Analysis of the science and environment achievements in preschool curriculum for students with special needs

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the distribution of science and environmental achievements in the "Cognitive Development Area" of the 2018 Turkish Preschool Special Education Curriculum according to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. The document analysis method, with a qualitative viewpoint, was used in the study. The achievements in “The Cognitive Development” sub-fields of "Science-Scientific Skills and Method" and "Science-Natural, Physical Environment and Life" were analyzed according to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. For this purpose, 22 learning achievements in the cognitive development sub-fields of "Science-Scientific Skills and Method" and "Science-Natural, Physical Environment and Life" were analyzed. According to the data obtained, a total of 22 learning achievements were classified as factual knowledge-remembering 8, factual knowledge-understanding 2, factual knowledge-applying 3, conceptual knowledge-remembering 2, conceptual knowledge-understanding 4, metacognitive knowledge-understanding 1 and metacognitive knowledge-applying 2. There were no achievements in the sub-dimensions of procedural knowledge, analyzing, evaluating and creating. While a total of 158 achievements are included in the cognitive development field, only 13.92% of them belong to the cognitive development sub-field of "Science-Scientific Skills and Methods" and "Science-Natural, Physical Environment and Life". From this point of view, it may be useful to increase the number of achievements given to science and environment topics. In addition, it was observed that the achievements analyzed did not show a homogeneous distribution according to age levels. In addition, it was concluded that the achievements related to high-level knowledge and cognitive process dimensions that make students more active were not sufficiently included.

Keywords

• Preschool curriculum
• Science and environment achievements
• Revised Bloom
• Curriculum analysis
• Students with special needs

Thanks

I would like to thank assoc. prof. Dr. Ömer Cem Karacaoğlu and assoc. prof. Dr. Hasan Özcan, who inspired me in the study, for their support and assistance.

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