Social Skills Evaluation Scale" (Avcioglu, 2007) and the "Student-Teacher Relationship Scale-SSRS" (Pianta, 2001). The data was obtained from the research analyzed through a statistical package program used for "Descriptive Statistics", "Pearson Correlation Coefficient", "Independent-Samples t Test "and," Analysis of Variance (One-Way Anova)". According to the findings obtained from the research, it was found that the social skills of the children decreased as conflict perceived by the teacher increased, and the social skills of the child increased as the closeness and dependence perceived by teacher increased. It was seen that the quality of the relationship established between the child and the teacher was influenced by variables such as the age of the child, the experience of the teacher, the status of being an intern in the classroom, and the size of the class. As a result, as the relationship between the teacher and the child increases, the social skills of the children increase. Keywords: Preschool Education, Teacher-Child Relationship, Social Skills