The effects of activities in out of school learning environments on the social skills of 60-72 month-old children

The study aiming to test the effects of activities organized in out-of school learning environments on children's social skills, was planned as a mixed method composed of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The Embedded Design was used in this study. In this research experimental design of qualitative paradigm and case study method of quantitative paradigm were used. Semi experimental test composed of follow up control groups of pretest-post tests were used in the experimental design. Observational Case study was used in the case study. The study participants of the research were 22 children, 11 from the experimental group and 11 from the control group aged between 60-72 months, who were attending to two different kindergartens and day care centers in İzmit, district of Kocaeli during the fall semester of 2020-2021 education period which is affiliated to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies. In the scope of the research, the Social Skill Education programs bearing social skill activities organized out-of School learning environments for the experimental group in the preschool period, such as in the nature, the school garden and streets, were prepared by the researcher in order to improve social skills of children. Pretests were applied to both experimental and control groups before the program and classes having similar social skill levels were assigned as the experimental and control groups. The Program was applied to the assigned experimental group two times in a week for period of 8 weeks by the researcher and the class teacher. The preschool education program 2013 of the Ministry of Education continued to apply in the control group. "Social Skill Scale" developed by Özbey and Alisinanoğlu (2009), "Social Skill Interview Form composed of stories" developed by the researcher and "psychosocial observation form for preschool children" developed by Turkish Psychologist Association (1998) were applied both to the experimental and control group as a scaling tool of the research. It was observed that social skill activities organized out-of school learning environments effected children's social skills positively as a result of the research. According to the scores obtained from the Social Skill Scale and its sub scales, it was observed that the final tests of the groups showed meaningful differences, the final test scores of the experimental group found to be higher than the control group and the observation test scores showed a difference in favor of the experimental group. It was observed that there was a high correlation between correlation values of the Final test scores of the children in the experimental and control group and the "Social Skill Interview Forms composed of stories". When the long-term results of "psycho social observation form for preschool children" of the experimental group were examined there found to be a high-level increase in social skills of children observed; but in the control group it was observed that the results showed less increase compared to the experimental group. Suggestions were made to researchers and organizers in accordance with these results.