A Descriptive Study: Observing Behavioral Patterns of Preschool Children in Turkey and Belgium

Sakire Ocak Karabay¹, Derya Sahin¹, Anita Swennen²

¹Preschool Education Program, Faculty of Education, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
²College Department of Teacher Training, Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg University, Hasselt, Belgium.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2015.62016                

Abstract

Children should have flexible and adaptable repertoire to accomplish qualified social skills. In order to achieve this, teachers have a significant responsibility to propose crucial opportunities to children during classroom activities. Although teachers prefer to use universal approaches to promote prosocial behaviors rather than to remove maladaptive behaviors, cultural issues in social problem solving skills would be effective on their behavioral pattern of treatment to children. In this study, it was evaluated to see possible differences between Turkish and Flemish preschool children in their behavioral patterns. It was found that there was only significant difference in prosocial dimension of Drexel Early Childhood Behavior Rating Scale (Shure, 2005). In aggression and introversion dimensions, it was not found any significant difference between the two groups. However the mean scores of Flemish preschoolers in aggression dimension of the scale were found less than Turkish preschoolers. Findings were discussed based on literature.

Keywords

Preschool Education, Prosocial Behaviors, Classroom Organization, Cultural Differences

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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