The examination of physical characteristics of preschool institutions in Turkey

The purpose of this research is to specify physical properties of State Pre-school Education Institutions in Turkey, and makes contributions to improvement works with modern ideas. The descriptive research method is selected. The population of this research is constituted of State Pre-school Education Instutions in Turkey. 120 institutions from 12 cities; İstanbul, Balıkesir, Bursa, İzmir, Ankara, Antalya, Kayseri, Samsun, Trabzon, Antep, Erzurum, Malatya are attached to this search. These Institutions are independent preschools, preschools dependent on primary schools, preschools dependent on business high-schools. Meanwhile, 36 teachers joined to search by the way of interview. Mixed data collection method is used in this search. 'General Architectural Features of School Observation Form', 'General Properties of School Gardens Observation Form', 'Physical Properties of Classrooms Observation Form' and 'İnterview Form With Teachers' are developed to reveal sub-problem by the researcher. Descriptive statistics is used to analyse quantitative features. Content analyze method is used to analyse qualitative measurement. The results of the searches can be summarized as; the physical standarts of institutions are insufficent to compare international standarts. School buildings are not qualified on several counts such as; wideness, number of floors, additional education spaces. School gardens are generally concrete floor. There are not any educational design. Classroom size are above limit and wideless of classrooms are not sufficent. According to results of this search, the quality of pre-school education institutions in Turkey should be improved in terms of physical features and the standarts on this issue should be developed. Keywords: Pre-school education, school architecture, school buildings, school garden, kindergarden, learning centers, training materials.