THE USAGE OF OPEN GREEN SPACE IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS SAMPLE OF TUZLA (ISTANBUL)

Abstract

Childhood is the most important period in human development. People prepare for life with the knowledge, skills and experiences they have acquired during this period. Childhood is considered between 0 and 14 years old. 0-6 years old is pre-school age and 6-14 years old is primary education age. The children need an environment that will develop their social, physical, emotional and psychological skills in order to become physically and mentally healthy people in the future. In this context, school gardens are the most suitable and effective places for education, games, sports, social and cultural activities and various celebrations. Because children spend most of their time at school. In this study, open green spaces of public and private pre-school education institutions were examined in the Postane and Istasyon neighborhood of Tuzla District of Istanbul. The sample group of this study includes 20 institutions. In the study, data were obtained by using the survey method with 150 teachers working in the institutions. At the same time, a check-observation list was created by making on-site observations to measure the current situation of outdoor use in preschool education institutions, and the open green spaces of the schools were classified as "good", "moderate" and "poor" by scoring between 0-1 according to the available data. SPSS 20 software package program was used to analyze the data. In the study, suggestions were presented for more effective use of school gardens.