Mindfulness: Views of Turkish Pre- Service Early Childhood Teachers

2020-10-01
The present study investigates the views of 21 pre- service early childhood teachers regarding mindfulness and its practice in early childhood settings. The participants were senior students attending early childhood education programs in Ankara, Turkey. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Students expressed positive views on mindfulness, such as the early childhood teacher being more able to focus on current activities, being more aware of themselves, and in control of negative emotions. Reservations included the practice requiring a long process, the risk of teachers becoming nonjudgmental, or insufficiently aware of events in the past or the future. Overall, participants agreed that mindfulness can be readily applied in education and is useful for reaching teachable moments. They also felt that mindfulness practices in the classroom would have a positive impact on children in terms of their future lives, their cognitive development and social-emotional development. Teachers and parents would also benefit personally and professionally, and their family relations would improve. All of the participants in the study indicated that they would like to practice mindfulness in the classroom. However, many had hesitations which were related to implementation and teachers’ efficacy.
International E-Journal of Educational Sciences

Suggestions

Investigating the views of pre-service early childhood teachers regarding mindfulness
Tonga, Funda Eda; Tantekin Erden, Feyza; Department of Early Childhood Education (2018)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of pre- service early childhood teachers regarding mindfulness and its practice in early childhood settings. The participants of the study were 21 pre- service teachers who were senior students in public and private universities in Ankara, Turkey. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted and the data was gathered through a semi- structured interview. Findings of the current study indicated that pre- service early childhood teachers have some p...
INVESTIGATING BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN WITH DIVORCED PARENTS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF TEACHERS‘ VIEWS AND PRACTICES
Yiğit, Nur Banu; Erden, Feyza; Department of Early Childhood Education (2022-7)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the views and the classroom practices of early childhood teachers regarding behavioral problems in children with divorced parents. The participants were 15 early childhood teachers working in state early childhood education institutions in Duzce, Turkey. It was conducted as a phenomenology study within the scope of qualitative research method and data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The findings revealed that teachers' content ...
School readiness: changes in the views of prospective early childhood teachers following a pre-service school readiness and transition to elementary school cours
Sicim, Berna; Olgan, Refika; Department of Early Childhood Education (2011)
The current study aimed to investigate the changes of the school readiness and transition to elementary school course on pre-service early childhood teachers’ views about young children’s school readiness. Teacher view of children’s school readiness scale and interview protocols were administered as pre-post test and pre-post interviews to pre-service early childhood education teachers who were in the process of completing final year in their education in the four university’s department of early childhood ...
Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Self-reported Practices about Circle Time
Mumcuoğlu, Ayşenur; Demircan, Hasibe Özlen; Department of Early Childhood Education (2022-5)
The aim of the study is to investigate in service early childhood teachers’ beliefs and self-reported practices about circle time. In this study, explanatory sequential mixed method design which comprises quantitative part and qualitative part followed by each other was employed sequentially. Participants of the study were in service early childhood teachers who are working in six main districts of Ankara. In the first part of the study, Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Self-reported Practices about Ci...
Perceptions of early childhood teachers towards young gifted children and their education
Tezcan, Feride; Tantekin Erden, Feyza; Department of Early Childhood Education (2012)
The aim of the study is to investigate early childhood teachers’ perceptions towards young gifted children and their self-reported needs for meeting needs of young gifted children. In order to reach this aim, interviews with 15 early childhood teachers were conducted. The interview questions were designed to explore three aspects of teachers’ perceptions on young gifted children: perception on giftedness as a concept, perception on characteristics of young gifted children and perception on gifted education....
Citation Formats
F. E. Tonga and F. Erden, “Mindfulness: Views of Turkish Pre- Service Early Childhood Teachers,” International E-Journal of Educational Sciences, pp. 122–137, 2020, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/73473.