Küçükturan, Ayşe Güler Başkent University - Faculty of Education - Department of Elementary Education, Turkey , Eyidoğan, Füsun Başkent University - Faculty of Education - Department of Elementary Education, Turkey

Evaluating the Concept Development in Early Childhood Education through Concept Mapping

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Concept maps are the tools that help to organize existing information or understand the newly learned knowledge, helps for advanced learning and concept development. The concept development of children in early childhood education is presented in this study with the use of concept maps specified to animal concepts. The study was conducted with 30 children in the age range of 4 to 6 who enrolled in an early childhood education institution. The data was collected through three open ended questions directed to the children which were “What is an animal?”, “Can you tell me three kinds of animals?” and “How do you understand that they are animals?”. The data was analyzed by the means of content analysis which is a qualitative method. The responds of the children were analyzed and the data collected from semi-structured interviews were presented as concept maps. By comparing the concept maps of the children in the same age, how their concept development occurred was explained. Several suggestions for science education were given based on the concept development.

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Animal , science education , concept maps , early childhood

Başkent University Journal Of Education

114