The impact of preschool education program on children's sense of belonging

The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of the Ministry of National Education's 2013 Preschool Education Program on children's sense of belonging. The study group consists of a total of 21 children, 10 girls and 11 boys, aged between 62-71 months, and 1 preschool teacher enrolled in a preschool education institution. Designed based on the triangulation pattern of the mixed methods research paradigm, this study aims to provide in-depth information about the sense of belonging of children in the study group. The data collection instruments of the study include the "Sense of Belonging Scale for Children" for quantitative data and the "Child Interview Form" and "Teacher Interview Form" for qualitative data. The analysis of the data has been conducted electronically. The results of the study indicate a positive effect of the preschool education program on children's sense of belonging in all sub-dimensions of the sense of belonging scale for children. When examining the variables of gender and participation in preschool education, no statistically significant difference was observed in the overall pre-test and post-test scores on the sense of belonging scale for children. However, detailed analyses revealed a differentiation in the school belonging sub-dimension, particularly in the post-test scores, based on gender. These findings suggest that girls develop a higher sense of belonging in the school belonging sub-dimension compared to boys, as indicated by the post-test scores.