Karaelmas Journal of Educational Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore significant differences in attitudes of the fourth grade students, in accordance with their gender, preschool education and educational levels of the parents, toward some variables such as nature love, cleanness and healthism. Survey model method was used in the study to observe the target group consisting of 103 fourth grade students of a public primary school, in the city center – Kdz.Ereğli, in 2013-2014 education year. % 53.4 of these students, once, had preschool education. In the study, educational backgrounds of the parents were investigated, as well. Our findings showed that, while %19.4 of fathers of the participants was primary school graduate, %33 of them was secondary school graduate, %28.2, of them was high school graduate, %14,6 of them was university graduate and %4,9 of them has postgraduate, % 42,7of mothers of the participants was primary school graduate, %33 of them was secondary school graduate, %17,5, of them was high school graduate, %4,9 of them was university graduate and %1,9 of them had postgraduate education. In order to collect the research data, a reliable “Nature Love, Cleanness and Being Healthy in 4th Grade Elementary Social Sciences Course and Determination of Students’ Attitudes Towards These Values’’ scale ,aforetime formed and applied by Tahiroğlu 2011 . Having examined the total score of the test, related to their gender, it was observed that male students attitude coefficient toward love of nature was higher than the females and it can be said that a meaningful difference didn’t occur between the groups according to result of attitude criterion. It has been found that cleanness coefficient between two groups was very close to each other, so it can be said that there was no significant difference between the males and females toward it. Depending on their gender, female students’ healthism coefficient is higher than the males and, yet stil, no meaningful difference occurred between the groups. Attitude coefficients of the students, having taken preschool education, toward love of nature, healthism and cleanness are higher than the others. Although students’ attitude toward these abovementioned issues differ whether they received pre-school education or not, it is claimed that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of both variables. Moreover, the relationships between attitudes and mothers education level were also investigated. The attitudes of the students, whose mothers were primary school or university graduate, towards love of nature are better than the ones, whose mothers were a secondary school, high school or postgraduate. Together with; the students, having secondary school, high school or university graduate mothers, were more attentive to cleanness than the other students. When the point in question is healthism the students, having primary school, secondary school, high school or university graduate mothers, were more observant than the postgraduate mothers children. the students attitudes, whose fathers were post-graduate, towards love of nature are slightly higher than the ones, whose fathers were a secondary school, high school or university graduate, it can be said that the results were at good level enough to say they didn’t differ significantly in terms of educational backgrounds of parents. The student’s attitudes, whose fathers were a secondary school, high school or university graduate, towards cleanness are satisfactorily better than the ones, whose fathers were a primary school graduate or postgraduate. In addition to this, when the issue being talked is healthism the students, whose fathers were a primary school, secondary school or high school graduate, had desired attitudes towards cleanness and better than the ones, whose fathers were a primary school graduate or postgraduate. There were no significant differences between both circumstances mentioned above