Abstract:

It is thought that it is important to know the reasons for choosing the child development department of the students in this field in order to develop child development education and to raise qualified child development professionals in our country. For this reason, the aim of this research is to examine the reasons for choosing this department of the students of the child development department in depth. Phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. In the selection of the participants, the criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used depending on the purpose of the study. Accordingly, the study group of the research consisted of 114 students who have just started their undergraduate education in the Department of Child Development of the Faculty of Health Sciences of a state university in Konya and did not participate in the orientation program. In the research, a "questionnaire" developed by the researchers to determine the reasons for choosing the child development department of the students and a "General Information Form" to reach the demographic data of the participants were used as the data collection tool. The data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. As a result of the research, it was seen that the purpose of coming to the department of Child Development students was primarily the love of children, and most of them preferred the department with positive feelings and knowledge about the department.

 

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