Examination of preschool teachers concerning the use for educational purposes the school yard

This research was conducted to school garden equipment and safety teachers working in schools with different characteristics, low, medium and high, examine teachers' views on using of school gardens in public and private preschools, using of school grounds, the views on the practice of education in the school pre-school program, and the obstacles faced by teachers in using of school grounds. Designed as a case study from qualitative research models, the participants of the study were 49 teachers working in schools with high school, middle and low security level, affiliated to the Ministry of National Education and Child Services General Directorate in Şahinbey and Şehitkâmil districts of Gaziantep province in 2014-2015 academic year. Participants were selected through sampling from the purposeful sampling methods that allow for the selection and in-depth investigation of situations that are thought to be rich in information, depending on the purpose of the research. n the study, firstly, high, medium and low schools with garden equipment and security were determined and then reached to teachers working in these schools. The gardening equipment and safety features of these schools were evaluated according to the checklist established by the researcher in order to determine the gardening equipment and the safety of the teachers' schools in the collection of the survey's data. Forty-nine teachers who worked in these schools voluntarily participated in the research. The interviewing technique of qualitative research methods was used in the data collection process of this research. In this study, a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher was used to gather interview data. Content and descriptive analyses were used in the qualitative data analysis to analyze the collected data. The results of the research has been determined that teachers do not think gardening in education institutions as same as interior spaces. It has come to the conclusion that the equipment that the teachers declared to be in the school garden is not capable of fully supporting the development and learning of children. Teachers are using the school garden; Energy expenditure, support for development, air change, material collection, playing games, learning by living. It has been determined that teachers who work in schools with low hardware and security use the garden once or not at a week, and teachers who work in schools with medium and high equipment and safety use it several times a week or more. Regarding the fields used in the horticulture, it has been determined that the opinions of teachers working in schools with medium and high security for gardening equipment and security are different from those of teachers working in similar, low schools. The use of playgrounds and vacant spaces, which are close to all of the teachers working in medium and high in the gardening and security area, has led to the conclusion that the teacher does not regard the school garden as a learning environment. It is determined that the most active activity of the teachers in the school garden is the play activity. According to the teachers, the activities in the garden support the social, emotional, cognitive, psychomotor development areas of the children. It has been determined that activities that support cognitive development (mathematics, etc.) are applied very little in school halls and that reading and writing preparations are not applied at all. Teachers who work in physical facilities and schools with low security have reached to the result that teachers who hardly use the gardens in pre-school activities and those who work in medium and high school with high security and physical equipment can not use the school garden efficiently and efficiently. Key words: School garden, outdoor environment, early childhood teachers