Investigating the effect of pre-school education on primary education regarding family involvement and various variables

Pre-school education is the education process including all experiences of child from birth to the primary school. This period, including 0-6 years, is important during which child?s physical, mental, emotional and social development is very rapid and personality structure begins to characterized and child is obtained basic habits. Pre-school education makes the family one of the parts of the educational process through its structure based on the family involvement. For this reason, it is thought that pre-school education process does not only support child?s development but it also enables family to participate actively in education process. Being presented the results of the education given in the early period in terms of child and family is very important for emphasizing the usefulness of this period?s importance once again.The aim of this study is to put forward any differences between the children who had and who did not have pre-school education regarding their social skills, self-regulation and emotional intelligence development. Another aim of the study is also to investigate whether there is a significant difference between parents whose children had and whose children did not have pre-school education in terms of their involvement in educational process. Moreover, the parents? views about the involvement in education and teachers? views about the effect of pre-school education on primary school students were also investigated.The universe of the study is composed of 5683 students who are studying in the 1st grade of elementary schools affiliated to Ministry of Education in 2011-2012 spring semesters in Buca-district of İzmir- and their families and teachers. The sample of the study includes total of 929 students who had and did not have the pre-school education and who were determined through purposive cluster sampling method from 13 primary schools and their parents and teachers.In the research, the quantitative data were supported with qualitative data so that research has gained a depth size during data collection period. In the first stage of the research, Social Skills Evaluation Scale (for 7-12 years) which was developed by Avcıoğlu (2003), Self-regulation Skills Scale which was developed by Yıldız (2009) and Emotional Intelligence Scale for 7 Years Children which was developed by the researcher were applied to 1st grade primary students. Besides, The Family Participation Scale which was originally developed by Fantuzzo, Tighe and Childs (2000) and adapted in Turkish by conducting validity and reliability studies by Gürşimşek (2003) was applied to parents. Afterwards, the study was supported with qualitative data by interviewing with 1st grade classroom teachers and a group of families who were selected from the samples.At the end of the study, it was seen that there were significant differences between 1st grade students who had and who did not have pre-school education regarding the scores of social skills, emotional intelligence and self-regulation in favor of students who had pre-school education. In addition, it was seen that there was a significant difference between parents whose children had and whose did not have pre-school education regarding the family participation scores in favor of parents whose children had pre-school education. Finally, it was understood that qualitative data obtained from interviews conducted with teachers and parents supported the quantitative results of the research.Key Words: Pre-School Education, Primary Education, Family Involvement, Social Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Self-Regulation Skills.