Teachers' opinions and practices regarding preschool children's decision-making and their participation in decision-making

This study aims to identify the teachers' opinions and practices regarding preschool children's decision-making and their participation in decision-making. The research was conducted by employing mixed methods which comprised both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study group of the research was consisted of 211 preschool education teachers assigned at 56 different public preschool education institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the province of Antalya. "Demographic Information Form" was used in obtaining the data on teachers in the sample. The quantitative data of the research were obtained with "Survey for Identifying Teachers' Opinions and Practices Regarding Preschool Children's Decision-making and Their Participation in Decision-making", while the qualitative data were obtained through "Semi-structured Interview Form" and "Observations of Educational Setting". The data obtained were then analyzed by using descriptive statistics and content analysis based on the research questions. The research data show that the teachers in general had an opinion regarding children's decision-making skills and that while 53.8% of teachers stated that children can make decisions in some topics (deciding the game they want to play, the clothes they would like to wear etc.), 46.1% of them said that children can make decisions in any topic. The majority of teachers (92.8%) stated that children cannot be allowed to make decisions in harmful cases (where the child could possibly hurt himself/herself or his/her surroundings). All of the participant teachers said that children have the capacity to make decisions, their decision-making skills improve depending on the decision-making opportunities they are offered and that the attitude of families towards children in particular play an important role in the development of decision-making skills of the child. With regards to allowing children to decide, it was discovered that teachers do give chance to children to make decisions, but they also may interfere with these decisions. In addition, they asserted that children must be involved in all activities carried out in the educational setting. It was observed that the majority of teachers think that children can make decisions in many subjects during curriculum preparation and implementation and can participate in decision-making. However, in observation findings, it was seen that children were not included in the decision-making process in situations such as selecting the activity they would do, how they would do it and which materials to use for the selected activity. Thus, it is recommended that teachers should receive trainings on the importance of supporting the development of decision-making skills in preschool children and as to how these skills can be promoted in educational setting.