1st Issue - International Journal of Early Childhood Education
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1st Issue - International Journal of Early Childhood Education
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, OCTOBER 2012 International Journal of Early Childhood Education Research Editorial Board Editor in Chief Riza Ulker, Zirve University, Turkey Editorial Board Members Wendy Whitesell, Penn State University, USA, Lütfü Ilgar, Istanbul University, Turkey Emine Ferda Bedel, Canakkale University, Turkey Şengül Ilgar, Istanbul University, Turkey Zuhal Yılmaz, Middle East Technical University, Turkey Kevser Koç, Gaziantep University, Turkey Burçin Öğrenir, City University of New York, USA Zeynep Işık Ercan,Purdue University-Fort Wayne, USA Journal Manager and Owner Riza Ulker 11 Radcliff Ct. Sicklerville, NJ 08081, USA Phone: 856 912 45 55 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Inclusion Level of Children Rights Issues In Social Studies Textbooks: (Case of Turkey and the United States) * Zihni MEREY1 Gazi University, Faculty of Education, Social Studies Education Harun PARPUCU University of Northern Iowa, College of Education, Curriculum and Instruction Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare the level of allocation of children rights issues in social studies textbooks in Turkey and the United States. For this aim, six social studies textbooks from both countries were examined. These textbooks were analyzed in terms of their level of “children rights issues,” in line of the Convention of Children Rights (CRC). This study is a qualitative study as a document analysis. A content analysis method was used to analyze the textbooks. As a result, it was observed that children rights issues were included more in Turkish textbooks. While the intensity scores of the “survival rights” subcategory was listed the highest in Turkish textbooks, on the other hand, the intensity scores of the “development rights” subcategory were placed the most in the United States textbooks. Key words: Children’s Rights, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child, Social Studies, Textbooks, Turkey, The United States. This study was presented at the International Conference on Global Issues of Early Childhood Education and Children's Rights, April, 27–29, 2012, Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey. 1 Zihni MEREY is currently a PhD at the Department of Social Studies Teaching. Her research interests include citizenship education, human rights (children rights), human rights education, democracy education, values education, and social studies education. Correspondence: PhD. Zihni MEREY, Gazi University, Faculty of Education, Department of Social Studies Teaching. 06400 Ankara/Turkey. E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +90 312 212 9806. * 1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Introduction The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) emerged after the adoption of several important human rights treaties large numbers of human of declarations, and several UN resolutions about human rights. For example, the Declaration of Geneva (1924), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Declaration of Children’s Rights (1959), Declaration on the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966) were drawn up to create formal obligations for human rights and serve as the background for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.” However, a large number of problems emerged regarding human rights implementation, needing special conventions to assure the implementation of the guaranteed rights. In addition to these treaties, there was also the history of special documents or special provisions for children’s rights (Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998; UNICEF, 2011). In 1978, on the eve of the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Child, a draft text was proposed for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Drawing heavily from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a working group within the United Nations collaborated on a draft, finally agreeing on became the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Final approval from United Nations Member States came when the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20th, 1989.” The Convention then became legally binding in September of 1990, after 20 States had ratified it. Many countries ratified the Convention very soon after it was adopted and others continued to ratify or accede to it, making it the most widely ratified human rights treaty (UNICEF, 2011). The concept of “the child” has become more clearly 2 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 defined and protected through the Convention, which has been ratified by every government in the world except for Somalia and the United States which have not ratified this UN treaty (Alderson, 2008; Save and Children, 1999). The recognition of the child’s interests and rights became real on the twentieth of November, 1989 with the adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child which is the first and only international legally binding text recognizing all the fundamental rights of the child. The Convention made clear the relationship between children’s rights and human rights, equating the two and protecting the child as a human being. As part of human rights, children’s rights are constituted by the fundamental guarantees and essential rights granted to all humans (UNICEF, 2011). The most straightforward statement of children’s rights as human rights exists in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (Cohen, 1980). However, the CRC is equally important as the major international covenant for moral and legal subjects possessed of fundamental entitlements. The CRC has also generated further international commitments and agreements in respect to children’s rights in key areas. For example, children involved in armed conflict, sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography were entered and enforced in the Optional Protocol in 2002 (Archard, 2004). The Convention protects the full range of human rights- civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian all of which have been modified to suit the requirements of children (Cohen, 1995). In Convention, although children’s rights are stated under different titles, it is possible to gather and study them under four primary groups as survival rights, rights to development, rights to protection, and rights to participation (Akyüz, 1999; Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2010a; Karaman - Kepenekçi & Aslan, 2011) 3 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Survival rights are a prerequisite for human rights. The Convention explains survival rights explicitly in Article 6, survival rights are understood to include human basic survival needs, such as “inherent right to life” (Article 6), “survival and development” (Article 6), avoiding “separation from parents” (Article 9), ”health and health service” (Article 24), “social security” (Article 26), “leisure, recreation and cultural activities” (Article 31), an adequate standard of living (Article 27), and the overall “implementation of rights” (Article, 4). The child has the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health, especially to “diminish infant and child mortality” (Article 24). According to this article, state parties shall develop primary health care, and provide adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water, health education, and family planning services (Alderson, 2008). Every child has the right to standards of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, and social development. State parties should assist families in need with necessary assistance, for example: food, clothing, and housing (Article, 27). Survival rights should be considered to include most of the child’s needs (Alderson 2008; Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998), and these rights are often repeated in other categories. Development rights stress the importance of fostering and nurturing the many dimensions of the child. According to the UNCR, Article 6 includes the rights to development. Development rights include, among others, the child’s rights to “parental guidance and the child’s evolving capacities” (Article 5), “to give name and nationality” (Article 7), “the preservation of identity” (Article 8), “family reunification” (Article 10), “the highest attainable standard of health and benefit from social insurance” (Article 26), “education” (Article 28 and 29), “the enjoyment of one’s culture, language and religion” 4 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 (Article 30), and that the same rights apply to “handicapped children” (Article 23), (Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998; Özdemir Uluç, 2008). This final article reflects is reflected concern about development in the Convention, providing specific development assistance for disabled children. Protection rights result from the Convention’s core value of human dignity. These rights, among others, include: “the right to be protected from economic situations” (Article 32), “from the illicit use of ...drugs” (Article 33), “from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” (Article, 34), “from torture and deprivation of liberty” (Article 37 ), “from armed conflict” (Article 38),“from abduction” (Article 35), “from denial of due process or other criminal and judicial safeguards” (Article 40) “the right to protect children from any form of discrimination” (Article 2), “from the kidnapping and retention of children abroad” (Article 11), “from maltreatment” (Article 19), “from deprived family” (Article 20/21), with “special protection to be granted to children who are refugees” (Article 22), from “all other forms of exploitation” (Article 36), and from “lack of rehabilitative care” (Article 39), (Akyüz,1999; Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998; Özdemir Uluç, 2008). The Convention protects children from all forms of physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, and maltreatment or exploitation and has provoked significant policy changes throughout the world (Franklin, 1986). According to the Convention the only restrictions are to protect the rights and reputations of others and to protect national security and public order as well as public health and morals (Freeman, 1997). In the UN Convention participation rights mainly appear in Articles 12-16, including rights to information (Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998). Children’s participation rights can be separated into two groups of rights in the Convention. The group articles focus on the forms of 5 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 participation and the condition of participation, covering articles 12, 13, 14, 15, 31 and 40 (Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998). These articles include: “The child’s rights to express an opinion” (Article 12), The key article of the Convention on participation is Article 12. Article 12, which applies to decision making within families as well as within other institutions (Howe & Covell, 2005), requires “states parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child” (Article 12). “This Convention encourages adults to listen to the opinions of children and involve them in decision-making -- not give children authority over adults. Article 12 does not interfere with parents' right and responsibility to express their views on matters affecting their children” (UNİCEF, 2011). The Convention says that children shall have the “right to freedom of expression” (Article 13), including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, as well as the right to obtain and make known information. The child’s right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is also protected (Article 14), alongside ‘the child’s right to meet with others and join or set up associations” (Article, 15). The child’s right to protection from interference with privacy, family, and home (Article, 16), their access to appropriate information and protections from harmful materials (Article, 17), the right to leisure, play, and participation in cultural and artistic activities (Article, 31), and the administration of juvenile justice (Article, 40) are all part of the Convention. The participation rights complement and overlap with protection and survival rights (Alderson, 2008). In the articles, the Convention gives all the children participation rights regardless of race, region, color, religion, or nationality and promotes their participation in activities of society, family, school, and local community. The other groups of participation rights focus on the requirements of participation. According to the Convention, the responsibilities of parents 6 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 are not only in bringing up their children in a way that is appropriate to their evolving capacities. Parents are also responsible for appropriate direction and guidance. The Convention also asserts that the state is responsible for assistance to the parents (Flekkoy & Kaufman, 1998). Children participate in countless activities and relationship in pairs or groups, such as playing games, digging ponds, acting, and cooking. The Place of Social Studies Textbooks in Children’s Rights Education The purpose of social studies in the elementary schools is to introduce children to the world of people. The main aim of the social studies courses that have been practiced in Turkey is expressed so as to provide an environment and opportunity for an individual to understand and to make contributions to himself/ herself, to the society in which he/ she lives, and to the world, through his/ her own wishes and skills. In other words, the main purpose for teaching social studies is citizenship education (Safran, 2005; MONE, 2005; Tezgel, 2006). In the United States, elementary schools have similar objectives for social studies, and they are considered part of citizenship education as the basic purpose of social studies (Chapin & Messick, 2002; Ellis, 2002). Social studies classes provide students as citizens who adopt democratic values with adjustment in the society and let them apply their information and richness in the life. Social studies classes always present the most significant possibilities for human rights education. Students learn about democratic governments and functions of these governments, and beliefs and values within the country’s rich cultural mosaic. Thus, students start developing the consciousness of responsibility they need to feel towards their countries. In this context, social studies classes provide benefit for individual to fulfill responsibilities as a member of world and country family in order to get human rights and democracy develop and spread around 7 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 (Tezgel, 2008). Social studies classes educate students as citizens who adopt democratic values with adjustment in the society and let them apply their information and richness in the life. Social studies classes are the ones that include human rights education in the first place. According to 42nd article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), “States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike”. This article emphasizes that it is required to actualize the convention. Also in accordance with this provision, in education children’s awareness is to be raised about rights which are given and recognized by CRC. This awareness in education can be achieved initially by textbooks (Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2010b). Textbooks are basic instructional materials that are prepared in accordance with a particular course’s teaching program. Textbooks are the most basic learning resources (Turner, 2004). They provide many advantages for educators, enabling them to animate the curricula and give life to subjects taught in the classroom (UNESCO, 2007; Aslan & Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2008). In social studies teaching, textbooks are not only the most important assistants of the teacher while giving the course but also they play the most important role in human rights education (Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2010b). Social studies courses are one of the most important courses of elementary education in both countries. They include history, philosophy, geography, law, sociology, and political sciences (citizenship education). Besides these issues, in social studies classes in Turkey, human rights issues are presented as interdisciplinary topics (MONE, 2005); and children are raised as individuals who know their rights and use them to fulfill their responsibilities (Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2010b). 8 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 On the other hand, United States textbooks in elementary education are textbooks programs. They contain an array of resources such as primary documents, art work, narrative histories, vocabulary lessons, skills lessons, and activities. In the United States, students are introduced to the Constitution of the United States as a part of the fifth-grade social studies curriculum in U.S. elementary schools. In primary schools, a paraphrased version of the Constitution is usually included in fifth-grade textbooks. It contains all of the parts, for example, the preamble, the 7 articles containing the rules by which citizens agree to live, and 27 changes or amendments (Parker, 2009). In addition, Individual rights are taught as fundamental values and principles in values education (Chapin & Messick, 2002; Chapin, 2009; Hoge, Field, Foster & Nickell, 2004; Parker, 2009; Seefeldt, 1997; Sunal & Haas, 2005; Van Cleaf, 1991; Zarrillo, 2004). Children’s rights education issues have been increasing since CRC (1989) was adopted by United Nations, and it is seen as one of the most challenging issues in the world, in relation to how to teach and protect children’s rights. Therefore, recently there have been a number of studies that focus on Akengin, 2008; Çakir Tunc, 2008; Ersoy & Ersoy, 2008; Ersoy, 2011; Covell, Howe & Polegato, 2011; Howe and Covell, 2009; Habashi & at el, 2010; KaramanKepenekçi, 2006; Kop & Gül, 2010; Naqvi, 2001; Neslitürk & Ersoy, 2007; Özdemir Uluç, 2008; Merey, 2012a,; Reynaert, Bouverne & Vandevelde, 2009; Salman Osmanağaoğlu, 2007; Smith, 2007; Taylor & Percy-smith, 2008; Thomas, 2007; Uçuş, 2009; Ulusavaş, 2008; Yurtsever, 2009) children’s rights education. However, very few studies in the literature have attempted to examine the inclusion of children’s rights issues in textbooks for students (Karaman-Kepenekçi, 2009, 2010a; 2010b; Karaman - Kepenekçi & Aslan, 2011; Nayir and Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2011). 9 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 As it can be seen there is not any research about children’s rights issues in the United States social studies textbooks. On the other hand, as the above studies demonstrate in Turkey, there have been a number of studies about children rights issues conducted by Karaman – Kepenekçi. For example; Karaman-Kepenekçi & Aslan (2011)’s “Children’s Rights in School Level Books” study aimed to determine level of allocation of children’s rights in books, and Karaman-Kepenekçi (2010a)’s study determined to what extend and how children's rights are allocated in the stories in the 100 Basic Literary Works list recommended for children in Turkey. Both studies found that statements about development rights were higher than the others. In Nayir and Karaman – Kepenekçi’s (2011) study on “children’s participation rights in elementary schools’ Turkish Textbooks “, it has been observed that the right to set up an association and the right to assemble peacefully were given less places when compared with the right to express opinions and right to participate in decisions. The level of allocation to children’s rights issues in United States social studies textbooks has not been examined yet. Therefore, it may be important to examine the children’s rights issues in both countries’ textbooks. Comparing both countries’ textbooks will help to investigate and explain the instruments that textbook authors should develop in order to include not only the well-established local, regional and national dimension but also the global dimension in textbooks. Purpose The main objective of this study is to make a comparison between social studies textbooks in Turkey and the United States in terms of their level of allocation to children rights issues. 10 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Research Model This study, aiming to define the inclusion levels of children’s rights in Turkey and USA social studies elementary (4-6 grades) textbooks, is a qualitative study as a document analysis. Document analysis includes the analysis of written materials containing the targeted fact or facts (Yıldırım ve Şimşek, 2005). Data Collection In this study, the elementary (4-6) social studies textbooks in Turkey and USA are analyzed. For the purposes of this study, we analyzed the Turkish social studies textbooks was approved with Head Council of Education and Morality decision numbered 190118 and revised and updated by Department of Publications, Ministry of National Education in 2011. For the USA part of the study, we analyzed the Unıted States social studies textbooks prepared by the Harcourt Horizons School Publishers in 2005 and revised and recommended for all the states in 2008 and has taken Award Winning program. These were chosen due to the fact that there isn’t one set of standards valid for educational textbooks nation-wise and different states have different textbooks and practices in USA. When presenting the findings, we quoted the gains of both countries’ textbooks directly. Since first level (4th and 5th grade), and second level (6th and 7th grade) are the levels at which social Studies Education is presented in Turkey, these levels were selected for our study. Accordingly, a second a sample group was formed comprising social studies curricula in the United States that are taught to students of the same age group. 11 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Data Analysis We used content analysis for the data analysis of this study. Main activity in the content analysis is to gather similar data around certain concepts and themes, and to organize and interpret them in a style the audience can understand. Briefly, it is to reveal the concepts and relations to explain the gathered data (Yıldırım ve Şimşek, 2005). It is essential in a study to define the analysis unit to be used (Baş ve Akturan, 2008). Later, sentences that form a meaningful whole are coded. The coding could take place in advance according to the concepts that the study is based on. Further, the findings are interpreted. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), defining the categories and subcategories is central to the content analysis. In this research, the analysis category is defined as "Children’s Rights". This analysis is divided into four sub-categories: "Right to Development’, ‘Right to Survival", "Right to Protection," and "Right to Participation". Each subcategory is related to relevant article of Bill of Children’s Rights. For instance: right to survive is related to articles 6, 9, 18, 24, 26, 27, and 31 in Bill of Children’s Rights; right to develop is related to articles 5, 7, 8, 10, 21, 23, 28, and 29; right for protection is related to articles 2, 11, 19, 20, 22, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40; finally right for participation is related to articles 3, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 (Özdemir Uluç, 2008). These sub-categories are defined according to the Convention on Children’s Rights, as follows: Survival Rights: These rights include the provisions that meet the basic needs of a child, such as: the child's right to live, proper living standards, medical assistance, diminishing infant and child mortality, nutrition, shelter, and so on. 12 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Development Rights: These rights consist of the right to education, the right to play and rest, cultural rights, religion, conscience and freedom of thought, and other rights such as the right to receive information, which children need in order to perform at the highest level.. Protection Rights: These rights require children to be protected against every kind of child neglect, abuse, and exploitation. For refugee children, these rights include topics such as: special care, the protection of the child in the judicial system, children in situations where there is armed conflict, child labor, sexual exploitation, and substance abuse. Participation Rights: These rights allow the child to gain an active role in society; these rights are freedom to express his opinions, active participation in matters concerning the child, and taking part in associations, such as the right of peaceful assembly. Reliability and Validity Reliability in qualitative studies means whether the same results will be obtained in similar environments and whether other researchers are able to get the same results with the same set of data (Yıldırım ve Şimşek, 2005). For the purposes of reliability in this study, Inal’s (1998) example was applied and researchers coded for both countries’ textbooks (4-6th grades Social Studies student Texbooks) at different times. For examples two subcategories and a textbook were arbitrarily selected and coded by the co-authors of the paper (namely the ‘Survival Rights’ and ‘Development Rights and ‘Turkish and United States Textbook 5 and 6 Gardes’). For the reliability of coding, two researchers separately read all gains in the book and coded the gains meaningfully related in the relevant boxes. Researchers compared the two sets of separate analysis results and controlled consistency. In order to assure the validity of the work, when analyzing books, books are examined as a whole, except for the table of contents, chronology, bibliography, glossary, pictures, photos, maps, and graphics were not 13 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 excluded in the coding process. Hall & Houten (1983) and Yıldırım and Şimşek (2005) state that at least a 70-% agreement between coders is required for reliability in qualitative studies. In this reliability study, a 95-% agreement between the researchers/coders is reached. Validity in qualitative studies means observing the researched phenomenon as it is and through an impartial lens (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2005). In the study, as a unit in an analysis, a sentence is chosen and how often the subcategories are seen in each sentence is detected. While analyzing the books, both the apparent and the hidden content are taken into consideration. In plain words, the words corresponding to sub-categories in every sentence are considered as the sentences or statements that are defined by the stated sub-categories. The significance of every topic is assessed through categorizing, defining, and coding processes (Karaman - Kepenekçi, 2011). To determine the total number of words in the texts, each word was counted individually and, accordingly, the values of the subcategories within the textbooks are expressed as percentage, frequency, and intensity values in the tables. In order to find out the approximate total word number in each textbook, the remaining number of pages has been calculated and then multiplied by an average number of words on a page. The average number of words on a page was determined by calculating the average number of words from the three pages chosen randomly from the beginning, middle, and end of each textbook. The values of categories in the textbooks have been indicated in the tables as frequency, percentage, and intensity values. Coding was done by the researcher. For each textbook, the subcategory percentages and the subcategory intensity scores were obtained using the formulas given below (Aslan & Karaman- Kepenekçi, 2008; Karaman – Kepenekçi, 1999; 2005). 14 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Subcategory frequency Subcategory percentage = __________________________x 100 Total frequency of all subcategories Subcategory frequency Subcategory intensity score =___________________________x 1000 Total word number of the texts Due to small values in the original calculation, the intensity scores of all subcategories were multiplied by 1000 in order to avoid complications while interpreting. This modified operation on intensity scores was merely a matter of convenience. 4. Findings When Turkish social studies elementary education textbooks from fourth through sixth grades are examined, as can be seen in the table, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity score related to children’s rights are given the utmost place in SS4 (%33.3, n=727) textbooks and followed respectively by SS5 (%29.1, n=706) and SS6 (%23.6, n=644) textbooks. When sub-categories about children’s rights are examined as a whole, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity score related to the right to survival are given the utmost place in SS4 textbooks (%36.6, n=882) and then are followed respectively with the development of rights (%31.4, n=767), and the right to participation (%16.6, n=390). Also, the intensity score about the right to protection are rarely given (%1.5, n=38). 15 Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Table 1: Dissemination of all of the subcategories in Turkish social studies textbooks according to frequency (f), percentage (%), and intensity score (IS) Turkish social studies textbooks Scores Categories Social Studies 4 Social Studies 5 Social Studies 6 (21.750)* (24.100)* (27.245)* Total f % IS f % IS f % IS f % IS Survival Rights 321 44.2 14.7 291 41.2 12.0 270 41.9 9.9 882 42.5 36.6 Development Rights 220 30.3 10.1 256 36.2 10.6 291 45.3 10.7 767 36.9 31.4 Protection Rights 16 2.2 0.7 13 1.9 0.5 9 1.3 0.3 38 1.8 1.5 Participation Rights 170 23.3 7.8 146 20.7 6.0 74 11.5 2.7 390 18.8 16.5 Total 727 100 33.3 706 100 29.1 644 100 23.6 2077 100 86 *Approximate total word numbers of the social studies student textbooks 4.1. Survival rights of children in Turkish social studies textbooks As can be seen in table one, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to survival are given the utmost place in SS4 (%14.7, n=321) textbooks. SS4 is followed respectively by SS5 (%12.0, n=291) and SS6 (%9.9, n=270) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the Turkish textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to survival. • In order to maintain a healthy and happy life, basic needs are required and then other needs must be met. (SS4, p.84) • Do you know what is your most important right? It is survival right, isn’t it? (SS5, p. 28) • I know that I have the right to benefit from health services. (SS6, p.161) 16 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH 4.2. Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Development rights of children in Turkish social studies textbooks As can be seen in table one, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to development are given the utmost place in the SS6 (%10.7, n=291) textbook. SS6 is followed respectively by SS5 (%10.6, n=256) and SS4 (%10.1, n=220) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the Turkish textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to development. • The City Council opened a new center for the visually handicapped. Suna and Ceren went there. Suna goes there everyday no., She is reading aloud from textbooks and is recording them to tape. (SS4, p.119) • We have fun a lot when I play with my friends, We joke with each other and laugh…Our game’s group is growing day by day. (SS5, p.16) • I can explain my opinion freely (SS6, p.1161) 4.3. Protection rights of children in Turkish social studies textbooks As can be seen in table one, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to protection are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%0.7, n=16) textbook. SS4 is followed respectively by SS5 (%0.5, n=13) and SS6 (%0.3, n=9) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the Turkish textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to protection. • If the basic rights of a child are disobeyed anywhere in the world, this must be stopped with legal regulations (SS4, p.45) 17 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH • Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 The Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHCEK) in Turkey performs implementation and follow-up of the Convention of Children's Rights Treaty. (SS5, p.22) • 4.4. I know that I have safety of life and property by the state (SS6, p.161) Participation rights of children in Turkish social studies textbooks As can be seen in table one, in Turkish social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to survival are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%7.8, n=170) textbook. SS5 is followed respectively by SS5 (%6.0, n=146) and SS6 (%2.7, n=74) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the Turkish textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to survival. • I am a fourth grade student; I like school a lot, (including) my teacher and my classmates. I participate in social activities in my school. (SS4, p.25) • The basketball team is one of the favorite groups in our school. I am a member of the basketball team. (SS5, p.19) • I know that I have the right to vote and be elected. (SS6 p.161) When the United States social studies textbooks for elementary education are examined for fourth and sixth grades, as can be seen in table, the intensity scores related to children’s rights are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%1.9, n=217) textbook, followed respectively by SS5 (%1.4, n=211) and SS6 (%1.0, n=146) textbooks. When examining sub-categories about children’s rights as a whole, in United States social studies textbooks, the statements related to right to development are given the utmost place (%1.9, n=249), which is followed respectively by right to participation (%1.5, n=195), and the right to survival (%0.9, n=130). However, the statements about protection rights are not given in United States textbooks. 18 Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Table 2: Dissemination of all of the subcategories in the United States social studies textbooks according to frequency (f), percentage (%), and intensity score (IS) in the United States social studies textbooks Scores Categories Social Studies 4 Social Studies 5 Social Studies 6 (21.750)* (24.100)* (27.245)* Total f % IS f % IS f % IS f % IS Survival Rights 50 23.0 0.4 45 21.3 0.3 35 24.0 0.2 130 22.6 0.9 Development Rights 105 48.4 0.9 76 36.0 0.5 68 46.6 0.5 249 43.4 1.9 Protection Rights 0 -- -- 0 -- -- 0 -- -- -- -- -- Participation Rights 62 28.6 0.6 90 42.7 0.6 43 29.4 0.3 195 34.0 1.5 217 100 1.9 211 100 1.4 146 100 1.0 574 100 4.3 Total *Approximate total word numbers of the social studies student textbooks 4.3. Survival rights of children in United States social studies textbooks As can be seen in table one, in United States social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to survival are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%0.4, n=50) textbook. SS4 is followed respectively by SS5 (%0.3, n=45) and SS6 (%0.2, n=35) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the United States textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to survival. • I ran away from slavery. I earn an honest living as a printer. (SS5, p.436) • Americans have the right to own property. They also have the right to privacy or to keep secrets. (SS4, p.212). • Marisa chose to go to the store with lower prices. But once she arrived, she saw only one maroon jacket. The clerk told her that there was a scarcity of them (SS6, p.276). 4.3. Development rights of children in social studies textbooks in the United States 19 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 As can be seen in table one, in United States social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to development are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%0.9, n=105) textbook. SS4 is followed respectively by SS5 (%0.5, n=76) and SS6 (%0.5, n=68) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the United States textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to development. • Today, 14 year old Jacob Fielding will learn how to place type into the printing press at the print shop where he lives and works as an apprentice (SS5, p.200) • In the United States, however, children are free to go to public school. The freedom to learn brings with it the duty to learn. (SS4, p.212) • 4.4. Six students from all across Canada are working together on a project (SS6, p.130) Participation rights of children in social studies textbooks in the United States As can be seen in table one, in United States social studies textbooks, the intensity scores related to right to survival are given the utmost place in the SS4 (%0.6, n=62) textbook. SS4 is followed respectively by SS5 (%0.6, n=90) and SS6 (%0.3, n=43) textbooks. The following sentences, quoted from the United States textbooks, can be given as examples of the statements related to right to survival. • Whether you are voting for your favorite dessert or for class president, voting is an important right and responsibility (SS4, p. 216). • I guess we can vote on that in the future. (SS4, p. 217) • We could hold a town meeting in the summer. (SS5, p. 172) When all the textbooks are considered generally, tolay intensty scores for children rights are quite far when the textbooks taught in Turkey (%86) and the United States (%4.3) are 20 Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH considered; therefore, it could be said that children rights issues are given at least place in the United States socila studies textbooks. Table 3. Total Intensity of the Issues of Children Rights in the Textbooks Textbooks Intensity Scores (%) Turkey The United States Social Studies Students 4 33.3 Social Studies Students 5 29.1 Social Studies Students 6 23.6 Total 86 Social Studies Students 4 1.9 Social Studies Students 5 1.4 Social Studies Students 6 1.0 Total 4.3 Discussion and Conclusion The UNCHR is part of international law and states parties are bound by international law to implement the rights of the child. Therefore, states parties have the obligation to bring their law, policies, and practices in accordance with the standards of the Convention (Howe and Covell, 2005). In the Convention, a number of article deals with education and children’s rights education. We can divide the Convention’s provision on education into three categories. First, there is the child’s right to education (Article 28 and 23). This category covers the rights to free primary education, the right to accessible secondary and higher education and providing the handicapped with appropriate education. Second category includes the rights of education (Articles 2, 12, 13, 14, and 15). These are related to the rights to non-discrimination, participation, and the fundamental freedoms such as freedoms of expression, thought, and religion. Third category deals with education rights (Article 29, 42). These articles refer to 21 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 education in which children are able to know their rights and to develop respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (Verhellen, 1993; Cited in, Howe & Covell, 2005). Children's rights education is a form of citizenship education that gives primary attention to educating children on their basic rights and responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Howe & Covell, 2005, 2009; Johnny, 2005; Krappmann, 2006; Osler & Starkey, 1998). According to 42nd articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, “States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike”. This article emphasizes that it is required to actualize the convention. As this article states, parties have responsibility to teach the children their rights. A person who does not know his/her rights cannot be expected to have awareness of and skill to use rights. Integrating knowledgeable and responsible children with developed skill to use rights into society depends on providing children with a sound basic education. 28th article of the convention declares that all children have right to education, with no discrimination, and a framework of education quality is depicted. 29th article proposes a child-centered teaching and learning model, and thus, it puts forward a structure where students actively participate in education process, solve their problems on their own, and gain the self-confidence to learn lifelong and to make right decisions (Aktürk, 2006). Children informed of rights they have will be individuals with awareness to use and protect these rights, and they will respect others’ rights (Karaman Kepenekçi, 2000). In this comparison study, Turkish and the United States social studies student’s textbooks are analyzed in terms of their level of children rights in line with “UNCHR.” Accordingly, the most striking finding at the end of this study is that the number of children rights references in Turkish textbooks is much more than in United States textbooks. This is 22 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 similar to comparison studies of human rights education. For instance; Karaman - Kepenekçi (2005) obtained similar findings in their comparison of Turkey and USA citizenship and human rights textbooks, and Aslan & Karaman - Kepenekçi (2008) found the same in their comparison of Turkey and France Turkish language textbooks, and so did Merey (2012a) in their comparison of The United States and Turkish curricula. These results are most likely related to elementary education curricula. The most recently updated elementary curricula have been implemented in Turkey since the 2004- 2005 school year, when it was implemented in elementary schools. Inclusion of the human rights issues in each textbook as an intermediary discipline was accepted as a principle; in other words, human rights education issues are interspersed in elementary education curricula (Aslan & Karaman-Kepenekçi 2008; Ceyhan & Yigit 2004; Gözütok & Senar, 2008; Primary National Education Program, 2005). The most important reason for the Turkish social studies textbooks to have so much emphasis on human rights and particularly on children’s rights is due to human rights intermediary discipline, which was taken into consideration while social studies textbooks were being written. Now, Social Studies subject has an important place in human rights education through interdisciplinary relations in Turkish curricula. Another reason to have so much emphasis on human rights issues is that Turkish social studies textbooks are being used as a tool to raise awareness in students directly about children’s rights issues through contents of textbooks. Turkish social studies textbooks focus on human rights issues, in particular children’s rights issues. When studying textbooks, topics such as “Active Citizen” (TT, 4, P136), “How Can I Express My Thought” (TT, 4 P.16), “I Respect others” (TT4, P.20), “People and Government” (TT4, P.146), “I Learn My Rights” (TT5, P.12), “We Have Rights and Responsibility towards Children’s Rights” (TT5, P.22), “Children’s Rights” (TT5, P.26), and “Living Democracy” 23 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 (TT6, P.202) are learned. This is consistent with social studies gains within curricula (MEB, 2011). The intensity scores for the children’s rights issues in the United States social studies textbooks are less than that of Turkish social studies textbooks. Reasons for the lesser inclusion of children rights in United States textbooks may be summarized as follows: the most important reason could be the fact that citizenship, democracy, and human rights subjects are not generally included in elementary level curricula in the states except bigger ones such as New York, California, and New Jersey. Human rights and citizenship are taught only within Government and Civilization subjects on high school level (Chapin & Messick, 2002). Another important reason could be that teaching basic human rights and freedoms as democratic values takes place only as a suggestion in USA social studies curricula. Human rights subjects as individual rights (e.g., right to liberty, right to dignity, right to security) freedoms (e.g., freedom of worship, freedom of thought, freedom to participate in the political process), and responsibilities (e.g., to respect human life, to respect the rights of others, to be tolerant of different points of view) are suggested under the title of democratic values and beliefs within social studies curriculum. In other words, human rights issues are recommended to be taught as democratic values by National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) within social studies curricula (NCSS, 1994; 2010). There is a very important place for values education in the United States, with the Center for Civic Education establishing certain standards for values education. Several values have been treated as basic values in social studies teaching, and they have been recommended to be taught at the elementary level as basic values. Individual rights are taught as fundamental values and principles of American democracy in values education (Chapin & Messick, 2002; Chapin, 2009; Hoge, Field, Foster 24 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 & Nickell, 2004; Parker, 2009; Seefeldt, 1997; Sunal & Haas, 2005; Van Cleaf, 1991; Zarrillo, 2004). The first remarkable finding when comparing two countries’ textbooks is that intensity score on survival rights sub-category in Turkish textbooks is much more than that in the United States textbooks. In addition, in Turkish textbooks, the survival rights sub-category is given more place when compared to other subcategories. This result is not consistent with earlier studies Karaman - Kepenekçi & Aslan (2011), Merey (2012a), Karaman-Kepenekçi (2010), and Özdemir Uluç (2008). In these studies, survival rights category was not found more than others subcategories. For instance, Karaman-Kepenekçi’s (2010a) study determined to what extent and how children's rights are allocated in the stories in the 100 Basic Literary Works list recommended for children in Turkey”. This study found that the rate of statements on development rights was higher than the others. The second finding showed that the intensity score for the category of development rights in Turkish social studies textbooks was almost double that in the United States textbooks. In Turkey, there have been a number of studies by Özdemir Uluç (2008) about children’s rights in elementary curricula, and Merey (2012a) added another study on children’s rights in social studies curricula in elementary education. They obtained similar findings. Along the lines of the present study, the intensity score of the development rights subcategory in elementary curricula was found to be the most after participation subcategory, in consistence with studies by Özdemir Uluç ( 2008) and Merey (2012a). In this study, it was observed that the ‘Participation Rights’ subcategory was more included in Turkish social studies textbooks than in United States textbooks. The result is not 25 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 consistent with previous research findings (Merey, 2012a). In the study by Merey (2012a) on children’s rights in elementary social studies curricula, a comparative study was conducted and in Merey’s (2012b) “Political Rights in Social Studies Textbooks in Turkish Elementary Education”, the intensity score of the ‘participation rights’ subcategories in elementary school textbooks is found to be much higher than the other subcategories. On the other hand, in the United States intensity score of participation rights was the second most included subcategory. This result can be explained by the basic purpose of social studies. Chapin and Messick (2002) said that the main purpose for teaching the social studies is citizenship education. To achieve citizenship education, there are four major goals. These are knowledge, skills, values and participations. In the United States, participation plays the most important role, where student participation in the government of their own school through student councils has long been a tradition in middle and high school. Such participation allows some students to practice democracy and gives students the freedom to initiate issues and solve problems (Sunal & Haas, 2005). The same situation can be seen in Turkish social studies teaching goals. In fact, when we examined the intensity scores, the subcategory “participation of rights” in Turkish textbooks in Turkey was observed to be higher than in the United States textbooks. This situation results most likely from social studies education curricula. In Turkey, the implemented curriculum has included many activities for children since Social Studies Curriculum was prepared with a constructivist education approach in 2005. Turkish social studies curriculum replaced textbook-based teaching with activity-based teaching, containing many activities that encourage student participation (Safran, 2005; Şimşek 2009, Cited in, Merey, 2012b) . Another important finding is related to protection rights. They can only be found in Turkish studies textbooks. In other words, statements about children’s rights to protection are 26 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 not found in the United States textbooks. This result in Turkish textbooks is not consistent with research about that by Özdemir Uluç (2008), and Merey (2012a) who found no gains about children’s protection rights in elementary education. In addition, Karaman- Kepenekci & Aslan (2011) reached similar results, with the present study on children’s rights in early childhood education books. In their study, protection rights were found emphasized less than the other categories. This shows that textbooks and curricula are not parallel to each other and children’s rights in elementary curricula are not distributed according to student class level. 27 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 References Akengin, H. (2008). A Comparative study on children’s perceptions of the child rights in the Turkish Community of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Education, 129. Aktürk, S. (2006). Avrupa Birliği sürecınde Türkiye’de çocuk hakları ve güvenliği. Yayınlanmamış Yüksek lisans Tezi, Mustafa Kemal Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Hatay. Akyüz, E. (1999). Cumhuriyet döneminde çocuk hukukundaki gelişmeler. 2.Ulusal Çocuk Kültürü Kongresi.” (Yayıma Hazırlayan: B. 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(1991). Action in elementary social studies. New Jersey: Parentice Hall, Englewood Cliff. Yıldırım, A. ve Şimşek, H. (2005). Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri. (Güncelleştirilmiş Geliştirilmiş 5. Baskı). Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık. Yurtsever, M. (2009). Ebeveyn Çocuk Hakları Tutum Ölceğının Gelıstırılmesı ve Anne Babaların Çocuk Haklarına Yonelık Tutumlarının Farklı Değışkenler Açısından Incelenmesı, Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezı, Marmara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Istanbul. Zarrillo, J.J. (2004). Teaching elementary social studies principles and applications. New Jersey: Perason Merrill Parentice Hall, 34 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 Verhellen, E. (1993). Children’s Rights and Education, School Psychology International, 14 (3) 199-208. APPENDIX A The Textbooks used in this study Turkish Textbooks 1. Koyuncu Kaya M.,Dag, O., Kocak, E., Yildirim, T,. Unal, M. (2010). Primary School Social Studies Turkis Textbook 4 (in Turkish). (Ed, Ismail Hakki Demircioglu). Ankara: Milli Egitim Yayinlari. 2. Bafiol, S., Unal, F., Azer,H., Yildiz, A. & Evirgen, O. F. (2010). Primary School Social Studies Turkis Textbook 5 (in Turkish). (Ed, Ismail Hakki Demircioglu). Ankara: Milli Egitim Yayinlari. 3. Genc, E., Polat, M. M., Basol, S., Kaya, N., Azer, H., Gokce, S., Koyuncu, M., Gok, A., Yildiz, A., Yilmaz, D. & Ozcan, A. (2010). Primary School Social Studies Turkis Textbook 5 (in Turkish). (Ed, Mustafa Safran). Ankara: Milli Egitim Yayinlari. The United States Textbooks 1. Bacon, P., Bencloski, J., Buggey, J., Cunha, S., Fournier, E., Frank, R., Hardwick, S., Lanegran, D., Kaminski, J.P., Mancke, E., Manson, G., Meyer, M., Miyares, I., McKibben, C., Raboteau, A. & Strong, W. A. (2005). Primary School Social Studies United States Textbook 4,(Ed:, Michael J. Berson), Newyork. 35 Harcourt School Publishers: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 1-36 2. Bacon, P., Deans-Smits, S., Nichols, R., Johnson, J.W., Kaminski, J.P., Mancke, E., Banner, J. M., Egbo, C., Patrick , J.J., Frank, R., Giesburg, J., McKibben, C. & Raboteau, A. A. (2005). Primary School Social Studies United States Textbook 5,(Ed:, Michael J. Berson), Harcourt School Publishers: Newyork. 3. Gerberding, R.A., Sack, R.H., Caulker, P.S., O’Connor, D., Bast, R., B.Champion, C.B., Ganz, m.a., Pierard, R., Reiter, K.D., Soergel, P.M., Treadgold, W., Matthew, R., Sabol, S., Chio, Y.J., Glosser, S., Peterson, M. & Talbot, Cynthia (2005). Primary School Social Studies United States Textbook 6,(Ed:, Michael J. Berson), Harcourt School Publishers: Newyork. 36 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 The Reflection of Violence Perception on Drawings at Preschool Period Children Assoc.Prof. Dr. Adalet Kandıra Prof. Dr. Yücel Gelişlic a Assoc.Prof Dr. Fatma Tezel Şahinb MA. Uzm Elçin Yazıcıd c Gazi University, Ankara,Turkey b Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey d Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey Abstract Children at preschool period could eyewitness the violence experienced at their families of the community they live in or be directly exposed to it. The way children are affected by violence or how they will react to it could reveal itself in various forms. It is likely to see that there happen some emotional, mental, behavioural and social disorders at children exposed to violence or witnessing to it, it might cause some psychological and physical damage and that it might also cause some behavioural disorders, such as aggression, at various levels. Due to its traumatic effects in its nature, violence could lead to some ill-effects on different functional domains and cause a threat on child’s mental health. Therefore, violence at preschool period is an issue that should be assessed in a multidimensional way. The purpose of the current study was to determine the perception of violence (the reflection of it on their drawings) at preschool period children. Study group consisted of 50 children attending a kindergarten within a primary school in the city of Ankara in the academic year of 2011-2012. The research is a descriptive study based on a quantitative analysis. The data of the study were collected through the solution of the depictive expressions children drew in their pictures over the perception of violence. Their perception of violence was assessed through the pictures they drew by making a descriptive analysis. Keywords:Preschool period, child drawings, violence d Correnpendant Author: [email protected] 37 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Violence may occur in the character of physical, sexual, emotional and negligence owing to a variety of reasons at interpersonal, self-oriented or societal levels (Barter, Renold, Berridge and Cawson, 2004: 31; Margolin and Gordis, 2004: 152; Işıkhan and Yıldırım, 2006: 73). Children are the ones affected most and in the most vulnerable positions. Acceptability of violence and physical punishment towards children depends upon the values, attitudes and perceptions of societies. Besides, it is suggested that violence and physical punishment towards chldren should be handled with respect to human rights (Deveci, Karadağ and Yılmaz, 2008: 353; Yurtal and Artut, 2008: 149). Children eyewitness violence sometimes at school, sometimes in friend circle or they are directly exposed to violence. The children eye witnessing and exposed to violence are influenced by this at every age and especially in the early childhood, they may exert some negative behavior. While the way children are affected by violence depends on age and cognitive development, there have been some somatic symptoms observed in the studies such as behavior disorders like aggressiveness and guilt, depression, emotional or psychological disorders, over-fear, post-traumatic stress symptoms (emerging in cases causing severe stress) like nightmare , sleep disorders, academic and cognitive disorders (Jaffe, Baker and Cunningham, 2004: 9; Rossman, Rea, Graham-Bermann and Butterfield, 2004: 30; Goddard and Bedi, 2010: 7; Ayan, 2011: 138; Kalkan and Karadeniz- Özbek, 2011: 35-36). Emerging itself in such dimensions as emotional, physical, verbal, sexual, political and many more, violence has become a case so frequently encountered in school settings as it was in every sphere of society (Allen, 2009: 177). The concepts of violence and school, which should never accompany each other, have gradually entered into the school life. There are a lot of reasons for violence; however, such 38 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 factors as the features of children and directors at schools, the size of the school, and the location of the school are among the most important causes of violence children face at schools (Barter, Renold, Berridge and Cawson, 2004: 9; Demirtaş and Ersözlü, 2007: 180). Violence at school creates a threatening atmosphere, causes physical and emotional injuries, thus hampering the success of the children involved. Through the effective educational programs, event of violence could be prevented (Deveci, Karadağ and Yılmaz, 2008: 352; Ayan, 2011: 139). Violence, along with the psychological, social cultural and social economic dimension, take place in mass communication of media and especially in movies, series, cartoons broadcast on television channels. Fear, sadness, and emotional responses of adults towards the catastrophes and crises broadcast in mass communication of media such as the internet and television lead children to be seized with fear about the safety of the family. As a result, there might appear some problems in the sleep, eating and toilet habits of children as well as leading to isolation from play and social settings, showing more aggressive behavior and restlessness in the relations with others (Ayrancı, Köşgeroğlu and Günay, 2004: 134; Erwin and Morton, 2008: 107; Yurtal and Artut, 2008: 150). This study sets out to examine the reflection of violence perception on drawings at preschool period children. Method The study is a descriptive one based on a quantitative analysis. The study group is comprised of the 50 children attending kindergarten at an elementary school in 2011-2012 educational terms in Ankara. 39 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 When the demographic features of the group is examined, it is seen that 54.0% is male, 46.0% is female, as for the age distribution of mothers, 60.0% is between 3039, 20.0% between 40-49, and below 29 years of age, and as for the fathers, 68.00% between 30-39, 14.0% Between 40-49, 10% 50 and above and 8.0% 29 and below years of age. When their education level is considered, 40.0% of the mothers are high school graduates, 28.0% are elementary , secondary school and university graduates, 4.0% is literate , considering the educational level of their fathers, 42.0% of them are university graduates, 34.0% are high school graduates, 20.0% are primary-secondary school graduates and 4.0% are literate. On the other hand, when it comes to the employment status of the parents it is seen that 68.0% of the mothers are housewives, 22.0% are state employees, 2.0% are self-employed, while 42.0% of the fathers are workers, and 22.0% are self employed. The data of the study was obtained through the analysis of the drawings of the children on the perception of violence. Children were interviewed through asking questions such as what violence is, whether they eyewitnessed any event of violence, and whether they were exposed to violence. Then, children were requested to draw a picture about violence and they were asked to narrate what they drew. What they narrated was written at the back of the paper on which they drew pictures. The perception of children on violence over the pictures were assessed through a descriptive analysis. 40 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Table 1. Distribution of Violence Cases by Children’s Drawings Person Resorting n % to Violence Mother 10 17,0 Father 12 20,4 Sibling 6 10,1 Friend 13 22,0 Other People 10 17,0 Irrelevant Drawing 8 13,5 Total 59 100 Table 1 reports the findings of the answer to the question “who resorts to violence?” by children at kindergarten. According to the table, in the first place comes friends with 22.0%, the follows father with 20.04, next mother with 17.0 and lastly other people with 17.0%. The percentage of the cases of violence among siblings were found to be 10.1%. The table suggests that the people resorting to violence, according to the reflections of violence on drawings, are in the family with 47.5%. Bayındır (2010) investigated the responses by children to intra-family violence. In accordance with the findings obtained from mothers exposed to violence, it was found out that a majority of the children (68.2%) eye-witnessed the intra family violence and were aware of the cases of violence. A majority of the USA citizens and at least 750.000 children in the United Kingdom exposed to intra-family violence (Sterne, Poole, Chadwick, Lawler and Dodd, 2010). When the studies into violence are examined closely, it is observed that a majority of children in Turkey and worldwide witness violence or are exposed to 41 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 violence for the first time in family. Hence, it is possible to say that the findings reported in Table 1 match up with the results of previous studies. Table 2. Distribution of who resorts to and is exposed to violence by the drawings Who to Whom Intra-family n Mother-Father to each other 5 21,7 Mother to child 5 21,7 Father to child 7 30,5 Among Siblings 4 17,4 Child to Father 2 8,7 23 100 Total At School % Among Friends 13 100 13 100 Among People 11 91,6 People to Animals 1 8,4 Total 12 100 Grand Total 48 100 Total Around % 48 27 25 Table 2 reports the distribution of who resorts to and is exposed to violence by the drawings of children. According to Table 2, the intra-family violence is in the first place with the percentage of 48%, then follows violence among friends with 27% and lastly comes violence around children with 25%. When we take a close look at, the intra-family violence rates given in Table 2, violence from father to child is in the first place with 30.5%, mother to child with 21.7%, among siblings with 17.4% and child to father with 8.7%. 42 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Ayan and Kocacık (2009) found out in their study that off all the family members, children are scared of father more compared to mother. It can be said that this result supports the finding, given in Table 2, that mostly fathers resort to violence to children. When the distribution of violence given in Table 2 is examined, there is the view that violence is among the friends with the percentage of 100%. In studies by Kapcı (2004), Özcebeci, Çetik and Üner (2006), and Bozkurt, Akbıyık, Yüzük, Gördeles Beşer and Sağkal (2011), it was found out that both in preschool period and at higher education levels, the rate of violence among children is high and as for the content and the type of violence, it is usually in the shape of physical and verbal. This result is in harmony with the finding that violence is common among friends. When the views on the violence taking place around, it is seen that violence among people takes the first place with 91.6%, and then follows violence from people to animals with 8.4%. Çetinkaya-Yıldız and Hatipoğlu Sümer (2010) found out in their study that the rate of violence in house, school and neighborhood settings is high. When the literature in the field is examined, it is seen that violence to animals is common, and among the reasons of violence to animals are intra-family violence, adaptation challenges to school and peer-related problems. In particular, the intrafamily violence is shown to be a major source of violence to animals (Merez-Perez, and Heide, 2001: 556). Considering this, the result of their study and the related literature support the findings given in Table 2. 43 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Table 3. Expression of Violence based on the reflections of drawings by children Expression of Violence n % Hitting, fighting, beating 26 57,8 Ear pinching, hair gripping, nipping 3 6,7 Using a weapon (Knife-gun) 4 8,9 Shouting, distressing, reproaching 12 26,6 Total 45 100 The Table 3 reports the views on expression of violence based on the reflections of drawings by children. According to the table, hitting, fighting, and beating takes the first place with the rate of 57.8, then comes Shouting, distressing, reproaching with 26.6%, following this comes using a weapon with 8.9% and lastly ear pinching, hair gripping and nipping with 6.7%. In their studies into violence at elementary schools, by Deveci et al. (2002), Kapçı (2004), Çankaya (2011), Bozkurt et al. (2011), it was found out that hitting, slapping, punching, hitting, scratching, tripping, spitting, pushing, hair gripping, scaring, insulting, threatening, swearing and mugging as expression of violence behavior among students. These results support the findings in Table 3. Conclusion and Suggestions The results of the study reveal that nearly half of the cases of violence happen within the family, the one resorting to violence in the family is usually father, the events of violence at school take place among friends, the events of violence which children eyewitness in their environ are among people, a small rate of violence is towards animals. It has also been found out that the majority of the children reflected events on violence on their drawings. 44 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 • Based upon the results, awareness of parent on child development and education, communication with children and discipline could be enhanced. • They could be encouraged to participate in the educational programs developed by preschool education institutions. • In particular, programs on the negative effects of violent behavior broadcast in the visual media and parent should be made aware of this. References Allen, S. F. (2009). A Study of a Violence Prevention Program in Prekindergarten Classrooms. Children & Schools, Volume 31, Number 3 July. Ayan, S. (2011). Okulda Disiplin Cezası Alma, Ailede Şiddete Uğrama, Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry, 12:137-142. Ayan, S. ve Kocacık, F. (2009). Çocuk istismarı: Sivas (Türkiye) örneği, Uluslar arası İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi, Cilt:6 Sayı:1. Ayrancı, Ü., Köşgeroğlu, N. ve Günay, Y. (2004). Televizyonda Çocukların En Çok Seyrettikleri Saatlerde Gösterilen Filmlerdeki Şiddet Düzeyi. Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi, 5:133-140. Barter, C., Renold, E., Berridge, D. and Cawson, P. (2004). Peer Violence in Children’s Residential Care. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, Palgrave Macmillan. Bayındır, N. (2010). Aile İçinde Yaşanan Şiddete Karşı Çocuğun Gösterdiği Tepkiler, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, yıl:2, sayı:2 (s. 1-9). Bozkurt, S., Akbıyık, A. Yüzük, S., Gördeles-Beşer, N. ve Sağkal, T. (2011). Bir Yatılı Bölge Okulunda Akran İstismarı Ve Farkındalık Eğitiminin Etkisi, Anadolu Hemşirelik ve Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi, 14: 4. 45 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Çankaya, İ. (2011). İlköğretimde Akran Zorbalığı Uludağ Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 24 (1), 81-92. Çetinkaya-Yıldız, E. ve Sumer-Hatipoğlu, Z. (2010). 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(2004). Protecting Children from Domestic Violence Strategies for Community Intervention. Printed in the United States of America, The Guilford Press, New York London. Kalkan, M. ve Karadeniz-Özbek, S. (2011). Çocukluk Çağı Örselenme Yaşantıları Ergenlerdeki Flört Kaygısını Yordar Mı?. Çocuk ve Gençlik Ruh Sağlığı Dergisi, 18 (1). 46 INTERNATİONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHİLDHOOD EDUCATİON RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 37-47 Kapcı, E. G. (2004). İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin Zorbalığa Maruz Kalma Türünün ve Sıklığının Depresyon, Kaygı ve Benlik Saygısıyla İlişkisi, Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt: 37, sayı: 1, 1-13. Margolin, G. and Gordis, E. B. (2004). Children’s Exposure to Violence in the Family and Community. American Psychological Society, Volume 13-Number 4. Merez-Perez, L. and Heide k. M. (2001). Childhood Cruelty to Animals and Subsequent Violence Against Humans, Ira J. Silverman Childhood Cruelty and Subsequent Violence Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, 45: 556. Özcebeci, H., Çetik, H. ve Üner, S. (2006). Adolesanlarda Şiddet Davranışları, (Üç Lise, Ankara, 2004) ı Şiddet ve Okul Sempozyumu 28-31 mart. Rossman, B. B. R., Rea, J. G., Graham-Bermann, S. A. and Butterfield P. M. (2004). Young Children Exposedto Adult Domestic Violence Incidence, Assessment, and Interventio. Protecting Children from Domestic Violence Strategies for Community Intervention (Edit. Jaffe, P. G., Baker, L. L. and Cunningham, A. J.) Printed in the United States of America, The Guilford Press, New York London. Sterne, A., Poole, L.,Chadwick, D., Lawler, C. and Dodd, L. W. ( 2010). Domestic Violence and Children, Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Yurtal, F. ve Artut, K. (2008). Çocukların Şiddeti Algılama Biçimlerinin Çizdikleri Resimlerine Yansımaları, Çocuk ve Gençlik Ruh Sağlığı Dergisi, 15 (3). 47 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 An Examination of Creative Thinking Skills of Gifted and Talented Preschool Children in Terms of Various Variables Çağlar Çetinkaya1 Sakarya University Faculty of Education Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine creative thinking skills of gifted and talented preschool children according to socio-demographic characteristics like the age, gender, and parental education. The research was conducted by descriptive model. The study is based on 47 gifted and talented preschool students who attend the summer programs in Istanbul in the year 2010. The figural forms of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) have been used to measure the creative thinking skills of students. TTCT was one of the most popular scales which can measure creativity; the fifth year validity study had been conducted by Runco, Miller, Acar, Cramond (2010). To determine socio-demographic characteristics, personal information form was used which was developed by the researcher. The data was analyzed in social science statistics program by using parametric and nonparametric test and descriptive statistics. Research findings have been evaluated in terms of sub-dimensions of TTCT and socio-demographic characteristics. There found to be a significant difference in terms of age, gender, father-mother’s socio-economic situation. Average scores of students who were males, from private schools, and students whose parents were civil servants were higher than females, public school, and other occupations respectively. According to research findings, a previous research finding of TTCT which was examined in terms of different variables was investigated and suggestions were given. Introduction In recent years creativity has been valued more in different fields including education, management, arts and sciences. The concept of creativity and intelligence are used together in different areas. In the past creativity was considered to be related to only for fine arts or music. Creativity is much more prevalent in our lives and fortunately the opinion is changing (Matthews and Foster, 2005). Nowadays, importance of creativity in science and technology 1 E mail: [email protected] 48 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 is emphasized as much as creativity in fine arts. Intelligence and creativity which can be developed, was examined relational. Especially creativity has an important role for the theories which consider intelligence in a multi-dimensional structure. In most of the 20th century, Giftedness was considered a single dimension structure. Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is the most commonly used criterion in order to measure this dimension. Using of this criterion stems from the idea that is “intelligence is unique and IQ is the tremendous way of measuring intelligence”. Nonetheless, during the same period, academic success was used for identifying gifted and talented children. This situation has changed later. Sternbergs’ successful Intelligence theory puts forward the idea that intellectual giftedness should be expressed by a more comprehensive definition that it is beyond an ability which can be measured by IQ scores and achievement tests. Especially, the criticism about environmental factors cognitive abilities which measured by intelligence tests, don’t include intelligence (Köksal, 2007). Gifted and talented children who differ especially cognitively from their peers, has high creative thinking. High creative thinking plays a crucial role in this difference. For the emergence of outstanding talent, one of the target areas which were aimed to develop by many models and theories is creativity. As a matter of the fact, creativity is in the main dimensions of theories of gifted and talented (Renzulli ,1986). Renzulli (1986) stated that gifted and talented individuals have three basic clusters which are interrelated. These clusters are above-average general and/or specific abilities, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity. Above-average general and/or specific abilities: verbal and numerical reasoning, abstract thinking, spatial relations, memory, and word fluency. Specific ability; abilities in technical areas like music, theatre, mathematics, science, chemistry. Motivation is the capability to undertake superior tasks. Creativity is producing new ideas and applying these ideas to solving problems. Interactions among the three clusters were necessary for outstanding success. An individual should be %85 more successful than his peers in each cluster. Moreover, they can be accepted as gifted in case they show %98 success at least one of these clusters (Renzulli, 1998, 1986, 1978). Stenberg mentioned three different types of giftedness in The Triarchic theory of intelligence. These are analytical, practical and creative giftedness (Sternberg, 1999). There is creativity in each study which was formed by human beings. Although creativity is as old as human history, especially in the list five centuries. It was accepted as phonemeon in the area of fine arts. Nevertheless, nowadays, there is a focus on creativity in science and technique as much as creativity in arts (Matthews and Foster, 2005). There are a 49 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 lot of definitions of creativity as the concept of gifted and talented. The broadest definition of creativity was done by Torrance. Torrance (1974) defined creativity as; a process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; identifying the difficulty; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies: testing and retesting these hypotheses and possibly modifying and retesting them; and finally communicating the results. According to Morris (2002) creativity is generating new and original ideas which are valuable socially. Again creativity is an ability that exists in every individual and shows itself in the every part of human life. It is a whole process includes a large area in our life and is an attitude and behavior style (San, 1979). Apart from Barlett, Wallach and Kogan’s definitions, Ömeroğlu (2001) handles creativity as getting rid of the molds, generating many and original ideas without ignoring the essence, flexibility, originality, fluency and unusual thinking. Creative thinking is designed according the interest indexes of students. These areas rely on Guilford’ thinking different ideas. Indexes which are the basic component of Creative problem solving and problem based learning, include fluency, flexibility, elaboration and originality. Fluency; ability of thinking and remembering Flexibility; switching from expecting ideas to other different kinds of ideas Elaboration; detailing the subject, developing idea, giving a concept special for life Originality; making relations and synthesis independent new original ideas from known ideas (Baska & Stambaugh, 2001; Perkins, 1981; Torrance, 1966). Intelligence and Creativity Intelligence and creativity were investigated by many researches throughout years. Literature suggests different results about the studies on intelligence and creativity. While people with a normal intelligence level may have a high creativity potential, people with high intelligence level may also have lower creativity potential than they are expected. It is generally thought that intelligent people have always creative ideas. The point that should be paid attention here is that these two relational concepts should not be evaluated by using the same meanings for these two. There are different ideas about the relation between intelligence and creativity. According to the results of many studies, there is not always a high correlation between high intelligence and creativity (Barron, 1961; Guilford, 1967). There must be a certain level of intelligence for creativity. The most concrete knowledge about the relationship 50 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 between intelligence and creativity are suggested by “Threshold Theory”. Threshold theory claims that a certain level of intelligence is necessary for creativity; but after this certain level, there is a moderate correlation between creativity and intelligence (Yıldırım, 2007; Runko and Albert, 1986). As mentioned above highly intelligent people are not necessarily highly creative (Roe, 1952). Most of the studies show that highly creative children have 120-130 intelligence quotients (IQ). According to Çağlar (2004), creativity and IQ scores of students whose IQ scores are 130 or more are not strongly correlated. Guilford, claim that creative peoples’ thinking abilities that leads to multiple results, cannot be measured by standard IQ test are very strong. Other researches defends that thinking abilities that leads to multiple results is independent from IQ. Sternberg and O’Hara (1999) suggested five different situations in which creativity and intelligence related. 1. Creativity is a subset of intelligence 2. Intelligence is a subset of creativity 3. Creativity and intelligence are overlapping sets. 4. Creativity and intelligence is essentially the same thing. 5. There aren’t any relation between creativity and intelligence, they are disjoints sets. The most powerful view is they are overlapping sets generally giftedness identified by intelligence cannot ignore creativity It has been seen that most of the people who are highly creative cannot be successful in the school. Gifted underachievers and creative gifted students have some similar characteristics (Kim, 2008). In accordance with idea that the intelligent person should be successful, there is an idea people with creative ability should be academically successful. There are misconceptions about the situation we always come up with in the educational environment. The idea that if students have higher academic scores, they will be more creative is not true (Öztuna and Gürdal, 2004). There is not always a linear relation between intelligence and creativity. Some students, who are gifted and talented, are sometimes unsuccessful. One of the factors, school performance of students which have an impact on students’ academic success, was perceived as important for gifted and talented students as well as normal students. As mentioned in several studies (Cramond 1994; Davis 1997) behavioral characteristics of creative individuals counter with the behaviors that accepted in school environment. Torrance mentioned that the academic achievement of highly creative gifted and talented students in Georgia Military College High School. When creative teaching techniques had used in the students who are academically underachieved, had learned two times faster than their peers (Torrance, 1984). 51 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 Creativity and intelligence are not only innate characteristics limited genetically. These characteristics are not stable. People can develop the creativity and intelligence (Sternbeg and Grigorenko, 2002). Many theory of giftedness suppose that they can develop giftedness by developing creativity. One of the most valid theoretical models used for the development of creativity is Amabile’s theory of creativity view consists of abilities related to learning area, abilities related to learning area, abilities related to creativity and work motivation (Baska and Stambaugh, 2001; Amabile, 1983). Guilford’s The Structure of Intellect Model focused on the research about creativity and problem-solving research is focused on thinking (Guilford, 1967). Guilford argued that intelligence cannot be measured literally by traditional IQ test. However, The Structure of Intellect Model is designed in a three dimensional classification system. This system is designed to encompass and organize 120 possible abilities according to: 1.The types of mental operations employed in the act of thinking (evaluation, convergent production, divergent production, memory, cognition) 2. The types of content (figural, symbolic, semantic, behavioral). 3. The types of products that result from the act of thinking (Units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, implications). This study intends to examine the creative thinking skills of gifted and talented preschool children according to socio-demographic characteristics like the age, gender, and parental education. It is important to note that the studies that examine the creative thinking skills of preschool children are very limited. Thus, this study fills an important void in gifted and talented education. METHODOLOGY The research was conducted by scanning model. Scanning model is a research model which aims to describe a situation under its own condition that was exist in the past or still have been existed. An event, an individual or an object which is a subject of the research, was tried to identified in its own conditions and as it exist (Karasar, 1995). The study is based on 47 gifted and talented preschool students who attend the programs at Istanbul in the year 2010. There were a total of 47 students enrolled in the institute at the time of the study and the researcher was able reach the whole population. 29 of these students were male and 18 were female. The students were between 4 and 7 years old. “Torrance Test of Creative Thinking” (TTCT) figural forms have been used to measure 52 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 creative skills of students. “Personal Information Form”, which was developed by the researcher, was used to determine socio-demographic characteristics. Instruments Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT): Torrance Test of Creative Thinking is one of the most commonly used tests of creativity. The test consists of Figural forms A-B and Verbal forms A-B. The main objective of using this test is measuring the effectiveness of creative thinking. Although Torrance Test of Creative Thinking is used for identification of gifted and talented children, the original purpose of the tests was create the basis of individual educational planning (Torrance, 1966, 1974; Kim 2006). The test which was developed by Torrance in 1966 is seen as the most popular instrument tools that measure creativity. There are two forms of the verbal and two forms of the figural. That is, four different forms can be used to measure creative skills of students. Validity studies have been conducted in 1974, 1984, 1990, 1998 and 2010 (Runco, Miller, Acar, Cramond, 2010). Those studies reported predictive validity of the test after 7th, 12th, 22th, 40th, and 50th years. Aslan (2001) adapted to Turkish version of TTCT figural and verbal versions. Aslan (2001) indicates the general framework of TTCT as an intelligence and creativity relation, creativity and school achievement, developing creativity with educational experience. TTCT uses two parts; a Verbal test and a Figural test. Verbal part has seven subtests; asking questions, guessing causes, guessing results, product improvement, unusual uses, unusual questions, and just suppose. The Figural test has three subsets - Picture Construction (from a marked cue), Picture Completion (again with cues), and Parallel Lines. In total the test was formed by ten subtests. TTCT which was published as its current form in 1984 has been administered to 10.271 people in verbal form, and to 37.814 people in figural form. Personal Information Form: The form which has been developed by the researcher includes questions about gender, age, school type, mother’s age, father’s age, mother’s occupation, father’s occupation. Data Analysis The data was analyzed in social science statistics program by using parametric and nonparametric test and descriptive statistics. Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U was used in this study. The Kruskal Wallis test is used when you have one independent variable with more 53 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 than two dependent variables. This is the non-parametric type of ANOVA and a generalized form of the Mann-Whitney test method since it permits more than two groups. Also use t test because of assumes that within each group are normally distributed in the two groups. FINDINGS Creativity scores of students who attend the programs were evaluated. These scores were investigated through different variables. Sub-dimensions of creativity scores of gifted and talented children are fluency (n=47, X =16.47), flexibility (n=47, X =13.43), elaboration (n=47, X =7.66), resistance to premature closure (n=47, X =4.98), originality (n=47, X =5.13). Table1. Analysis of Creativity Score According to Gender Gender N Mean Sum of U p Rank Rank Creativity 1.Male 29 1,13 8,98 4,29 >.05 2.Female 18 1.02 9,34 Table 1 shows a significant difference between creativity scores of gifted and talented U=4,29 p>.05 students by gender . The scores of male students were higher than those of females. Most of the literature (Aslan,1994; Atay, 2009;Lee, 2005; Özben and Argun, 2005) reflects results that are contrary to our findings. These differences were explored in the discussion section of this study. Table 2. Analysis of Creativity Score According to School Type Gender N Mean Rank Sum of Rank U p School Type 1.Private 30 1,19 9,55 2,54 .05 2.Public 17 1.05 11,45 Table 2 shows a significant difference between creativity scores of gifted and talented U =2,54 p<.05 on school type. The scores of private schools were higher than public schools. Most of the literature (Çetingöz, 2002; Kuhn and Holling, 2009) reflects results that are similar to our findings. These similarities were explored in the discussion section of this study. Table 3. Analysis of Creativity Score According to Father’s Occupation Score Father’s N X S Sd X2 p Significant Difference Occupation Creativity 1. Military 8 4,15 ,01 1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 3-8, 4-5, 54 1,14 6,87 Personnel 6, 5-7, 5-8, 6-8. 2.Academician 3 1,14 3,78 3.Banker 7 1,14 11,06 54 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 4. Law business 4 1,14 9,66 5.Goverment 6 1,45 5,43 Official 6.Health 9 1,16 7,24 Personnel 7. Self4 1,09 10,81 employment 8.Teachers 8 1,04 9,38 9.Others 2 1,04 9,89 There is a significant difference between creativity scores of student’s father’s occupation. X2=4,15 p<.01. The scores of government official were higher than others. Most of the literature (Çetingöz, 2002) reflects results that are similar to our findings. These similarities were explored in the discussion section of this study. The analysis of Mann Whitney-U was executed in order to understand the difference between groups. The difference was between the 1-5, 2-5, 3-5, 3-8, 4-5, 5-6, 5-7, 5-8, 6-8 groups. Table 4. Analysis of Creativity Score According to Mother’s Occupation Score Mother’s N S Sd X2 p Significant X Occupation Difference Creativity 1. Military 8 2,59 ,05 3-5, 3-4, 3-9, 5-4, 5-8, 2 1,12 2,12 Personnel 6-9 2.Academician 2 1,04 17,67 3.Banker 4 1,19 12,78 4. Law business 10 1,1 7,93 5.Goverment 4 1,25 5,50 Official 6.Health Personnel 11 1,15 8,65 7. Self-employment 3 1,05 9,53 8.Teachers 5 1,12 8,17 9.Others 6 1,03 12,27 There is a significant difference between creativity scores of student’s mother’s occupation X2 =2,59 p<.05. The scores of government official were higher than others. Most of the literature (Çetingöz, 2002) reflects results that are similar to our findings. These similarities were explored in the discussion section of this study. The analysis of Mann Whitney-U was executed in order to understand the difference between groups. The difference was between the 3-5, 3-4, 3-9, 5-4, 5-8, 6-9 groups. Table 5. Analysis of Creativity Score According to Father’s Age Score Father’s age N S Sd X2 p Significant difference X Creativity 1.18-24 7 1,72 4,92 3 75,83 ,01 1-2, 1-3,1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4 2.25-34 9 1,01 4,00 55 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH 3.35-44 4.45-54 Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 22 1,12 4,84 9 1,23 5,94 There is a significant difference between creativity scores of student’s father’s age 2 X =75,83 p<.01 The scores of first group (18-24) were higher than others. The analysis of Mann Whitney-U was executed in order to understand the difference between groups. The difference was between the 1-2, 1-3,1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4 groups. Table 6. Analysis of Creativity Score According to Mother’s Age Score Mother age N S Sd X2 p Significant difference X Creativity 1.18-24 7 1,14 5,42 3 40,72 ,01 1-3,1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4 2.25-34 7 1,28 5,73 3.35-44 23 1,11 5,52 4.45-54 10 1,22 6,04 There is a significant difference between creativity scores of student’s mother’s age X2=40,72 p<.01. The scores of second group (25-34) were higher than others. The analysis of Mann Whitney-U was executed in order to understand the difference between groups. The difference was between the 1-3,1-4,2-3,2-4,3-4 groups. RESULTS and CONCLUSION The study revealed significant differences between gender and creativity (p<.001). The scores of male students were higher than those of females. This result differs from finding of Aslan (1994), Atay (2009), Naderi, Abdullah, Aizan, Sharir and Kumar (2009), and Özben and Argun (2005). The studies showed that there is no significant difference between creativity and gender (p>.05). Another study showed that there is a difference in creative ability between boys and girls. Boys are more creative than girls in the preschool years (Lee, 2005). On the other hand some statistical data analysis shows that there is no difference in the overall creativity scores between boys and girls (Naderi, Abdullah, Aizan, Sharir and Kumar, 2009). In the research significant differences among the genders were not expected. But research results showed a significant difference so; it might be thought a shortage of number of students may have caused that result. The study revealed significant differences between school type and creativity (p<.05). The scores of private schools were higher than public schools. This result similar to finding of Çetingöz (2002), Kuhn and Holling (2009). Çetingöz (2002) examined creativity in terms of high school type and found a significant difference (p<.05). Also, Kuhn and Holling (2009) 56 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 found that the creative potential of students was significantly affected by school-related factors. Creativity can be enhanced and a capability from birth. This potential is required to ensure that proper environment for the development. Çakmak (2005) in his research stated that in an enriched environment children feel much more free them and at the same time environment can arrange stimulants so children can put forward their creative forces. It might be thought that depending on the level of income, free from environmental factors and culture will provide a free learning environment can provide as a result of this. The study revealed significant differences between mother’s and father’s occupation and creativity (p<.05). The scores of government official were higher than others. Çetingöz (2002) classify parental occupations as housewife, officer, self-employment, worker, teacher, army officer, farmer and engineer in his study. In his study, creativity of the students shows significant difference according to mother’s profession. Çakmak’ study (2005) shows significant difference according to mother’s and father’s occupation (p<.05). These results similar to finding of the study. In the research significant differences among the occupation’ salaries were not expected. Economic level in terms of low and middle level income and creativity showed a significant difference. Şen’s (1999) study which examined the creativity levels of students who has a middle and high level income is more significant than the creativity levels students who have lower level income. Economic situation has an impact on creative thinking. Excessive stimuli in the environment an effect on the development of creativity (Süzen, 1997). The study revealed significant differences between mother’s and father’s age and creativity (p<.01). The scores of age of between 18-34 were higher than others. Lee (2005), found that the creative potential of students was significantly affected by parents age. There is a significant difference between creativity scores of student’s parents age (p<.05). Young couples can provide an enriched environment for their children, by doing this it might be thought that creative capability of children is going to enhance. According the our finding we can suggest that; Parental support is an important element in student development (Davaslıgil, 2004). To better support their children, parents should be able to identify their children’s, strengths and weaknesses. This consciousness will aid parents in selecting better support and guidance services for students. Thus, parents should be educated and informed of techniques to better identify abilities of their children. Seminars, workshops, and trainings could improve the awareness of such parents of the importance of teaching strategies and techniques that might 57 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 enhance the creativity of students. Also parent should be good council and guidance contact with their school administration. This research helps educator, parents or researcher to gain a different point of view about how important creativity is and why it should be investigated by various variables. Creativity is a significant dimension in the identification of gifted children since in the developing and rapidly changing world besides gaining the knowledge, producing many; original, useful and applicable ideas have an important role in daily life situation. Because of its importance study examine creativity in terms of different variables to identify the externals factors which have a related to creativity of our children. With the help of this research external factors like parental influence or school factors have an impact on children creativities. So, research show that parents education; parents point of view, behaviors attitude, school factor; education programs, teachers activities and so on, family income; the opportunities is given to the children effects children’s creativity. In the light of these finding educators and parents should be more careful in their behaviors toward children. 58 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol.1, No.1, 48-61 REFERENCES Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer Verlag. Aslan, E. (2001). Torrance yaratıcı düşünce testi’nin Türkçe versiyonu. Marmara Üniversitesi Atatürk Eğitim Fakültesi Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi, 14, 19-40. Aslan, E. (1994). Yaratıcı düşünce yeteneğine sahip ergenlerin danışmanlığa ihtiyaç duydukları problem alanları üzerine bir araştırma. Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, Marmara Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, İstanbul. Atay, Z. (2009). Okul öncesi eğitim kurumlarına devam eden 5-6 yaş öğrencilerinin yaratıcılık düzeylerinin yaş, cinsiyet ve ebeveyn eğitim durumların göre incelenmesi: Ereğli örneği. Yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi, Selçuk Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Konya. Barron, F. (1961). 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Pegem A Yayıncılık. 61 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 THE COMPARISON OF TOY PREFERENCES OF TEACHER CANDIDATES IN FIRST AND FOURTH GRADES OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION Gönül ONUR SEZER* Ömür SADİOĞLU** *Res.Asst, Uludag University Education Faculty Elementary Education, [email protected] **Res.Asst.Phd.Uludag University Education Faculty Elementary Education, [email protected] SUMMARY This study has been carried out in order to investigate and compare understanding of toy selection of teacher candidates in first and fourth grade of preschool education. In order to achieve this, a survey that has been developed by the researcher after the literature review has been applied to 52 preschool teacher candidates in first and 52 preschool teacher candidates in fourth grade who study in Uludag University, Faculty of Education Preschool Education Program. Differences between groups have been investigated with "chi square test". Findings indicated that fourth grade teacher candidates pay much more attention than first grade teacher candidates to criteria of reading label information when choosing a toy, checking CE conformity mark and producing company information, if the toys are harmful or not, have allergenic effects, consist of carcinogenic material or not, toy's ease of cleaning, attractiveness, toy’s price and choosing the toy they saw on commercials and they have more confidence that every toy on sale has been inspected. Key Words: Preschool, teacher candidate, toy selection. 62 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTRODUCTION During early childhood period, game is necessary for the child to learn and toys are the tools that ensure this process. Toy is in close relation with child's self representation, imagination, interests, discovery, description, education, cognitive development, awareness of gender roles. The fact that Piaget considers interaction with objects as an important part of cognitive development also supports this point of view (Glassy & Romano, 2003). Owen Blakemore and Centers (2008) who accept that toy has an important place in child's life, argue that toy is rather effective in development of cognitive skills and in the increase of social games played with other children and role playing. Toys played with a group help the child gain skills such as ability to cooperate and ability to obey the rules (Mangır & Aktaş 1993; Öztürk, 1997; Poyraz, 1999; Başal, 2005). According to Peretti and Sydney (1984), who researches the effects of toys on children, children are able to describe their worlds and feelings when they play with toys. Moreover, toys played with groups also create an environment for use of language in addition to their attribution to the social and emotional development of child. For example, sentence forming, questioning, answering and storytelling skills of children who communicate with each other through games develop (Spodek & Saracho, 2005). Moreover, toys that address psychomotor development of children improve hand-eye coordination, and have an effect on development of big and small muscles (Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2002). Even though there are various toys made of different materials, with different colors and features, ideal toy is the one that makes children want to play with it again and again; it presents opportunity to play more, and amuses more. Toys should arouse curiosity in children, work the muscles, promote experimenting and imagination, encourage children to solve problems (Galigan, 2000; Russ, 1998). A playroom arranged to arouse children's interest will 63 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 keep children's perception on alert and stimulate their senses systematically and constantly. But this arrangement should never restrain children's freedom in their rooms; it should not prevent them from creating their own world. Buying new toys make children happy. But buying new toys is not more important than making the existing toys draw their attention (İlhan 2004). Primary factor to keep in mind while choosing the toy is the age of the child. Children of early ages like toys such as a colorful rattle, which will stimulate all of their senses, and toys like these have a great role in development of their senses that have yet to mature. Children who just started walking like to play games where they place or remove cube that are in different shape and size. Using their newly acquired wrist movement skills children around the age two prefer simple legos that they can build up to other toys. Children of preschool age like all kinds of objects that support their creative characteristics. With this point of view it can be seen that children are naturally more inclined to toys which will improve their skills that they have gained in their current age. Each new skill that children develop is a game for them (Uluğ, 1997). Simple but entertaining toys create the opportunity for a creative and active stimulation. For example all pots, reels and dough in houses set a game environment that children can shape as they will. In fact, children shape their own personalities in this environment. Water, sand, soil, mud and paints help children to get to know outside world and gain experience. As children grow up, tools that serve as toys also become varied. For example books and reading, when selected according to subjects they love and are interested in, become the most amusing toys and games. Moreover, drawing scenes and characters from the book teach children to create images in their minds and reinforce their memory. Also, encouraging children to talk about subjects they like will both improve their vocabulary and reinforce their speaking skills (Sarı, 2002). When buying toys, those that have safety warnings on them should be preferred and they should have a certain level of quality, standard and safety so that the pieces and parts of 64 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 the toys do not pose any threat for children of their age (Telep 1997, Glassy & Romano 2003, İlhan, 2004). According to the regulation about toys prepared by Ministry of Health designating procedures and principles related to design, production and supervision of toys, risks related to use of the toy and steps to prevent them should be shown on toys or on labels on their packages and in user manual in a manner that will attract attention. As required by this regulation, CE Conformity Marking, Name and/or Business Name or Brand and Address of Producer or Importer, Age Appropriate Warning, Information related to Certain Risks That Toys Could Carry and User Manual should be present on the toy or on its label. When buying toys, those factors should be taken into account, user manual and warning should be read, given information should be heeded (Toy Safety Factsheet, 2001). CE Conformity Marking is a sign indicating that the product has minimal safety requirements and granting quality assurance (Official journal dated May 17 2002 RG: Issue: 24758; European Commission, 2004; Approval Marks CE Mark, 2005). Age Appropriate Warning indicates for which age group the toys are suitable. The statement "Not safe for children under 3" has been written on toys since 1995 (Langlois & Wallen, 1991). Dangers (inflammableness, heating, disassembly, etc.) that may be caused by toys' physical, chemical and electrical features should be indicated. User manual should contain information about correct and safe use of the toy (Official journal dated May 17 2002 RG: Issue: 24758) For these reasons, every child should play with toys suitable for their development and needs. At this point it is important for teachers and parents to know the children well and to be conscious in selecting the right toys (Glassy & Romano, 2003). Aim of the Study This study has been carried out in order to investigate and compare understanding of toy selection of teacher candidates in first and fourth grade of preschool education. Even though there are many sources on the importance of toy selection, studies on the subject is 65 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 very few in our country. This study is important for being a resource for parents, academicians and researchers about things to look out for in toys and during toy selection. METHOD Research Model This descriptive study has been carried out in order to investigate and compare understanding of toy selection of teacher candidates in first and fourth grade of preschool education. In order to achieve this, a survey which had been developed by the researcher was applied to teacher candidates who study in Uludag University's Department of Preschool Education in Faculty of Education. Research Group 52 from first, 52 from fourth grade, a total of 104 preschool teacher candidates who are studying in Department of Preschool Teacher of Uludag University form the sample of this research. Data Gathering Tools Survey questions have been developed by the researchers after the literature review (Arıcan & Karaca 2004; Çamur et al., 2008; Doğanay, 1998) about teacher candidates’ criteria (toy’s suitability for children’s skill, intelligence, imagination development, violencefree, risk-free (safe), easy-to-clean, gender and age appropriate nature, being cheap or expensive, appearance, being liked by children) when choosing a toy. In the survey, 8 questions in section “Presence of warnings related to safety”, 7 questions in section “In order to determine toy’s safety…”, 14 questions in section “Mark the most suitable one to you from the criteria to consider when buying a toy”, and 9 questions in section "When children are harmed by the toy…” were directed at teacher candidates and they were asked to answer either yes or no and sometimes choose one of the options. 66 Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Data Analysis The survey has been applied by the researcher to teacher candidates from first and fourth grades. The research data has been analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, and "chi square analysis" has been used by utilizing SPSS 13.0 program in order to find the significance of the difference between groups. FINDINGS Table 1. Chi Square Test Results of Comparison between First and Fourth Grade Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Opinions on the Presence of a Safety Warning on Toys 1st Class Conditions of Safety Inscriptions I read the warnings on the toy I read the inscriptions I look for the CE Mark I look for the producing company information I look for the age suitability phrase I look for the security warning I read the user’s manual I look for all of the above TOTAL 4th Class TOTAL f % f % f % Yes 31 29,81 38 36,54 69 100 No 2 1,92 2 1,92 4 100 Sometimes 19 18,27 12 11,54 31 100 Yes 28 26,92 41 39,42 69 100 No 2 1,92 3 2,88 5 100 Sometimes 22 21,15 8 7,69 30 100 Yes 23 22,12 42 40,38 65 100 No 1 0,96 1 0,96 2 100 Sometimes 28 26,92 9 8,65 37 100 Yes 19 18,27 38 36,54 57 100 No 2 1,92 2 1,92 4 100 Sometimes 31 29,81 12 11,54 43 100 Yes 21 20,19 25 24,04 46 100 No 1 0,96 3 2,88 4 100 Sometimes 30 28,85 24 23,08 54 100 Yes 22 21,15 31 29,81 53 100 No 4 3,85 2 1,92 6 100 Sometimes 26 25,00 29 27,88 55 100 Yes 24 23,08 29 27,88 53 100 No 2 1,92 2 1,92 4 100 Sometimes 26 25,00 21 20,19 47 100 Yes 35 33,65 42 40,38 77 100 No 2 1,92 1 0,96 3 100 Sometimes 15 52 14,42 50 9 8,65 24 100 52 50 104 100 2 X =.535 P=.231 2 X =3.506* P=.002 2 X =2.654* P=.00 2 X =2.408* P=.001 2 X =.643 P=.543 2 X =.328 P=.122 2 X =.987 P=.054 2 X =.659 P=.548 *p<.05 Results of chi square test, which had been prepared in order to compare the opinions of first and fourth grade teacher candidates on the presence of safety warnings on toys, can be seen in Table 1. The point averages indicate that there is a significant difference in favor of fourth grade teacher candidates in the items of “I read the inscriptions” (p=.002; X2=3,506), “I 67 Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH look for the CE Mark” (p=.00; X2=2,654) and “I look for the producing company information” (p=.001; X2=2,408). The point average of other items examined indicates that there is no significant difference between the answers of first and fourth grade preschool teacher candidates. Table 2. Chi Square Test Results of Comparison between First and Fourth Grade Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Opinions on Safety of Toys 1st Class In order to know if the toy is safe… I look at the information on the toy I debrief the seller I look at the price The advices of the ones who bought the toy before are important The choice of my child is important I choose the toys which I saw in an advertisement Every toy which is sold is has been checked, I trust them 4th Class TOTAL f % f % f % Yes 34 32,69 41 39,42 75 100 No 2 1,92 3 2,88 5 100 Sometimes 16 15,38 8 7,69 24 100 Yes 28 26,92 26 25,00 54 100 No 4 3,85 2 1,92 6 100 Sometimes 20 19,23 24 23,08 44 100 Yes 24 23,08 39 37,50 63 100 No 4 3,85 3 2,88 7 100 Sometimes 24 23,08 10 9,62 34 100 Yes 21 20,19 27 25,96 48 100 No 4 3,85 1 0,96 5 100 Sometimes 27 25,96 24 23,08 51 100 Yes 25 24,04 39 37,50 64 100 No 2 1,92 2 1,92 4 100 Sometimes 28 26,92 11 10,58 39 100 Yes 29 27,88 41 39,42 70 100 No 1 0,96 -‐ -‐ 1 100 Sometimes 22 21,15 11 10,58 33 100 Yes 34 32,69 44 42,31 78 100 No 5 4,81 -‐ -‐ 5 100 Sometimes 13 52 12,50 50 8 7,69 21 100 52 50 104 100 TOTAL 2 X =.657 P=.058 2 X =.654 P=.128 2 X =1.760* P=.001 2 X =.652 P=.165 2 X =.765 P=.217 2 X =2.654* P=.02 2 X =1.564* P=.001 *p<.05 In Table 2, first and fourth grade preschool teacher candidates’ opinions related to safety of toys have been compared. Chi square analysis showed that there is a significant difference in favor of fourth grade preschool teacher candidates in the items of “I look at price”( p=.001; X2 =1,760), "I choose the toy which I saw in an advertisement” (p=.02; X2 =2,654), “Every toy which is sold has been checked, I trust them” (p=.001; X2 =1,564). The 68 Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH point averages of other items show that there is no significant difference between the answers of first and fourth grade preschool teacher candidates. Table 3. Chi Square Test Results of Comparison between First and Fourth Grade Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Criteria When Buying Toys 1st Class The Criteria When Buying a toy Developing skills Developing mind Developing imagination Not supporting violence Being assuring Being easy clean Appropriate to the gender of the child Appropriate to the age of the child The price of the toy Toy being interesting The child liking the toy The toy having an advertisement Being of high quality Being sanitary TOTAL 4th Class TOTAL f % f % f % Yes 32 30,77 36 34,62 68 100 No 4 3,85 2 1,92 6 100 Sometimes 16 15,38 14 13,46 30 100 Yes 28 26,92 24 23,08 52 100 No 12 11,54 5 4,81 17 100 Sometimes 12 11,54 23 22,12 35 100 Yes 21 20,19 25 24,04 46 100 No 18 17,31 4 3,85 22 100 Sometimes 13 12,50 23 22,12 36 100 Yes 42 40,38 38 36,54 80 100 No 3 2,88 9 8,65 12 100 Sometimes 7 6,73 5 4,81 12 100 Yes 26 25,00 25 24,04 51 100 No 16 15,38 6 5,77 22 100 Sometimes 10 9,62 21 20,19 31 100 Yes 15 14,42 27 25,96 42 100 No 5 4,81 8 7,69 13 100 Sometimes 32 30,77 17 16,35 49 100 Yes 34 32,69 27 25,96 61 100 No 5 4,81 3 2,88 8 100 Sometimes 13 12,50 22 21,15 35 100 Yes 32 30,77 32 30,77 64 100 No 4 3,85 2 1,92 6 100 Sometimes 16 15,38 18 17,31 34 100 Yes 19 18,27 22 21,15 41 100 No 2 1,92 3 2,88 5 100 Sometimes 31 29,81 27 25,96 58 100 Yes 21 20,19 32 30,77 53 100 No 7 6,73 2 1,92 9 100 Sometimes 24 23,08 18 17,31 42 100 Yes 35 33,65 25 24,04 60 100 No 3 2,88 4 3,85 7 100 Sometimes 14 13,46 23 22,12 37 100 Yes 12 11,54 16 15,38 28 100 No 10 9,62 15 14,42 25 100 Sometimes 30 28,85 21 20,19 51 100 Yes 37 35,58 38 36,54 75 100 No 2 1,92 1 0,96 3 100 Sometimes 13 12,50 13 12,50 26 100 Yes 32 30,77 43 41,35 75 100 No 6 5,77 -‐ -‐ 6 100 Sometimes 14 52 13,46 50 9 8,65 23 100 52 50 104 100 2 X =.748 P=.554 2 X =.034 P=.432 2 X =.642 P=.340 2 X =1.760 P=.320 2 X =.698 P=.986 2 X =1.702* P=.001 2 X =.650 P=.347 2 X =.620 P=.558 2 X =2654* P=.002 2 X =2.605* P=.04 2 X =.675 P=.876 2 X =.438 P=.763 2 X =843 P=.669 2 X =889 P= .552 *p<.05 69 Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Chi square analysis of first and fourth grade preschool teacher candidates’ criteria when buying toys show that there is a significant difference in the items of “Being easy clean” (p=.001; X2 =1,702), “The price of the toy” (p=.002; X2=2,654) and “Toy being interesting” (p=.04; X2 =2,605) in favor of fourth grade preschool teachers. No significant difference has been found between two groups in the other items. Table 4. Chi Square Test Results of Comparison between First and Fourth Grade Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Opinions on Whether Toys Can Harm Children 1st Class The situation of toys harming the children It won’t harm It may harm It may cause accidents (falling, drowning, hurt by sharp toys, cut, inflame, bursting) Carcinogenic effect Intoxication Allergy Having negative habitudes Not suitable to the age of the child The price of the toy TOTAL 4th Class TOTAL f % f % f % Yes 23 22,12 19 18,27 42 100 No 3 2,88 2 1,92 5 100 Sometimes 26 25,00 31 29,81 57 100 Yes 25 24,04 30 28,85 55 100 No 4 3,85 2 1,92 6 100 Sometimes 23 22,12 20 19,23 43 100 Yes 28 26,92 26 25,00 54 100 No 6 5,77 6 5,77 12 100 Sometimes 18 17,31 20 19,23 38 100 Yes 24 23,08 37 35,58 61 100 No 3 2,88 1 0,96 4 100 Sometimes 27 25,96 14 13,46 41 100 Yes 19 18,27 28 26,92 47 100 No 7 6,73 2 1,92 9 100 Sometimes 26 25,00 22 21,15 48 100 Yes 18 17,31 25 24,04 43 100 No 4 3,85 1 0,96 5 100 Sometimes 30 28,85 26 25,00 56 100 Yes 21 20,19 22 21,15 43 100 No 8 7,69 5 4,81 13 100 Sometimes 23 22,12 25 24,04 48 100 Yes 27 25,96 28 26,92 55 100 No 12 11,54 3 2,88 15 100 Sometimes 13 12,50 21 20,19 34 100 Yes 29 27,88 26 25,00 55 100 No 4 3,85 7 6,73 11 100 Sometimes 19 52 18,27 50 19 18,27 38 100 52 50 104 100 2 X =.765 P=.438 2 X =.789* P=.02 2 X =.943 P=.978 2 X =3.659* P=.001 2 X =2.548* P=.02 2 X =1.546* P=.001 2 X =.236 P=.689 2 X =.428 P=.945 2 X =1.439* P=.00 *p<.05 According to the results of chi square test on the opinions of teacher candidates on whether the toys can harm children, a significant difference has been found in the items of “It may harm”, (p=.02; X2=.789), “Carcinogenic effect” (p=.001; X2=3,659), “Intoxication” (p=.02; X2=2,548), “Allergy” (p=.001; X2=1,546), “The price of the toy” (p.00; X2=1,439) in 70 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 favor of fourth grade preschool teacher candidates. When point averages of other items are examined no significant difference has been found between the answers of first and fourth grade preschool teacher candidates. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION In this study which was carried out in order to make a comparison between toy selections of preschool teacher candidates in first and fourth grade, it is seen that fourth grade teacher candidates pay much more attention than first grade teacher candidates to criteria of reading label information when choosing a toy and checking CE conformity mark and producing company information. Moreover, in order to determine toy's safety, fourth grade teacher candidates pay more attention than first grade teacher candidates to toy’s price and choose the toy they saw on commercials and they have more confidence that every toy on sale has been inspected. Also, during toy selection, fourth grade teacher candidates pay more regard than first grade teacher candidates to toy's ease of cleaning, prices and attractiveness. Similarly fourth grade teacher candidates pay more attention than first grade teacher candidates to the fact that the toys are harmful or not, have allergenic effects, consist of carcinogenic material or not. When other answers are evaluated, it is seen that there is no significant difference between fourth and first grade teacher candidates. The fact that fourth grade teacher candidates earn more points than first grade teacher candidates in some questions related to toy safety, toy selection and toys' harmfulness gives rise to the thought that teacher candidates become more conscious during education process and thus it is considered a positive finding. Studies made show that toy sellers have more awareness than buyers about CE Conformity Mark, producing company information, age appropriate warning, safety warning and user manual on toys, but sellers’ guidance in the subject is not mentioned (Çamur et al., 2008). However in a study that was carried out with the help of toy vendors in US it was 71 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 determined that 44.0% of the vendors stated that they could sell toys with “suitable for children above three year old” label to children of two-three of age (Teret et al., 1991).When safety of children is considered, a ratio of 44% cannot be regarded as too little. Studies about mothers’ toy selection show that they pay attention (Doğanay, 1998) to the fact that whether the toy is suitable for children's development level, age and interests or not (Erden, 2001), whether children like the toy they will be buying or not, its attractiveness (Arıcan & Karacan, 2004), whether it has TSI stamp or not, it is durable or not, it poses any threat or not, and it is easy to clean or not. In a study done by Fallon and his friends (1989) 73 people in US with children of preschool age stated that the two most important factors that affect their choices when buying toys are toy's safety and potential to teach new skills. (Çamur et al., 2008) It is also known that some toys, which are bought to make children learn and entertain, carry certain risks. In a research done by Çamur and his friends (2008) with toy vendors and buyers, it has been determined that 78,9 % of the buyers and 87,8 % of the vendors stated that toys can be harmful to children's health and this harm comes in the form of “accidents”. It is also stated in the literature that toys that promote violence should not be purchased (Glassy & Romano, 2003). One of the preschool teacher's role in the classroom requires decisions to be made about the play materials (Spidell, 2006). It should be known that choosing the right and proper toy has direct impacts on the physical and psychological development of the child and so the toys should not be chosen radomly but with caution (Arıcan & Karacan, 2004). When the criteria that teachers hold when they buy toys are considered, it can be said that they become more conscious when they reach fourth grade. This situation shows that there is a need for guidance in order to increase the awareness on toy safety. It is a noncontestable fact that teachers who choose the right toys that children tend to interact with, will be successful in 72 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 raising healthy individuals. Hence, it is thought that knowing the understandings of teacher candidates when buying toys would be helpful in increasing the importance given to the subject in the process of undergraduate education. SUGGESTIONS Following suggestions can be made for further researches; • Giving more detailed information about toy selection and safety as well as the importance of games and toys in preschool teaching education will be useful for teacher candidates to choose the most beneficial toys for children. • In-service trainings can be organized for preschool teachers on the subject and they can be encouraged to give advices to the families about it. • Conducting studies including parents and people around children, preschool teachers and educators from other fields can be made for further researches. REFERENCES Arıcan, D. & Karaca, E. (2004). Annelerin Oyuncak Seçimi ile İlgili Bilgi ve Uygulamaları. Uluslar arası İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi. www. insanbilimleri.com. 10.11.2004. Başal, H. A.(2005). Okul Öncesi Eğitim. Bursa: Morpa Kültür Yayınları. Çamur, D., Vaizoğlu, S. A., Akbaş, M., Başaran D., Batmaz, A. G., Bilgin, E. & Bulam, M. H. (2008). Oyuncak alıcı ve satıcılarının oyuncak güvenliği ve yönetmeliği konusundaki bilgi düzeyleri. Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Dergisi. 51. 31–38. Doğanay, J. (1998). Anasınıfına devam eden çocukların ebeveynlerinin çocuk oyun ve oyuncakları hakkındaki görüşlerinin incelenmesi. Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Ankara Üniversitesi. Fen Bilimleri. Enstitüsü. Ankara. Erden, Ş. (2001). Anaokullarına devam eden çocukların ebeveyn ve öğretmenlerinin çocuk oyun ve oyuncakları hakkındaki görüşlerinin incelenmesi. Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Ankara Üniversitesi. Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü. Ankara. 73 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 Galligan A.C. (2000). That place where we live: the discovery of self through the creative play experience. J Child Adolesc Psychiatr. 13. 169–176. Glassy, D. & Romano, J. (2003). Selecting Appropriate Toys for Young Children: The Pediatrician‘s Role. Pediatrics. 111(4). 911-913. Isenberg, J. P. & Quisenberry, N. (2002). Play: Essential for all children. Childhood Education.79. Retrieved from http://www.acei.org/playpaper.htm İlhan, M. (2004). Oyuncaklar ne kadar güvenli. Klinik Çocuk Formu.4 (2). 33–34. Mangır, M. & Aktaş, Y. (1993 ). Çocuğun gelişiminde oyunun önemi. Yaşadıkça Eğitim. 26: 14–18 Langlois J, Wallen B. & Teret S. (1991) The impact of specific toy warning labels. JAMA. 265. 2848–2850. Owen Blakemore, J. E. & Centers, R. E. (2008). Characteristics of boys’ and girls’ toys. Sex Roles, 53, 619–633. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from Springerlink database. Öztürk, M. (1997) Çocukluk çağı ruhsal sorunları. Öztürk O (ed). Ruh Sağlığı ve Bozuklukları. Ankara: Hekimler Yayın Birliği. 421–452. Peretti, O. P, & Sydney M. T. (1984). Parental Toy Choice Stereotyping and Its Effects on Child Toy Preference and Sex-Role Typing. Social Behavior and Personality. 12(2). 213–216. Poyraz H. (1999). Okul Öncesi Dönemde Oyun Ve Oyuncak. Anı Yayıncılık, Ankara. Taylor S. I. et al. (1997). Toy safety and selection. Early Childhood Education Journal. 24(4):235–238 Razon, N. (1987 ). Çocuğun dünyasında oyuncağın yeri ve önemi. Pembe Bağcık Dergisi. 2. Russ, S.W. (1998). Play, creativity, and adaptive functioning: implications for play interventions. J Clin Child Psychol. 27. 469–480. Sarı, Ş. (2002). Bir Oyun Aracı Çamur, Çoluk Çocuk Dergisi. (16). 21–22. 74 Vol. 1, No. 1, 62-75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Spidell, A. (1988). Play in the classroom: a descriptive study of preschool teachers’ beliefs. Early Child Development and Care. 41(1). 153–172. Spodek, B., Saracho, O. N. (2005). Handbook of research on the education of young children. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Telep, V. (1997).Choosing safe toys for children aged birth to 12 years. http:/www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/family 7350–7363/350-063.html. 13. 05.2011. Teret, B.A., Bailey, S.P., Hershey, L.A., Peeler, M.O. (1991). The impact of specific toy warning labels. JAMA, 265. 2848–2850. Uluğ, M. O. (1997). Niçin Oyun? Göçebe yayınları. 1–48. European Commission. Study on the Impact of the Revison of the Council Directive 88/378/EEC on the Safety of Toys Final Report. European Commission. 21.05. 2011. Guidance on toys for children under 3 years old, Age labelling. http://www.toyretailersassociation.co.uk/ safety/children_0-3.htm. 17.05.2011. http://www.toyretailerassociation.co.uk/safety/approval_marks.htm. 17.12.2005. Oyuncaklar Hakkında Yönetmelik. Resmi Gazete, 17.05.2002 tarih/24758 sayı. http://www.mevzuat. adalet.gov.tr/html/21042.html. 02.05.2011. ToySafetyFactsheet:March2001.http://www.rospa.com/productsafety/factsheets/toysafety.htm 23.05.2011. 75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 The Development of Empathy in Early Childhood Period and The Role of The Family Assist. Prof. Dr. Güneş Salı1 Bozok University, Faculty of Education, Departmen of Educational Sciences Abstract Being a social entity, humans are in constant communication with each other. An individual’s communication with others is also one of his essential needs. His success in these relationships depends on his ability to understand and acknowledge himself and others. Empathy is one of the important concepts for achieving healthy interpersonal communication. Empathetic skills, which are known to have a very significant place in human relations, are stated to have been observed in children from very early ages. Empathy can be developed and various opinions have been put forward about which circumstances and approaches are more suitable for this and about the role of domestic interactions. This work dwells on the term empathy, the development of empathy in early childhood period and the role of the family institution in empathy’s development. Several recommendations are proposed for parents and teachers, so as to improve the empathetical skills of children who are in their early childhood. Key words: Empathy, early childhood period, empathetical development, family role. 1 Address correspondence to Assist. Prof. Dr. Güneş Salı Bozok University, Faculty of Education, Departmen of Educational Sciences 66100 Yozgat Turkey. Email: [email protected] 63 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 Erken Çocukluk Dönemde Empatinin Gelişimi ve Ailenin Rolü Yrd. Doç. Dr. Güneş Salı2 Bozok Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü Özet Sosyal bir varlık olan insan, diğer insanlarla sürekli iletişim halindedir. İnsanın başkalarıyla iletişim kurması aynı zamanda temel gereksinimlerden birisidir. Bireyin ilişkilerinde başarılı olabilmesi kendisini ve başkalarını anlayabilmesine ve kabul etmesine bağlıdır. Empati kişilerarası iletişimin sağlıklı olmasında önemli olan kavramlardan biridir. İnsan ilişkilerinde çok önemli bir yere sahip olduğu bilinen empatik becerinin, çocuklarda çok küçük yaşlardan itibaren gözlenebildiği ifade edilmekte, empatinin geliştirilebileceğine ve bunun için hangi koşulların, hangi tutumların daha uygun olduğuna, aile içi etkileşimin rolüne ilişkin çeşitli görüşler ortaya atılmıştır. Bu çalışmada empati kavramı, erken çocukluk dönemde empatinin gelişimi ve empatinin gelişiminde aile olgusunun rolü üzerinde durulmuştur. Erken çocukluk döneminde olan çocukların empatik becerilerinin geliştirilmesine yönelik anne babalara ve öğretmenlere çeşitli önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Anahtar kelimeler: Empati, erken çocukluk dönemi, empatinin gelişimi, ailenin rolü. 2 Sorumlu Yazar: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Güneş Salı Bozok Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü 66100 Yozgat Turkey. Email: [email protected] [email protected] 64 Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Giriş Bireyin yaşamında kişilik, yaşam boyu devam eden bir gelişim içerisindedir. Bu süreçte, erken çocukluk yılları kişiliğin temelini oluşturması nedeniyle ayrı bir öneme sahiptir. Bu dönemdeki etkenler, kişilik yapısının oluşmasında çok önemli bir yeri vardır. Gelişim sürecinde bireylerin edindikleri yetenek ve beceriler tüm hayatlarında olumlu veya olumsuz etkin rol oynar. İletişim ve iletişim kurma süreci de bireylerin gelişiminde önemli bir beceridir. İletişim sürecinde kullanılan önemli yetenek ve becerilerden biri, kişinin empatik becerisidir. İnsanların empatik beceri düzeyi onları birbirlerine yaklaştırma özelliği ile iletişimin kalitesinde oldukça önemli olmaktadır. Başkalarıyla empatik iletişim kurma becerisi gelişmiş olan kişiler, çok daha iyi bir iletişim kurabilirler. Bu nedenle, empatinin gelişimini bilmenin, erken çocukluk döneminden itibaren çocukların empatik iletişim becerilerinin desteklenmesine yönelik çalışmaların yapılmasını kolaylaştıracağından, önemli olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bireyin, vermeye çalıştığı mesajın aynı zamanda nasıl algılanabileceğine ve anlaşılabileceğine dair bilgisi olması ve bunu dikkate alarak iletişim kurma çabasında bulunması o iletişim sürecini daha kaliteli kılar. Bu nedenle kişilerin empatik beceri düzeyleri iletişim sürecinin kalitesinde çok önemli bir yere sahiptir. İnsanın karşısındaki kişinin duygu ve düşüncelerini anlamasına yardımcı olan empatik beceri, genel iletişim becerisinin bir parçası olarak kabul edilmektedir. Empatik anlayış günlük yaşamın hemen her kesiminde insanları birbirine yaklaştırma, iletişimi kolaylaştırma özelliğine sahiptir. İnsanlar kendileriyle empati kurulduğunda, anlaşıldıklarını ve kendilerine önem verildiğini hissederler. Diğer insanlar tarafından anlaşılmak ve önem verilmek ise bireyi rahatlatmakta ve kendisini iyi hissetmesine yardımcı olmaktadır. Bu da kişiler arasında iyi bir ilişki biçiminin oluşmasını, kişilerarası ilişkilerde empatik beceriyi kullanan bir bireyin 65 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 zamanla karşısındaki kişiye model olabilmesini sağlamaktadır. Dolayısıyla empatik beceri kişilerarasında sağlıklı iletişimin kurulmasında önemli bir role sahiptir. Nitekim kişilerarası ilişkilerde empati düzeyi yüksek ya da düşük bireylerin kişilik özelliklerini karşılaştıran araştırma bulguları, empati düzeyi yüksek kişilerin olumlu kişilik özelliklerine sahip olduklarını ortaya koymaktadır. Empatik becerisi yüksek kişilerin sevecen, hoşgörülü, kendini olduğu gibi kabul eden kişiler oldukları tespit edilmiştir. Bunların yanı sıra empatik becerisi yüksek kişilerin olumlu ruhsal gelişime sahip oldukları, özsaygı düzeylerinin yüksek olduğu da bulunmuştur (Kalliopuska, 1992; Woolfolk, 1993; Dökmen, 1994; Köksal, 2000; Yüksel, 2004). Feshbach’a göre, empati bireye sosyal uzlaşma, ileri düzeyde farkındalık, iletişim becerisi ve duygusal beceri kazandırırken, ileri düzeyde acıma, önemseme, sinirlilik ve kızgınlık gibi diğer antisosyal davranışların da kontrol altına alınmasına yardımcı olmaktadır (Barnett, 1987). Empatik beceriden yoksun bireylerin girdikleri iletişimlerde birbirlerini yanlış anlamaları ve incitmeleri olasıdır. Aynı durum çocuklar için de geçerlidir. Empatik becerisi düşük olan çocuk arkadaşlarını, ailesini ve öğretmenlerini anlamada güçlüklerle karşılaşabilir; bu da onun çevresi tarafından dışlanmasına neden olabilir (Yılmaz Yüksel, 2003). Çocuklar sosyal yaşam içinde yer alırken kabul etmeyi, uyum sağlamayı, nerede nasıl davranmaları gerektiğini öğrenirler. Bu aşamaların ardından kabul görmeye de başlarlar. Çocuk ancak sosyal olarak kabul gördüğünde sosyal iletişim içinde yer alabilir. Kabul görmenin en önemli koşullarından biri de empatidir. Kendi ihtiyaçları ve duyguları kadar grup içindeki diğer bireylerin de duygularını ve ihtiyaçlarını fark etmek önemlidir. Başkalarının davranışlarının altında yatan duyguları fark etmek, bu duyguların hangi tepkilere neden olduğunu anlayabilmek, uyum için çok önemlidir. Empatik düşünebilen çocuklar çevrelerinde olup bitenleri daha iyi yorumlayabilirler, başkalarının problemlerini daha kolay anlayabilirler ve ilişkileri içindeki problemleri daha 66 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 kolay çözebilirler. Bu özellikleri de diğer çocuklar tarafından kolayca kabul görmelerini sağlar. Empatik düşünebilen çocuklar kendi duygularının farkında oldukları ve duygularını da ifade edebilmeyi başarabildikleri için ilişkilerinde daha az sorun yaşarlar (Temur, 2012). Empatinin ilk belirtileri bebeklik dönemine kadar uzanmakla birlikte diğer gelişim alanlarında olduğu gibi süreç içinde gelişmektedir. Çocukların normal gelişimlerini devam ettirebilmeleri için empatik eğilim düzeylerinin erken dönemde fark edilmesi ve uygun müdahalelerde bulunulması oldukça önemlidir (Hunter, 2003). Ailenin yapısının ve çocuğa karşı tutumlarının çocuğun kişilik gelişimi üzerinde büyük rol oynadığı konusunda yaygın bir görüş birliği bulunmaktadır. Yaşamın en başından itibaren anne-baba tutumları bireylerin kişiliğinin gelişiminde önemli bir temel taşıdır. Bu temel taşı, insan gelişiminin birçok yönünü olumlu ya da olumsuz etkilemektedir. Bunlardan biri de empatik beceridir. Empatik beceri ve empatik becerilerin gelişmesi, aile içinde anne-baba tutumları ile yakından ilişkilidir ve anne-baba tutumlarından etkilenerek şekillenir. Çocuğa empatik davranmanın yanı sıra, çocuğun yanında başkalarına empatik davranan anne-baba modeli oluşturmanın çocuklarda empati ve prososyal davranışların gelişiminde güçlü bir etkiye sahip olduğu bilinmektedir (Kalliopuska & Titinen 1991; Cotton, 2001). Feshbach, (1987) empatik becerisi düşük olan ebevenlerin çocuklarının da empatik becerilerinin düşük olduğunu vurgulamıştır. Geçtan (1999)'ın da belirttiği gibi çocuğun dünyaya gelmesinde ve yetişmesinde etkin rolü bulunan ve çocuktan birinci derecede sorumlu olan anne ve baba çocuğa karşı sergiledikleri tutumlarla çocuğun çok yönlü gelişimini olumlu ya da olumsuz yönde etkilemektedirler. Anne ile çocuk arasında kurulan sağlıklı iletişim, çocuğun sağlıklı bir kişilik geliştirmesini sağlar ve başkaları ile olumlu ilişki kurması için 67 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 temel oluşturur (Schneider, 1993; Cotton, 2001). Aynı şekilde empatik beceriler ve aile içindeki iyi bir iletişim yöntemi, çocukların gelişim süreçlerinde önemli bir yer tutmaktadır. Erken çocukluk dönemi yaşamın temelidir. Kişiliğin büyük ölçüde şekillendiği bu dönem, insan yaşamının en hızlı en değişken olduğu yılları kapsar. Bu dönemde çocuğun gelişimi çok boyutlu bir bütünlük arz eder. Gelişimin bir bütün olan farklı boyutları birbirini etkiler. Bu nedenle çocuğun bir bütün olarak gelişimi hedeflenmelidir. Ülkemizde erken çocukluk dönemini konu alan pek çok araştırma yapılmıştır. Empati üzerine de pek çok araştırma yapılmıştır. Ancak, bu dönemdeki çocuklarda empatinin gelişimi ve ailenin rolü konusunda sınırlı sayıda araştırma yapılmıştır. Kişiliğin bir değişkeni olarak empatinin bu dönemdeki gelişiminde ailenin rolü şüphesiz çok önemlidir. Erken çocukluk dönemindeki çocukların okul çağına gelene kadar kişilik gelişiminde temel etkileşime girdiği çevresel öğelerden en önemlisi genellikle ailedir, anne babadır. Çocukların kişilik gelişimlerinin sağlıklı bir süreçte ilerlemesinde empatik beceri çok önemlidir. Epatik becerinin gelişiminde de anne-baba tutumunun çok önemli bir yere sahip olduğu bilinmektedir. Bireyin kişilik yapısındaki temel öğelerinden olan “empati” nin bu dönemdeki çocukta anne-baba tutumlarıyla nasıl bir etkileşim içinde olduğunun bilinmesi oldukça önemlidir. Bu evredeki çocukların kişiliklerindeki gelişim sürecinde anne-baba ile olan ilişkilerinin ve etkileşimlerinin sonuçlarının bilinmesinin eğitim açısından önemli katkılar sağlayacağı düşünülmekte, bu çalışmanın bu konuda önemli bir kaynak olması beklenmektedir. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada erken çocukluk döneminde empatik becerinin gelişimi ve ailenin önemi üzerinde durulmuştur. Empati 68 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 Yaşamın hemen her alanında empati kavramından sıkça söz edilmektedir. Psikiyatri, psikoloji ve gelişim alanlarında önemli bir yere sahip olan empati gittikçe yaygınlaşan kullanım alanları ile araştırmacıların ilgi odağı olmuştur. Empati kavramı, ilk olarak 1897 yılında Theodor Lipps tarafından Almanca “Einfühlung” sözcüğünün karşılığı olarak kullanılmıştır. Lipps Einfühlung’u şöyle tanımlamıştır: “Bir insanın kendisinin karşısındaki bir nesneye yansıtması, kendini onun içinde hissetmesi ve bu yolla o nesneyi içine alarak/özümseyerek anlaması sürecidir”. Bu kavram, 1909’da Edward B. Titchener tarafından, diğer bir kişinin duygusal deneyimini aktif bir şekilde anlamak olan Yunanca “empatheia” kelimesinden İngilizce’ye “Empathy” olarak çevrilmiştir (Dökmen, 2004). Empati kavramının 1900’lü yıllardan itibaren bu şekilde başlayan serüveni, 1950’lerin sonlarına doğru, bilimsel nitelikli bir kavram olarak kabul edilmesiyle devam etmiştir. Bu yıllarda empati, bir insanın karşısındaki insanı tanıması, kendini onun yerine koyarak onun özellikleri hakkında bilgi sahibi olması anlamında kullanılmıştır. 1960’lı yıllara gelindiğinde, empatinin bilişsel yönünün yanında duygusal yönü üzerinde de durulmuştur. Bu dönemde, çeşitli bilim adamları empatiyi “karşıdaki kişinin algılanan duyuşsal yaşantısına katılarak verilen duygusal tepki olarak” nitelendirmişlerdir. 1970’li yıllarda ise empati, 1960’lara oranla daha dar anlamda kullanılmaya başlanmış, “birinin belirli bir duygusunu anlama ve bu duyguya ilişkin karşılık verme” şeklinde algılanmıştır. Bu yeni algıya göre, empati kuran insan kendinden çok karşıdaki insana odaklanır (Dökmen, 1988). Omdahl (1995), empatinin farklı şekillerde tanımlandığını; bazı yazarların empatiyi yüksek mental işlevler gerektirmeyen, paylaşılan duygular olarak tanımladığını belirtmiş, kendisi ise empatiyi iletişimde alıcının hedef olarak karşıdaki kişiyle aynı şeyi yaşaması, 69 Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH benzer şeyi hissetmesi olarak tanımlamıştır. Cohen ve Strayer (1996) empati kavramını, genellikle karşıdaki kişinin duygusal durumunun anlaşılması ve paylaşılması olarak tanımlamaktadırlar. Mehrabian ve Epstein, empatiyi başkasının duygusal deneyimine karşılık verebilme diye tanımlamışlarken, Hogan ise empatiyi karşıdakinin durumunu zihinsel ve imgesel olarak anlamak ya da o kişinin duygularını birebir yaşamaksızın onun ne hissettiğini anlamak olarak tanımlamıştır (Caruso & Mayer, 1998). Empatinin bu kadar tanımının yapılması, çok boyutlu doğasından kaynaklanmaktadır (Lawrence, at. al., 2004). Empatiyi, empatik beceri ve empatik eğilim olmak üzere iki boyutta ele almak, kavramın tanımlanmasını kolaylaştırmaktadır. Empatik beceri daha çok diğer kişinin duygusunun anlaşıldığının ve hissedildiğinin karşıdaki kişiye aktarılması, hissettirilmesi ile ilgilidir. Empatik eğilim, bireyin başkalarının yaşantılarını ve duygularını anlama ve hissetme potansiyelidir. Empatik eğilim, bilişsel empati ve duygusal empati olmak üzere iki boyutta ele alınmaktadır (Kaya ve Siyez, 2010). Empatinin bilişsel boyutu diğer kişinin duygusunun anlaşılmasına işaret etmektedir, ancak bu boyutta kişinin diğer kişiyi anladığını paylaşması gerekli değildir (de Wied, at. al., 2005; de Kemp, at. al., 2007). En basit düzeyde diğer kişinin duygusal durumunu doğru olarak değerlendirme, daha karmaşık düzeyde ise olayları diğerinin bakış açısından değerlendirebilme anlamına gelen bilişsel empati, bireylerin sosyal işlevselliğinde etkili olmaktadır (Smith, 2006). Empatinin duygusal boyutu, diğer kişinin yaşadığı duyguyu hissedebilme ve diğerinin duygusal durumuna en uygun tepkiyi verebilme anlamına gelmektedir (de Wied, at. al., 2005; de Kemp et al., 2007). Mehrabien ve Epstein, Berger, McDougall ve Freud empatinin duygusal boyutuna vurgu yapmışlardır (Pecukonis, 1990). Duygusal empati, bireylerin ailelerine, arkadaşlarına ve yabancılara karşı fedakarca davranışlarda bulunması için bireyleri güdülerken ahlaki gelişim açısından da oldukça önemlidir. Hatta duygusal empatinin şiddetin bastırılmasında anahtar bir mekanizma 70 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 olabileceği açıklamaları da literatürde yer almaktadır (Kaya ve Siyez, 2010). Bilişsel empatiden farklı olarak da bir günlük bebeklerin bile duygusal empati duyarlılığına sahip olduğu bilinmektedir (Smith, 2006). Genellikle kişinin ses tonu ya da yüz ifadesi gibi bazı uyarıcılar, karşıdaki kişinin duygusunu doğru bir şekilde hissedebilmesinde ve duruma uygun tepkiler verilmesinde yardımcı olan ipuçlarıdır. Ancak bu ipuçlarının yeteri kadar belirgin olmadığı durumlarda, kişinin duygusunu hissetmekte ve duruma uygun tepkiyi vermekte zorlanılabilinir. Bu durumda da devreye perspektif alma, yani olaylara diğerinin bakış açısından bakabilme becerisi devreye girmektedir (Kaya ve Siyez, 2010). Günümüzde en yaygın kabul gören görüş ise empatinin hem bilişsel hem duygusal öğelerden oluştuğu ve bu öğelerin birbirleri ile etkileşim içerisinde olduğu görüşüdür (Chlopan, at. al., 1985). Empatinin çok boyutluluğuna vurgu yapan ilk isim Feshbach’dır (Feshbach, 1987; Gini, at. al., 2007). Feshbach dışında çok sayıda uzman da empatinin bilişsel ve duygusal öğelerden oluştuğunu ve duruma göre bilişsel ya da duygusal boyutta tepki verilebildiğini belirtmektedir (Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987; Brems, 1988). Genel olarak empati, olaylar ve durumlar karşısında bireyin, kendini karşıdaki kişinin yerine koyarak onu anlaması olarak tanımlanabilir. Literatür incelendiğinde, empatinin günümüze kadar değişik şekillerde tanımlandığı görülmektedir. Günümüzde empatinin en çok kabul gören tanımlarından biri Rogers tarafından yapılmıştır. Rogers’a göre, empati; “bir kişinin kendisini karşısındaki kişinin yerine koyarak olaylara onun bakış açısı ile bakması, o kişinin duygularını ve düşüncelerini doğru olarak anlaması, hissetmesi ve bu durumu ona iletmesi” sürecidir (Dökmen, 1988). Erken Çocukluk Dönemde Empatinin Gelişimi Çocukların diğer bireylerin duyguları ile ilgilenmeleri yaşla birlikte değişmektedir. Yedi yaşında olan bir çocuk, okul öncesi çocuklarına oranla diğer insanların duygularını 71 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 anlamada ve üzüntüler ile ilgilenmede daha yeteneklidir. Büyük çocuklar üzüntülü olan bireyi rahatlatmada ya da onlara yardım etmede daha başarılıdırlar (Eisenberg 1982, Gander ve Gardiner 1995). Empatinin nasıl geliştiğine ilişkin çeşitli kuramsal açıklamalar yapılmıştır. Psikoanalitik görüşü benimseyenler empatinin erken çocukluk döneminde çocuk ve annebaba arasındaki ilişki biçimine göre geliştiğini ileri sürmektedirler (Geçtan, 2000; Marcia, 1987). Empatinin ilk belirtileri bebeklik dönemine kadar uzanmaktadır. Bazı araştırmalarda sinir sisteminde öncelikli olarak belli başlı duygusal ifadelere cevap veren nöronlar olduğu bulunmuştur. Hoffman, yaşamın ilk haftasında bebeklerin bir diğerinin ağlamasına karşı üzüntüyle ve ağlayarak karşılık vermesinin diğer bebekler karşısında sergilenen duygusal uyumun ve empatinin ilk habercisi olduğunu ifade etmektedir (Barnett, 1987; Goleman, 1999). Bilişsel gelişimin ilerlemesi ile birlikte çocuklardaki empatik iletişimin de geliştiği gözlenmektedir. Bilişsel gelişim aşamalarının her birinde bireylerin gösterdikleri empatik tepkiler farklı olmaktadır. Çocukların başkalarının rollerine girebilmelerinde onların ben merkezcilikten uzaklaşmalarının etkisi büyüktür. Bu da bilişsel gelişime bağlı olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır (Köksal Akyol, 2003). Sullivan, bebeğin, kendisine bakan kişinin kaygısını farkında olmadan hissetmesini “kavrayış” kavramıyla tanımlamıştır. Çocuğun kişiliği, kendisine bakan kişinin kaygısına olan tepkisini düzenleyen “kavrayışlar” ile kısmen biçimlenmektedir. Sonuçta, çocuğa bakan kişinin, çocuğun ihtiyaçlarına karşı göstermiş olduğu empatik anlayış onun kavrayışlarını etkilemektedir. Ailenin duyarsızlığı çocuğun kaygısını artırmaktadır. Sullivan’a göre kişilik, çocuk ve ona bakan kişi arasındaki etkileşim ile biçimlenmektedir. Empati, ikisi arasındaki sözlü ve sözsüz iletişimi kolaylaştıran önemli bir kanaldır. Empati, çocuk-ona bakan kişi çiftinden meydana gelen bir sosyal çevre içerisinde gelişmektedir (Geçtan, 2000; Marcia, 1987). 72 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 Sosyal öğrenme kuramcıları ise çocuk ve ona bakan kişi çiftinin etrafındaki çevresel etkileri de kapsam içerisine almışlardır. Çocukta empatinin model alma, gözlemleme, taklit, pekiştirme gibi yollarla geliştiğini ileri sürmektedirler. Örneğin Aronfeed, koşullanma ilkeleri içerisinde prososyal (özellikle başkalarını düşünen olumlu sosyal davranış) davranışta empatinin rolü ve gelişmesini ortaya koymuştur. Aronfeed, çocuğun empatisinin, bir bireyin karşısındaki kişinin duygusal ifadeleri hakkında nasıl bilgi elde ettiğini gözleyerek geliştiğini söylemektedir. Böylece, çocuk başkalarının belirli davranışlarına, kendine özgü duygusal tepki göstermeye şartlanacaktır. Çocuk ayrıca diğer kişinin içinde bulunduğu duygusal durumdan etkilenerek kendine has davranışlar öğrenebilir. Böylece diğer kişinin içinde bulunduğu duygusal duruma göre tepki olarak belirli bir davranış üretebilir. Örneğin, yüz ifadesi sinirli olan bir anne, baba (ya da bakıcı) çocukta kızgınlık ya da korku duyguları geliştirebilir. Çocuk anne ve babanın kızgınlığını sözel ya da sözsüz ipuçlarından öğrenebilir. Bandura da, empatinin sosyal öğrenme ilkeleri içerisinde geliştiğini belirtmiştir (Eysenc 1960, Bandura 1969, Grusec and Redler 1980; Yılmaz-Yüksel, 2003). Sosyal- duygusal yaklaşım, çocuğun kendi çevresindeki figürlerle etkileşim kurmasında ve kendi gelişiminde empatinin rolünü anlamaya yer verir. Bu yaklaşıma göre bebeklerin doğdukları andan itibaren sosyal- duygusal tepki verebilme kapasiteleri vardır. Hatta bu yaklaşım çok küçük bebeklerin empatik tepki verebileceklerini savunmaktadır (Thompson, 1990). Sosyal- duygusal yaklaşımını benimseyen Hoffman (1975) empatinin erken bebeklikte bile gözlenebileceğini ileri süren ilk araştırmacıdır. Sagi ve Hoffman (1976)’nın araştırmaları yalnızca birkaç günlük bebeklerin diğer bebeklerin ağlama sesine, yapay bir ağlama sesine ya da sessizliğe göre daha anlamlı bir ağlama tepkisi verdiklerini göstermiştir. Çocukların empati gelişimiyle ilgili yapılan ilk çalışmalarda empatiyi geliştirmek 73 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 için gerekli olan belirtiler incelenmiştir. Empatinin gelişimi konusunda çalışan Simner tarafından yapılan araştırmada, yeni doğan bir bebeğin, teybe kaydedilmiş diğer bebeğin ağlama sesine verdiği tepkiler incelenmiştir. Simner, yeni doğan bebeğe dinletilen bebek sesinin kendisiyle benzer yaşta olması durumunda daha fazla ağlayarak tepki verdiğini bulmuştur. Yeni doğan bebeklerin kendilerine beş buçuk aylık bir bebeğin sesi dinletildiğinde ortamda şiddetli bir gürültü olursa anlamlı olarak daha az tepki verdikleri saptanmıştır (Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Köksal, 1997). Küçük bir çocuk bazen annesi, kardeşi ya da başka bir çocuk incindiğinde Hoffmann’ın empatik acı adını verdiği bir acıyla ağlamaya başlayabilir. Bu, empatinin basit bir biçimidir, çok az bilişsel etki taşıyan, büyük ölçüde koşullu, duygusal bir tepkidir. Hoffman’a göre bebekler ilk yıl içinde kendilerini başkalarından ayırt edemezler ve birini acı çekerken ya da güçlük içinde gördüklerinde sanki bunu kendileri yaşıyormuş gibi rahatlatılmak isteyebilirler. Empatik acı ilkeldir. Bunu yaşayan çocuklar gerçekte diğerinin ne hissettiğini hayal etmeye çalışmazlar. Ancak, bu yine de bir başlangıçtır. Çocuklar iki yaş dolaylarında nesne sürekliliği ve kişi sürekliliği kavramlarını geliştirmektedirler. Hoffman bunun çocukların kendi acılarını diğerlerinden ayırt etmelerine olanak sağladığına inanmaktadır. Çocuklar biraz empatik acı yaşayabilirler ve üzüntülü kişiyi rahatlatmaya çalışabilirler. Hoffman, bir oyuncak yüzünden çıkan kavgada oyun arkadaşını üzen on beş aylık bir bebek örneğini vermektedir. Arkadaşı ağladığında çocuk oyuncağı ona verir. Bu da yetmeyince arkadaşının battaniyesini bularak ona getirir. Sonunda arkadaşı ağlamayı keser. Hoffman’a göre bu çocuk geribildirimi uygun bir biçimde kullanmaktadır. Bu olay, bu çocuğun arkadaşının gereksinimlerini bir dereceye kadar bilişsel olarak değerlendirdiğini ve bunu yalnızca arkadaşının duyguları ve istekleri kendininkilere benzediği için yapabildiğini göstermektedir. Küçük çocuklar, üzüntülü olan başka bireyleri gördüklerinde sıklıkla empatik tepki göstermektedirler. Çocukların 74 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 gösterdikleri empatik tepkinin öğrenilmiş olduğu ileri sürülmektedir. Gerçekten de, bir ya da iki yaşlarındaki çocukların empatik tepkilerinde bireysel farklılıklar görülmektedir; bazı iki yaş çocukları çok sevecendirler, bazıları diğerlerinin üzüntüsüne tepki vermezler, bazıları ise diğerlerinin üzüntüsüne karşı hoşgörüsüzdürler. Diğer insanların duygusal durumlarına karşı gösterilen bireysel tepkilerdeki farklılık, ebeveynlerinin çocuklarına gösterdikleri tutumlardan, çocukların kendilerine model aldıkları anne, baba ve diğer yakın çevredeki bireylerden kaynaklanmaktadır. Empati düzeyi yüksek olan ebeveynlerin çocukların, empati düzeyi düşük olan ebeveynlerin çocuklarına oranla empati düzeylerinin daha yüksek olduğu, yapılan çalışmalarda ortaya konulmuştur (Eisenberg 1982, Gander ve Gardiner 1995). Empatik becerinin nasıl geliştiği konusunda literatürdeki kuramsal açıklamalardan biri de psikodramanın kurucusu sayılan Moreno’ya aittir. Moreno’nun sosyometri ile ilgili kuramsal görüşleri arasında, rol alma ve rol gelişimi çok önemli bir yere sahiptir. Özellikle psikodramada rol değiştirme, yani karşısındakinin rolünü alma -buna bir anlamda empati de denilebilir- en temel tekniktir (Dökmen, 1988). Moreno’ya göre rol gelişimi ya da empati gelişimi beş aşamada gerçekleşir: İlk aşamada çocuk anneyi kendisinin bir parçası olarak algılar, dış dünya ile kendisi arasında bir ayırım yapamaz, dış dünya ile özdeşim içindedir. Özdeşim bütünlüğü adı verilen bu dönemde çocuk, rollerini, bu rollerin kendisine ait olduğunu bilmeksizin oynar. İkinci aşamada dikkatini, kendisinin özel bir parçası olarak algıladığı anne üzerinde odaklaştırır. Üçüncü aşamada, annesini başlı başına bir varlık olarak görür, çocuk artık kendisini diğer insanlardan ayırt edebilir, rolleri tanıyabilir. Dördüncü aşamada, kendisini annesinin yerine koyabilir, günlük yaşamda annesinin rolünü oynayabilir. Beşinci aşamada ise, annesinin rolünden hareketle, kendisinin dışına çıkıp, kendisini yaşayabilir (Dökmen, 1988; Köksal, 2000). Hoffman da, temelde Moreno’nunkine benzeyen dört gelişim basamağı 75 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 oluşturmuştur (Dökmen, 1988). Hoffman’a göre bir çocuğun empatik olma yeteneği Piaget’in bilişsel gelişim kuramına benzer bir aşamayı izlemektedir. Ben- sen ayrımının olmadığı küçük çocuklarda empatik oluşum bu biliş olmadan ortaya çıkmaktadır. Hoffman, bir çocuğun Piaget’in bilişsel gelişim aşamalarında ilerledikçe empatik olgunluğunun kalitesinin artmakta olduğunu belirtmektedir (Yılmaz Yüksel, 2003). Hoffman’ın dört empati gelişim aşamasından ilk iki aşamanın (sıkıntı reaksiyonu 0-1 yaş) ve (bireyin sürekliliği 1-2 yaş) tamamen, üçüncü aşamanın (rol alma 2-10 yaş) ise kısmen erken çocukluk dönemine denk geldiği söylenebilir. Dördüncü aşama (empati) ise yetişkin döneme denk gelmektedir. Aşağıda bunlardan erken çocukluk dönemine denk gelen aşamalar üzerinde durulacaktır. 1- Sıkıntı reaksiyonu (0-1 yaş) Bu aşamada, bebekler diğer bireyin üzüntüsüne tepki verirler. Ancak o bireyin üzüldüğünün farkında olduklarını belli etmezler (Dworetzky, 1990). Global empati olarak da isimlendirilen bu dönem ilk yıl boyunca gözlenir. Piaget’in ilk bilişsel gelişim aşaması olan duyusal-motor döneme benzemektedir. Bebekler bu aşamada basit, refleksif aktiviteler sergilerler. Kendini diğerlerinden ayırt edemediği için başkalarına olan şeyleri kendine olmuş gibi algılar ve tepkide bulunur (Hoffman, 1987). Bazen bebekler annesi, kardeşi ya da başka bir çocuk incindiğinde, Hoffman’ın empatik acı adını verdiği bir acıyla ağlamaya başlar. Bu, empatinin basit bir biçimidir; çok az bilişsel etki taşıyan, büyük ölçüde koşullu, duygusal bir tepkidir. Birini acı çekerken ve güçlük içinde gördüklerinde sanki bunu kendileri yaşıyormuş gibi rahatlatılmak isteyebilirler. Hoffman, başka bir çocuğun düşüp ağladığını görerek kendisi ağlamak üzere olan on aylık bir bebekten söz eder. Bu çocuk sanki kendi ağlayacakmış gibi görünür; başını annesinin kucağına saklar ve baş parmağını emer (Dworetzky, 1990; Gander & Gardiner, 2001; Goleman 1999; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Gelişim psikologları, bebeklerin henüz kendilerini başkalarından ayrı bir 76 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 varlık olarak kavramadıkları dönemde bile başkalarının sıkıntısından rahatsız olduklarını saptamışlardır. Doğumdan birkaç hafta sonra bebekler, yanlarında başka bir bebek ağladığında kendileri de ağlamaktadırlar. Bir yaş civarında, sıkıntının kendilerinde değil de başkasında olduğunun farkına varmaktadırlar (Goleman, 1999). Bu aşamada bebeklerin empatik kaygıyı, en basit düzeydeki harekete geçirici yöntemler aracılığıyla yaşamalarının mümkün olduğu belirtilmektedir. Yaşamın ilk yılında sıkıntılı bir insanı gözlemenin evrensel empatik bir tepkiye yol açabileceği ifade edilmektedir ve bu olay Hoffman (1994)’a göre bebeklerin, diğer insanları kendilerinden bağımsız birer fiziksel varlık olarak algılamalarından çok önce gerçekleşmektedir (Köksal Akyol, 2003). Bu aşamada bulunan çocukların, aslında tam olarak kendilerinin mi, yoksa başkasının mı sıkıntıyı yaşadığından emin olmadıkları gözlenmiştir. Hoffman (1994), bu olumsuz duygu paylaşımını “empatik kaygı” olarak tanımlamaktadır. Hoffman’a göre burada çocuğun yaşadığı üzüntü durumu pasif, istemsiz sadece en alt düzeydeki bilişsel işlevleri gerektirir. Ancak empatik kaygı olarak adlandırılan ve çocukta ilk izlenilen bu tepkilerin, daha karmaşık empatik tepkilerin kurulabilmesi için bir temel oluşturduğu belirtilmektedir (Köksal Akyol, 2003). 2- Bireyin sürekliliği (1-2 yaş) Bir yaşın sonuna doğru çocuğun kişi sürekliliğini kazandığı gözlenmektedir. Hoffman bunun çocukların kendi acılarını diğerlerininkinden ayırt etmelerine olanak sağladığına inanmaktadır. Fakat hala biraz empatik acı yaşarlar ve üzgün olan birisini rahatlatmaya çalışabilirler (Gander & Gardiner, 2001; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Egosentrik empati aşaması olarak da adlandırılan bu dönemde, kişi sürekliliğinin kazanılması sonucu çocuk, kendisi ve başkaları arasındaki kalıcı fiziksel ayrımın farkına varır. Ancak çocuk hala kendi iç dünyasıyla karşısındakinin iç dünyasını tam olarak ayırt edememektedir. Çocuk, diğer bir bireyin üzüntülü olduğunu anlayabilir, ancak diğer bireyin kendisinden farklı gereksinimlerinin olabileceğinin farkında değildir. Aynı iç dünyalara sahip 77 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 olduklarını düşünerek, uygun olmayan tepkiler verebilirler. Örneğin, bir çocuğun düştüğünü gören başka bir çocuk, diğer çocuğun annesi yanında olsa bile onu rahatlatmak için kendi annesini götürür (Dworetzky, 1990; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Kişi sürekliliğinin kazanılması sonucu çocuğun kendisi ve başkaları arasındaki kalıcı fiziksel ayrımın farkına vardığı, ancak ayrı fiziksel varlıkların içsel durumlarında da farklılık gösterdiğini kavrayamadıkları, bu yaştaki çocukların bu nedenle başkalarının kendilerinden ne zaman farklı düşündüklerini ve hissettiklerini tam olarak sezemedikleri belirtilmektedir (Davis, 1996; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Hoffman’a göre, kişi sürekliliğinin kazanılması merhamet, acıma, şefkat duygularıyla karakterize olan “sempatik kaygı”nın ortaya çıkmasına fırsat vermekte, ancak bu sempatik kaygı tepkisi hiç bir şekilde empatik kaygının yerini alamamakta, başkalarının acısını gözleme sonucu hala empatik kaygı ortaya çıkmaya devam etmektedir (Köksal Akyol, 2003). Hoffman, çocukların nesne sürekliliği ve kişi sürekliliği kavramlarını geliştirmelerinin, onların kendi acılarını diğerlerinden ayırt etmelerine olanak sağladığına inanmaktadır. Çocuklar halen biraz empatik acı yaşayabilirler ve üzüntülü kişiyi rahatlatmaya çalışabilirler. Hoffman, bir oyuncak yüzünden çıkan kavgada oyun arkadaşını üzen on beş aylık bir çocuk örneğini vermektedir. Arkadaşı ağladığında çocuk oyuncağını ona verir. Arkadaşının ağlamaya devam ettiğini görünce kendisini sakinleştiren battaniyesini bularak ona getirir. Sonunda arkadaşı ağlamayı keser. Hoffman’a göre bu çocuk geribildirimi uygun bir biçimde kullanmaktadır. Bu olay, bu çocuğun arkadaşının gereksinimlerini bir dereceye kadar bilişsel olarak değerlendirdiğini ve bunu yalnızca arkadaşının duyguları ve istekleri kendininkilere benzediği için yapabildiğini göstermektedir (Goleman, 1999; Gander & Gardiner, 2001). Goleman, bir yaşındaki bir çocuğun diğerinin sıkıntısını belki de onun ne hissettiğini daha iyi anlayabilmek için hareket taklidini kullandığını ifade etmiştir. Örneğin, bir bebeğin parmakları acıdığında bir yaşındaki başka bir çocuk kendi 78 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 parmaklarını ağzına götürüp acıyıp acımadığına bakmıştır. Annesinin ağladığını gören bir bebek ise hiç gözyaşı olmadığı halde gözyaşını silmiştir. Bu örneklerde görülen hareket taklidi çocuklar iki buçuk yaşına geldiklerinde ortadan kalkmaktadır. Böylece başkasının acısının kendilerininkinden farklı olduğunu anlamakta ve diğerlerini daha iyi rahatlatacak hale gelmektedirler (Köksal Akyol, 2003). 3-Rol alma (2-10 yaş) Yukarıda da belirtildiği gibi rol alma aşaması kısmen erken çocukluk dönemine kısmen de orta çocukluk dönemine denk gelmektedir. Çocuklar iki yaşın sonlarına doğru diğerlerinin yaşadıkları duyguları taklit etmeye başlar ve prososyal (gönüllü yardım etme, destek verme) davranışlarda bulunurlar (Zahn-Waxler at al., 1979). Yaklaşık iki-üç yaşından başlayarak ve orta çocukluk dönemi boyunca devam ederek artan karmaşıklıkta gelişen rol alma yeteneğinin devreye girmesiyle birlikte, çocuk diğer insanların duygularının kendi duygularından farklı olduğunu anlamaya ve kendi ihtiyaçlarını belirleyerek olaylara kendi yorumlarını katmaya başlarlar (Davis, 1994; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Bunun sonucunda çocuğun, sosyal çevreye uygun şekilde, karşısındakinin gerçekten neler düşündüğünü ortaya koyan ipuçlarına karşı daha duyarlı olmaya başladığı gözlenir. Çocuk bu dönemde birbirleriyle karşıt olabilen pek çok sayıda duyguya aynı anda empatik cevaplar verebilirler. Ayrıca bu sırada dil yeteneğinin hızlı gelişimi sonucu daha karmaşık sembolik ipuçlarının kullanımının bu süreci güçlendirdiği ve çocuğun gelişen olaylar karşısında duygularını daha iyi bir şekilde ifade edebildiği, başkalarının durumuna hangi yardımın daha uygun olduğunu anlayabildiği belirtilmektedir (Davis, 1996; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Altıncı yaşın, empatinin yani olayları başkasının açısından görme ve uygun bir şekilde davranabilme evresinin başlangıcı olduğu belirtilmektedir (Shapiro, 2000; Köksal Akyol, 2003). Altı yaşından sonra çocuk kendisini karşısındaki bireyin yerine koyabilmekte ve artık onu dahi iyi anlamaya başlamaktadır. Bu da empatinin gelişimi için 79 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 çok önemli olmaktadır (Köksal Akyol, 2003). Diğerinin duyguları için empati aşaması olarak da adlandırılan bu dönemin sonuna doğru, çocuk artık herkesin kendi iç dünyası olduğunu ayırt edebilmektedir. Artan yaşla birlikte, başkalarının aynı olaya farklı duygusal tepkiler verebileceğini anlamaya başlamakta ve başkasının bakış açısından bakma yeteneği gelişmektedir. Piaget’e göre de başkasının bakış açısından bakma becerisi somut işlemler döneminde (7-11 yaş) ortaya çıkmaktadır. Hoffman, çocuğun empati yapısını anlayabilmesi ve çocuğa empatik becerilerin öğretilmesinden önce somut işlemleri mutlaka başarması gerektiği görüşündedir. Hoffman’a göre yedi yaşından önceki empatik davranış sadece tepkisel ya da taklit etmedir (Hoffman, 1987). Görüldüğü gibi rol alma evresinin sonları orta çocukluk dönemine başka bir ifadeyle okul çağının başlangıcına denk gelmektedir. Hoffman (1987)’ın dördüncü aşaması (empati 10 yaş-yetişkin) aşaması olarak adlandırılmaktadır. Soyut empati olarak da adlandırılan dördüncü aşama okul çağına ve sonrasına denk geldiği için, bu dönemin özelliklerine burada yer verilmemiştir. Empatinin Gelişiminde Ailenin Rolü Yapılan araştırmalar empatinin gelişiminde çocuğun sağlıklı aile ortamında yetişmesinin önemli olduğunu göstermektedir (Zahn-Waxler at al., 1979; Hasdemir 2007; (Önder ve Gülay 2007). Empatinin erken temellerinden biri bebek ve ona bakan kişi arasındaki yoğun duygusal ilişkiyle ilgilidir. Sullivan, çocuğun başkalarının duygularına empatik yaklaşımının, annenin duygu ve ruh hali ile erken bir birliktelikten doğduğunu ifade etmiştir (Barnett, 1987). Güvenli bağlılığın da empatik çocukların gelişmesine katkıda bulunabileceği belirtilmiştir. Çocuğa bakan kişinin çocuğa karşı olumlu duygusal tepkileri güvenli bağlılık oluşmaktadır. Güvenli bağlanan çocuklar, kendisine bakanlara sıcaklıkla, 80 Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH severek yaklaşmakta, duygusal gereksinimlerini doyurmaktadırlar. Güvenli bağlanan çocukların duygusal gereksinimleri karşılandığı için böyle çocuklar kendi ihtiyaçlarıyla daha az meşgul olurken, diğerlerinin ihtiyaçlarına karşı daha duyarlı olabilmekte ya da böyle çocuklar sevecen davranış gösteren yetişkin modellerini gözleyerek diğerlerine tepki verirken benzer davranışları gösterebilmektedirler (Barnett, 1987). Eğer bir çocuk böyle bir çevrede yetiştirilmemişse Rogers ve Truax ve Rogers’ın çalışmalarında önerdikleri gibi, terapötik ilişki gibi uygun bir sosyal çevre sağlanırsa çocuğun ya da yetişkinin empatisinin (ve kişiliğinin diğer yönlerinin) potansiyel olarak gelişmesi söz konusudur (Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Köksal, 1997). Empati üzerinde çalışan Psikoanalistler arasında Kohut, çocuğun büyütülmesi sırasında annenin empatik becerilerinin çok önemli olduğunu, annenin empatik tepkilerindeki yetersizliğin bebeğin ihtiyaçlarının karşılanmasını etkileyebileceğini belirterek çocukta empatik becerilerin gelişiminde anne-babanın empatik olup olmamasının büyük ölçüde etkili olduğunu, empatik becerisi düşük ailelerin çocuklarının da empatik beceri düzeylerinin düşük olduğunu ifade etmiştir (Feshbach, 1987). Anne-baba ve çocuk arasında sıcak ve güvenli bağlanma ilişkisi olduğunda ailenin duyarlılığı empatik ilginin uyanmasını arttırabilmektedir (Van Ijzendoorn & De Wolff, 1997). Duyarlı davranış sergileyen aileler, bebeklerine empatik ilgi için ilk ve çok güçlü model olmaktadır (Robinson, at. al., 1994). Barnett, empatinin gelişiminin büyük ölçüde aile çevresi içinde oluştuğunu belirtmiştir. Barnett’e göre aile çevresi; çocuğun kendi duygusal ihtiyaçlarını doyurmakta, çocuğu değişik duygular yaşaması ve hissetmesi için desteklemekte ve çocuğun duygusal duyarlılığı ve istekliliği destekleyen kişileri gözlemesi ve iletişime girmesi için seçenekler sağlamaktadır (Barnett, 1987). İlk güvenli bağın oluşmasındaki en önemli katkı maddesi çocuğa verilen koşulsuz sevgi ve bakımdır. 81 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 Böylece çocuğun kendi duygusal ihtiyaçları karşılanmış olur. Ebeveynlerin ya da onların yerine geçen kişilerin sevgisi ve şefkati bu şekilde empatinin gelişiminde önemli bir rol oynar. Güçlü bir bağın kurulması ilk olarak bir başkasına karşı ilgi duyma konusundan daha önce gelir ve bu durum empati gelişiminde daha sonra gerekli bir ön şart olarak ortaya çıkar. Yani çocuk önce kendi güvenliğini garanti eder, daha sonra başkasına ilgi duymaya başlar. Güçlü bir güven ve koruma duygusuna sahip olan çocuklar, güvenli bağlar içeren ailelerden gelirler, güven bağları zayıf olan çocuklara göre başkalarının hislerine ve ihtiyaçlarına daha çok cevap verebilirler. Çocuğun empati gelişiminde ailenin samimiyeti de önemlidir. Aile samimiyeti genellikle anne ve babanın çocukla iletişiminde ona gösterdiği tutumun bir yönü olarak görülmektedir (Darling & Steinberg, 1993). Samimiyet, anne ve babanın çocuğun ihtiyacına destekleyici, sevecen ve duyarlı olan genel eğilimlerinin yansımasıdır ve aynı zamanda çocuğa karşı direkt olarak olumlu duygu ve davranışların gösterilmesidir. Hoffman (1982)’a göre, ailenin samimiyeti çocuğun kendi duygusal ihtiyaçlarını karşılayarak çocukta empatinin gelişiminde önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Ailenin destekleyici ve samimi olmasıyla çocukların empatisi arasında olumlu ilişkinin olduğu bulunmuştur (Rigby, 1993; Robinson, at al., 1994). Ailenin samimiyetiyle ailenin empatisi arasında bir ilişki olması da söz konusudur. Empatik olmayan, samimi ve duyarlı ailelerin olmasını düşünmek oldukça güçtür. Ayrıca ailenin empatisiyle çocukların empatisi arasında da olumlu yönde bir ilişki olduğu söylenebilir (Fabes, at al., 1990). Çocuğun empati gelişiminde diğer önemli aile faktörü, ailenin çocuğa duygularını açıkça ifade etmesidir. Genelde duygularını ifade eden ailelerden gelen çocuklar, kendileri de duygularını ifade etme eğilimindedirler. Bunun nedeni, aile üyeleri tarafından biyolojik devamlılık olabilir ya da çocukların anne ve babalarıyla etkileşimlerinde anne ve babalarını taklit etmeleri ve duygusal bulaşma olabilir. Dolayısıyla olumlu ya da olumsuz duyguları 82 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 daha fazla yaşayabilen ve ifade edebilen çocuklar muhtemelen diğerlerinin duygularını daha iyi hissedebilirler ve duygularını daha az ifade eden çocuklardan daha fazla empatiktirler (Roberts and Strayer, 1996; Yüksel, 2009). Roberts, and Strayer, J. (2004)’in yapmış oldukları bir araştırmada, aile içinde duyguların ifade edilmesi ile çocukların empatisi arasında olumlu ilişki olduğu bulunmuştur. Ayrıca anne-babaları ve çevrelerindeki yetişkinler tarafından duyguları anlaşılan, ifade edilen çocuklar empatiyi daha kolay öğrenirler. Çünkü empati becerisinin gelişimi için öncelikle kişinin kendi duygularının farkında olması, duygular arasındaki farkları hissedebilmesi önemlidir (Evliçoğlu, 2007). Çocuğun empatik olmasında etkili olabilecek aileyle ilgili bir başka unsur, anne – babanın çocuğa karşı kullandığı disiplin yöntemidir. Yapılan araştırmalarda, anne-babanın uyguladığı disiplin yöntemiyle çocuğun empatisi arasında güçlü ilişkiler olduğu bulunmuştur (Krevans and Gibbs, 1996). Anne-babanın, çocuğun değiştirilmesi gereken davranışıyla ilgili gerekli açıklamayı yapmasını, nedenleri açıkça belirtmesini içeren disiplin tekniğinin çocuğun empatik eğilimlerini desteklediği ifade edilmiştir. Hoffman (1975) da, çocuğun hareketlerinin bir başkasına zarar verdiği durumlarda zarar gören kişinin sıkıntısına dikkat çeken ve çocuğun kendini onun yerine koyması için cesaretlendiren bu tekniğin çocukta empatiyi arttırabileceğini belirtmiştir. Yapılan araştırmalarda anne-babaların davranışlarını değiştirmede bu şekilde açıklayıcı disiplin yöntemi uyguladığı çocukların empati düzeyinin, anne-babalarının baskıcı, cezalandırıcı disiplin yöntemi uyguladığı çocukların empati düzeyinden daha yüksek olduğu bulunmuştur (Krevans & Gibbs, 1996). Benzer şekilde, baskıcı ve otoriter anne–baba tutumuyla çocukların empatisi arasında olumsuz yönde ilişki olduğu bulunmuştur (Çetin, 2008). Görüldüğü gibi, anne baba disiplin yöntemi de çocukta empatinin gelişmesinde olumlu veya olumsuz etki edebilmektedir. 83 Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Çocuk yetiştirme yöntemleri genel olarak çocuk ile anne-baba arasındaki tüm etkileşimleri kapsar. Bu etkileşimler anne-babanın tutum, değer ve inançlarının ifadesiyle bakım ve eğitim davranışlarını içerir. Bu davranışlar çocuğun davranışlarını biçimlendirmeyi gerçekleştirirken, gelecekteki davranışları üzerinde de etkili olur. Bu nedenle anne- baba ve çocuk ilişkileri kişiliği belirleyen etkenlerden en önemlisi olarak görülmektedir (Yeşilyaprak, 1993). Sonuç ve Öneriler Bireyin kişiliğinin büyük ölçüde erken çocukluk döneminde şekillendiği konusunda büyük bir görüş birliği bulunmaktadır. Kişiliğin bir değişkeni olarak empatik becerinin de çok erken yaşlarda ortaya çıktığı ve geliştirilebileceği belirtilmektedir. Bu dönemde çocuklarda empatinin geliştirilebilmesi, ilerideki daha karmaşık ve olgun empatinin geliştirilmesinin ve dolayısıyla sağlıklı kişiliğin, sağlıklı kişilerarası ilişkilerin, sağlıklı iletişimin ve sağlıklı etkileşimin kurulmasının temel koşuludur. Empati kurma becerisinin bireyin yaşantısında önemi büyüktür. Empatik anlayış iletişim çatışmalarını engelleyerek daha olumlu ilişkilerin kurulmasını sağlamaktadır. Empati kurma becerisini kazanmış bireylerin sosyal çevreleri, okul yaşamları, iş yaşamları ile kuracakları ailelerdeki yaşamlarının, toplumu olumlu yönde etkileyeceği açık bir gerçektir. Böyle bireyler iletişim çatışmalarını engellemek ve daha olumlu ilişkiler kurabilmek açısından da farklılıklar gösterirler. Bu nedenle empatik bir toplum oluşturulabilmesi için bireylerin empatik becerilerini geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmaların yapılmasının gerekli olduğu düşünülmektedir. Özellikle okulöncesi dönemden itibaren çocukların diğer tüm becerilerde olduğu gibi empatik becerilerinin de geliştirilmesi oldukça önemlidir. Toplumun en küçük sosyal grubu olan aile, bireyin yaşantısında çok önemli bir yer 84 Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH tutmaktadır. İlk çocukluk yıllarından itibaren birey pek çok şeyi ailesinden öğrendiği gibi, empatinin temelleri de ailede atılır. Çocuk ile annesi ya da ona bakan kişi arasındaki güçlü duygusal ilişkinin yeri; empati gelişiminde varlığı kabul edilen ilk olgudur. Diğerlerinin hislerine çocuğun empatik tepkisi, annenin ruhsal durumu ve duygularıyla ortaya çıkan ilk empatik bağ ile gelişir. Çocuğun ilk bağı ile duygusal tepkisi arasında açık bir bağlantı söz konusudur. Çocuğa başlangıçta temel güven duygusunun verilmesi, sağlıklı bağlanmanın güvencesi; sağlıklı bağlanma, sağlıklı ayrılmanın güvencesi ve sağlıklı ayrılma bağımsız kişiliğin güvencesi olabilir. Aile ortamındaki samimiyet, anne babanın çocuğun ihtiyaçlarına doğrudan sıcak, sevecen tepkiler vermesi, ailenin çocuğa duygularını açıkça ifade etmesi, anne babanın empatik modeller olması, anne babanın çocuğa karşı kullandığı disiplin yöntemi, çocuğun empati gelişiminde önemli aile faktörleri olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu bilgilerden hareketle, aşağıda bazı önerilere yer verilmiştir; • Erken çocukluk döneminde çocukların empatik becerilerinin gelişimini desteklemeye yönelik çalışmalar yapılabilir. • Anne babalar ve aile empatinin gelişiminde önemli olduğu için onların empatik becerilerinin geliştirilmesine yönelik çalışmalar yapılabilir, aynı zaman da olumlu iletişim becerileri, çocukların gelişim özellikleri, çocukların empatik becerilerinin gelişimi konularda eğitim programları hazırlanabilir. • Aile dışında okul ortamında da uzun zaman geçiren çocukların eğitiminde rol alan öğretmenlerin empatik becerilerini geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yapılabilir. Böylece, hem empatik bir iletişimin olduğu bir eğitim ortamı sağlanmış hem de yüksek empatik becerileri olan öğretmenler iyi birer model olacakları için çocukların da empatik becerileri gelişmiş olacaktır. • Çocuk gelişimi ve eğitimi ile ilgili alanlarda çalışan uzmanların empatik 85 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION RESEARCH Vol. 1, No. 1, 63-92 becerilerini geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalar yapılabilir. • Okul öncesi eğitimi öğretmeni yetiştiren eğitim kurumlarında uygulanan eğitim programlarında öğretmen adaylarının empatik becerilerinin gelişimine yönelik kuramsal bilgilere ve uygulamalara yer verilebilir. • Öğretmenlere hizmet içi eğitim programlarında empatik becerilerinin gelişimini desteklemeye yönelik planlamalara yer verilebilir. • Okul öncesi eğitimi öğretmenleri ve öğretmen adayları empatik becerilerini yükseltmeye yönelik seminerler, drama, müzik ile ilgili etkinliklere katılabilirler. • Araştırmacılar erken çocukluk döneminde çocukların empatik becerilerinin gelişiminde ailenin etkisini ortaya çıkarmaya yönelik çalışmalar yapabilir. 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