Abstract:

The Covid-2019 pandemic has had an impact on education processes, as it does in every other field in the world, and face-to-face education has been suspended in a significant part of this process in Turkey, and distance education has been started. Preschool children who attend face-to-face or distance education from time to time returned to their classrooms with the decision of Turkey to transition to uninterrupted face-to-face education in September 2021, but with the return to face-to-face education, some problems began to be experienced at homes and schools. For this reason, the research aims to determine the opinions and suggestions of all relevant stakeholders, the effects of the experiences with the Covid-19 pandemic in preschool education in our country on children, and on the adaptation processes of children in returning to face-to-face education. The research was designed in a case study pattern and was conducted with an online focus group meeting attended by representatives from all relevant stakeholders. Working group; It consists of 16 people working in different settlements and institutions in 7 different geographical regions in Turkey. The data analysis process was carried out with four main themes and thirteen sub-themes as the reflection of the process on the developmental characteristics of children, the school adaptation process, the child-school-family relations, and the solution proposals of the stakeholders. The results of the research revealed that negative effects were observed especially in the social-emotional and motor development areas of children and that the orientation processes in schools were prolonged. Considering these effects, it is necessary to re-discuss how to support children in classrooms and how pre-school education processes can be structured more effectively.

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