Thematic Content Analysis for Pre-School Science Education Research Areas in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the various variables in terms of master dissertations, doctoral dissertations, and articles made in the field of science education in pre-school between the years 2014 and 2019 in Turkey. The present study is a qualitative research. In this study, thematic content analysis was used. After the articles deriving from the dissertations were extracted, a total of 129 publications including 14 doctoral dissertations, 38 master dissertations and 77 articles were reached. At the end of the research, it is seen that most of the postgraduate theses were published in Gazi University and the most articles were published in The Journal of International Social Research. When the distribution of the studies according to the aims of the studies is examined, it is seen that determination studies produced the highest effect while the quantitative studies were conducted at most, considering the research methods. While participant groups mostly involved the students, the scale and interviews were preferred as data collection tools. In accordance with these results, suggestions were made to the researchers who would work on this subject.