The teachers' opinions on the effect of the science and nature activities implemented in the pre-school institutions on the children's ability to solve problems

It is pretty important that the period of gaining the ability to overcome difficulties begins early in life for the individuals, especially for the youngsters. Especially the preschool age is the most appropriate time for them to receive the necessary education that aims to help them gain these abilities. This is because of the fact that children participate in activities and environments that give them the opportunity of gaining these abilities at preschool age. Among these activities and environments, especially the preschool institutions and the science and nature activities that are implemented in these institutions are of vital importance. Excersises that are done with science and nature activities have substantial contribution for children to learn and improve their problem solving abilities. Excersises with science and nature activities provides children to improve their abilities such as imagination, creativity, observation, investigation, and arrangement, application and problem solving. Especially children who are in a positive attitude towards problems and have the desire and curiosity for exploring and discovering are encouraged more to gain these abilities with well-organized science and nature activities. In this research, it is aimed that the effect of the science and nature activities implemented in preschool institutions on the improvement of the problem solving abilities are determined in a way based on the proffessors? opinions. This research in which the screening model is used is carried out on 200 pre-school education teachers working in kindergartens under the preliminary school and in independent pre-school ii institutions in the city of Eskisehir. In order to collect data, a questionnaire consisting of 14 questions, 11 of which are close-ended and 3 of which are open-ended, is used in the research. In the analysis of the research papers, the teachers? answers to close-ended questions are calculated numerically and in percent. In this research, independent t test is used in order to determine whether the score averages of the answers are different according to the institutions the teachers work in. In order to determine whether they are different according to their seniority, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used. In condition that the F value is significantly different at the results of ANOVA, Turkey HSD (Turkey?s Honestly Singificant Difference Test) multiple comparisons test is used in order to determine between which groups the difference exists. In the analysis of the teachers? answers to the open-ended questions, detailed presentation of the open-ended questions is prepared in the frame constituting stage and the data obtained are presented on tables. According to the research results, the teachers are of the opinion that science and nature activities are rather satisfactory for helping children gain problem solving abilities. It is clearly understood that among the problem solving abilities, examination and organization abilities are improved in a satisfactory manner and that creativity, imagination, observation, numerical application, communication and social problem solving abilities are much sattisfactorily improved. In addition to this, according to the teachers, the most important reasons why science and nature activities cannot help children gain problem solving abilities are that the teachers are not sufficiently qualified for planning and implementing the science and nature activities and that the instruments for the science and nature activities are insufficient.