INVESTIGATION OF 5-6-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN'S SKILLS IN RECOGNIZING AND USING THE CONCEPT OF TIME THROUGH INTEGRATED SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of science and mathematics activities applied during preschool education on children's learning of the concept of time related to events and phenomena and the process of their formation. The research was designed as an action research, a qualitative research design. The research has two different study groups. The first group consists of 5 preschool teachers, and the second group consists of 25 kindergarten students aged 5-6. To collect the research data, the "Teacher Interview Form" and "Student Question List Form" prepared by the researcher were used, and a total of 12 lesson hours of "Integrated Science and Mathematics Activities Implementation Plan" was applied to the students. According to the research findings, it was determined that kindergarten students did not use some concepts correctly when expressing time concepts, especially confusing past (yesterday) and future (tomorrow) concepts. Teachers stated that they did not conduct specific studies on the concept of time, but they incorporated time concepts into daily activities within their work plans. It was observed that teaching an abstract concept like time to children in the concrete operational stage was difficult. Additionally, it was concluded that kindergarten students used the concept of time correctly with planned activities.