A Study of Turkish Kindergarten Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Two Instructional Models: Direct Instruction and Child-Initiated Instruction
Open Access
- Author:
- Ulker, Riza
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 09, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Thomas Daniel Yawkey, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Daniel Dean Hade, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Rayne Audrey Sperling, Committee Member
Patrick Willard Shannon, Committee Member - Keywords:
- child-initiated instruction
direct instruction
classroom social behavior
kindergarten - Abstract:
- The primary purpose of this study was to investigate kindergarten teachers’ attitudes toward two instructional models based on two criteria: (1) the classroom social behavior of their kindergarten students, and (2) teacher demographics. In this study, and from a classroom perspective, the author defines children’s classroom social behavior as staying seated, asking permission to talk, listening to the teacher, responding appropriately, taking turns, and sharing. The target population of this study was a sampling of kindergarten teachers from several kindergartens in the cities of Ankara and Adana in Turkey. A total of 121 completed surveys (a response rate of 90 percent) were collected for data analysis. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, correlations and multiple regression analyses were performed for the data analysis in this study. The conclusions of this study are as follows: First, it is concluded from this study that overall, the Turkish kindergarten teachers interviewed believed that Child-Initiated Instruction is more effective than Direct Instruction for establishing the classroom social behavior of their kindergarten students. Second, the results indicated that only one of the teachers’ demographics information, “teachers’ highest academic degree,” did play a role in influencing teachers’ attitudes toward Direct Instruction. Third, none of the teachers’ demographics information, including the number of students, the teachers’ ages, their years in kindergarten, or their highest academic degree contributed to the teachers’ attitudes toward Child-Initiated Instruction.