Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of integrated science and literacy activities on pre-school children's understandings of the shape of the Earth and day-night concepts. A total of 44 children, 23 girls and 21 boys, between the ages of 60-72 months participated into the study. Within the scope of the research, pre-test, post-test and follow-up test design with a control group were used. The Earth-2 test was used to reveal children’s understandings of the day-night cycle and the shape of the Earth. A set of 8 integrated science and story activities designed to target children’s understandings of the shape of the earth and the day and night cycle was developed within the framework of the national pre-school education program by the researcher. The integrated science and literacy activities were applied to the experimental group for 4 weeks and no intervention was applied to the control group. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups before the intervention. However, there was a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group in the post-test assessment and this difference continued in the follow-up test. The overall findings suggest that the educational intervention designed for this study supports children’s understandings of the shape of the Earth and day and night concepts.

Keywords: