Abstract:

This study is designed to determine the relationship between self-esteem of pre-school teacher candidates and their liking of children. The study group of this study is composed of 339 pre-school teacher candidates studying at early childhood education departments of Mevlana, Necmettin Erbakan and Selcuk Universities located in Konya. In this study, in order to measure the self-esteem of pre-school teacher candidates, ��Coopersmith Self-Esteem Scale�� developed by Coopersmith in 1967 and to measure love of children, ��Barnett Liking of Children Scale�� developed by Barnett and Sinisi in 1990 were used. Questionnaire results were analyzed by SPSS/WINDOWS 16.0 statistical toolbox. Based on the analysis results, gender and class have a positive effect on self-esteem and liking of children. In addition, a mid-level positive correlation is determined between self-esteem and liking of children

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