INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH

Vol. 5. No. 5. September, 2013

C. Kilic. Participants opinions about 3-6 age family education course International Journal of Academic Research Part B;
2013; 5(5), 57-60. DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-5/B.8

PARTICIPANTS OPINIONS ABOUT 3-6 AGE

FAMILY EDUCATION COURSE
Cigdem Kilic
Abant Izzet Baysal University, Faculty of Education, Bolu (TURKEY)
cgdmklc@gmail.com
DOI: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-5/B.8
ABSTRACT
This research is evaluating the opinions of the participants of "3-6 Age Family Education Course
implemented by the Ministry of Education in Turkey. In this research in which descriptive method was used, the
data collected from 282 participants of the mentioned course given by Adult Training Centers in 6 different cities
of Turkey and have been analyzed via frequency tables. Relationship between the opinions of the participants and
some other independent variables were analysed by means of t-test and variance analysis. The general conclusion
is that the course was found highly successful by the participants. However, the participants have raised some
other items to be developed such as, the duration of the course was insufficient, some classrooms were so
uncomfortable for adults, there were no suitable place to leave their children during the course, the transportation
to the course area was problematic, and course program should have also been covering family communication
and law issues.
Key words: Parent Education, Early Childhood Education
1. INTRODUCTION
Early childhood education refers to education process given by families and/or training institutions and
covering the period from birth till start of school which plays a significant role in physical, psychomotor, social,
emotional, intellectual and language skills development of the child (Bakaray, 2005).
Early childhood is a critical period in child development during which personality and the essential blocks for
a healthy individual is being built. The importance of self perception of an individual to the extent that of success/fail
during his life has resulted in attention increase for this period (Eagle, 2008).
Training is an ongoing process throughout life starting at birth. The foundations of lifelong learning are being
laid during early childhood. During this period, giving good education to children supported by favorable
environmental conditions plays an important role in child's physical, mental, emotional and social development.
From a holistic point of view, it is not rational to think that the early childhood education is limited with schools. But
rather, the child's physical, cognitive, social and emotional development in the early years of life is built within the
family. Therefore, parents play a key role in the childs development and education who actually are the primary
responsible for the child's care and training.
Training efforts for families in the literature is collected under various headings. They all have different
approaches focusing on different purposes such as "family literacy", "parent education", "parent training", " marital
education" and "crisis-oriented approaches". Rather than the wide scope of family educations covering the parents,
children, relatives, married couples etc., parent education is merely focusing on children's health and development,
child-care skills, parental skills, basic communication skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution, stress management
and so on (Mahoney et al.,1999).
In Turkey, family oriented efforts to support families had been launched in 1962 (Aydogmus et al.2006).
Within the scope of Early Support Project, parents who had children in early childhood had been given family
education for the first time in 1982. Today, under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, family education
seminars are given by various voluntary organizations and foundations (Ministry of Family and Social Policies,
2011).
In family educations, it is aimed to inform families about children education in pre-natal and post-natal
periods, to lead parents in necessary issues taking into account their accumulated historical knowledge and
experience, to help family members recognize their child according to the characteristics of childs each
developmental age, to teach ways to change parents habits and also assisting them in child health, nutrition and
sex education (Cole, 1993).
In Turkey, from 1993 until the end of 2012, six different types of 26.616 course was opened by the Ministry
of Education reaching 621.645 participants and so 1.353.020 parents and children (Ministry of Education, 2012). In
2010, all the family programs leaded by the ministry were revised and gathered under one name of course: 0-18
Age Family Education". This program consists of four sub-programs: "0-3 Family Education Course, "3-6 Family
Education Course, "7-11 Family Education Course, "12-18 Family Education Course.

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The purpose of the "3-6 Age Family Education Course" which is the topic of this research is not only to
support families in all areas of development of the child positively during the preschool period, but also increase
awareness about children rights, methods for positive communication with the child, health, nutrition etc. The total
duration of the program is 14 weeks. This period of time is organized into 14 sessions each of which has different
topics. The course of 15 hours of lessons per week is 210 hours in total. Every week, 4 hours out of 15 is
theoretical / children 's educational material (CEM) practices, 8 hours practice / home visit, 3 hours assessment of
the week / nex week planning / CEM work for the absent families (Ministry of Education, 2009).
3-6 years Children's Educational Materials (CEMs) given to the participants during the course has been
organized as 3-4 years, 4-5 years and 5-6 years CEMs. CEMs cover all of the activities considering the periodical
properties of the child to support all areas of development and the CEMs are given to families at the end of the
session. During the program, a Dad Meeting is made with fathers for once. In the meeting, a brief instruction
about the course is given to fathers, as well as the importance of the preschool period, how a supportive
environment would be created, the role of the father is being instructed. Aside of that, the materials prepared for
fathers outlining the theme of the week are given to mothers at the end of each week.
3-6 Age Family Education Course consists of 14 different themes; Meeting and Presentation Program,
Preschool Ages and The Importance of Family, Listening to the Child, Expressing Ourselves to the Child,
Improving Childs Positive Behaviours, Reducing Childs Negative Behaviours, Social and Emotional Development
of the Child, Mental Development of the Child, Physical and Sexual Development of the Child, Self-Care Skills
Development of the Child, Childs Health and Balanced Nutrition, Children and Human Rights, Childs Readiness to
the School, Sensitivity Development for Individuals Having Special Educational Needs.
2. RESEARCH METHODS
In this research, descriptive research method was used to analyze data. 426 participants of "3-6 Age Family
Education Course" in the Adult Education Centres located in 6 different cities of Turkey were send out data
collection tools, and 282 out of 426 have answered the questionnaire. Data collection tool used in the study is a
survey of 26 questions previously used for the "My Family, Mother and Child Education Program" an earlier version
of the "3-6 Age Family Education Course". The reliability of the questionnaire was found to be 76. On 5 point Likert
scale 1 represented the least and 5 the most desired option of participants' opinions. Additionally in the
questionnaire, there are also open-ended questions by which participants could express their opinions in detail.
The data obtained in this study were analyzed via using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences),
with frequency tables and by the use of means procedure. Aside of that, the relationship bw. some of the
participants opinions and gender/education level were examined by t-test and variance analysis.
Upon the analysis of personal properties of 3-6 Age Family Education Program participants (Table 1),
majority of participants come out to be women between 21-39 ages, having two children, unemployed, high school
graduates.
Table 1. Personal properties of the participants
Personal Properties
Sex

Age

Education

Work Status

f
Female
Male
18-20
21-29
30-39
40-49
50 and above
Primary School
Junior High School
High School
Undergraduate
Yes
No

%
266
16
13
109
128
26
6
65
39
130
48
67
215

n
94.3
5.7
4.6
38.7
45.4
9.2
2.1
23
13.8
46.1
17
23.8
76.2

282

Majority of the participants stated that they had heard about the program from their friends while some other
participants were informed about the program by the ads in adult education centers or on the streets or the
teachers coming to their homes to present about the course. It is quite remarkable that almost none of the
participants have not learned about the course from media. This is an obvious view to express that the media tools
were not effectively used for the announcement of the course, but rather the announcement were left to the hands
of teachers or Adult Training Centers management.
3-6 Age Family Education Course participants expectations are zooming in having more information about
child education. Participants do also expect their spouses to attend the program as well as expanding their social
environment by the help of the it. The majority of participants in the educational process expressed that their
expectations were substantially fulfilled (Table 2). However, a meaningful relationship bw. the status of
expectation fulfillment and gender was not found (p <0.05). In other words, the expectations of the participants
were fulfilled without gender effect (Table 3).

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Vol. 5. No. 5. September, 2013

Table 2. Opinions of the participants concerning the 3-6 Age Family Education Program in general
Opinion Statements concerning the 3-6 Age Family Education Program
My expectations concerning the 3-6 Age Family Education program has been fulfilled
The subjects are attractive
I have no difficulty in understanding subjects
The topics of 3-6 Age Family Education Program is comprehensive enough to have child-family education
The duration of theoretical classes is enough for me to understand
The duration of home visits is enough to find answers for my questions for daily practice
The duration allocated for father sessions is enough for my husband to be informed about child education
Course duration does not block anything in my daily routine
I attend classes regularly
I think the program I participated was successful
My wife/husband has also benefited from the course

Mean

SD

3.71
4.45
4.47
4.43
2.10
2.26
1.65
4.17
4.42
4.64
2.21

0.72
0.84
0.94
0.82
1.19
1.32
1.05
1.19
0.84
0.63
0.89

Table 3. The relationship bw. the fulfillment of the expectetations of participants of the
3-6 Age Family Education Course and the gender of the participants

Between Groups
Within Groups
Total

Sum of Squares

Df

Mean Square

Sig.

.857
144.877
145.734

1
280
281

.857
.517

1.656

.199

According to Table 2, participants of "3-6 Age Family Education Course do highly agree with the
statements of "I find the topics of 3-6 Age Family Education Program attractive, I have no difficulty in
understanding subjects, The topics of 3-6 Age Family Education Program is comprehensive enough to have
child-family education, Course duration does not block anything in my daily routine, I attend classes regularly, I
think the program I participated was successful. However, there is no meaningful relationship bw. the status of
difficulty in understanding subjects and the education level (p <0.05). This is an indicator to present that "3-6 Age
Family Education Program is serving to participants at all educational levels. Also, there is no meaningful
relationship bw. the success of the course and the educational levels. In other words, most of the participnats from
various education levels have generally found the program successful (Table 4).
Table 4. The relationship bw. the opinions of the participants of the 3-6 Age
Family Education Course and the education levels of the participants
Sum of Squares

Df

Mean Square

Sig.

I have no difficulty in understanding subjects

Between Groups
Within Groups
Total

6.066
244.306
250.372

3
278
281

2.022
.879

2.301

.078

I find the course successful

Between Groups
Within Groups
Total

1.056
111.483
112.539

3
278
281

.352
.401

.877

.453

As can be seen in Table 2, participants have a positive opinion about the program in general, although the
duration of the program was stated to be insufficient for theoretical and practical activities. Participants think that
due to insufficient duration of father sessions, their husbands could not benefit from the program as much as
expected. This shows that the participants' expectations for their partners to benefit from this course were not
adequately fulfilled.
Similar to all other training activities, there are some shortages in 3-6 Age Family Education Course as
well. According to participants, the biggest deficit is the duration of the course which is 14 weeks. Participants think
that the allocated timing is not enough for child-family education. The physical conditions of the classrooms are
another big improvement point for the course. The participants had difficulty about the classroom conditions due to
the fact that in absence of enough classrooms in Adult Training Centers, the course was held in primary schools.
Another issue raised by the participants is the lack of transportation support. Participants had problems in financing
transportation and finding transportation vehicles. Also some participants stated the lack of playrooms for their
children as a shortage. Although in most of the Adult Training Centers playrooms and teachers do exist, in some
of them there are no playrooms and this appeared to be a less participation reason. Lastly, the participants
expressed that some topics were not detailed enough like behaviour change in child, children health and nutrition
while some others were not included in the program at all like family planning, parent-child communication,
communication between spouses, violence against women.
3. CONCLUSION
"3-6 Age Family Education Course" which is the latest version of family education courses implemented by
the Ministry of Education in Turkey for many years is the one used extensively throughout the country since 2010.
In this research, it came out that "3-6 Age Family Education Course" was found to be very successful and there
was high attendance to the course. Likely as other regular education courses, there are some development items
in this course although the course fulfills the expectations of the participants in general. 14-week duration of the
course was expressed to be the main development item which is insufficient for theoretical and practical activities.

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Similarly, 16-week duration of My Family Program an earlier version of "3-6 Age Family Education Course"- was
stated to be too short for activities (Kilic, 2012). Apparently, although "3-6 Age Family Education Course" is a
revised version, the participants still have the negative thought concerning the duration.
On the other hand, the participation of the course was adversely affected by uncomfortable physical
conditions of some classrooms for the adults, lack of playrooms for the children in Adult Education Centers and
the transportation problems of some participants. At this point, the Ministry of Education is expected to allocate
additional funds to resolve the problems of classrooms, game room, transportation in order to facilitate participation
in the course. Also, insufficient usage of mass media in order for the announcement of course, but instead leaving
the announcement to the initatives of the Adult Education Centers and/or course teachers is a real barrier for
public awareness and higher participation. So, it would be eligible for the ministry to submit promotional materials
to increase the awareness of the course via mass media.
In Turkey, the number of the courses aiming at the reduction of the potential risks in raising children and
context of family/marriage are very limited (Wrestler, 2008). Looking at the content of the courses in Turkey, rather
than comprehensive family education courses covering also economic, media, law, health care issues, there are
parents and children oriented courses. Supporting this statement, participants similarly expressed their opinion to
include family planning, parent-child communication, communication between spouses, violence against women
topics to the course content.
As a conclusion, the existing 3-6 Age Family Education Program should be improved in accordance with
the stated needs or new programs bringing new perspectives and diversification to the field of family education
should be developed.
REFERENCES
1. Aydogmus K., Baltas A., Baltas Z., Davasligil U., Gungormus O., Konuk E. et al. 2006. Parents School.
Remzi Kitabevi, Istanbul.
2. Bakaray E. 2005, April. Basic Rules of Child Education. Kids and Family., pp. 15-18.
3. General Directorate of the Ministry of Education. 2012. Parent Education Program.
http://aileegitimi.meb.gov.tr, July, 2013.
4. Kagitcibasi C. 1993. Success Starts in the Family. Ya-Pa Publications, Istanbul, p. 43.
5. Kartal H. 2008. Practices in Early Childhood Education from Past to Present. Ezgi Publications. Bursa,
p.1
6. Kilic C., 2012. Evaluation of My Family Program by means of Adult Education Program Development
Process. Doctoral Thesis. Ankara University, Ankara Turkey.
7. Mahoney G., Kaiser A., Girolametto L., MacDonald J., Robinson C., Safford P. 1999. Parent Education
in Early Intervention: A Call for Renewed Focus. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. 19,
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8. Ministry of Education., 2009. 3-6 Years Trainer Handbook. Ministry of Education Publications, Ankara.
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and Social Policies Publications, Ankara, pp.29-33.
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