Preschool Age Children's Views about Primary School

Starting primary education is one of the most important changes that children encounter in early childhood. Moreover, especially within the last twenty years, as an outcome of the idea that children are active learners, listening to children's ideas about their learning, lives, and experiences has gained importance. In this sense, this study is thought to be significant in terms of its aim to analyze the transition to primary school according to the thoughts of children and to offer suggestions for preschool education. For this purpose, the study was conducted with 55 children who were attending 7 independent kindergarten schools in Aydin city center. The participants were selected by a systematic sampling method. The study was conducted using a phenomenological design. For the data collection, a mosaic approach including different verbal and visual techniques that allowed the children to express themselves comfortably was used. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis using the NVivo Qualitative Analysis program. According to the findings of the study, preschool age children described primary school as big, crowded, complex, and distant. They referred to their family, teachers, and television as information sources. Further, they thought that there were many rules in primary school and they could never play. When the dialogues were considered in general, nearly all of the interviews included negative thoughts. It is thought that this case stems from the lack of right information about primary school.