Early childhood teachers' thoughts and practices about the use of computers in early childhood education

This study was conducted to determine the thoughts and practices of early childhood teachers about the use of computers in early childhood education. The study has been carried out with 100 early childhood teachers who attended to a seminar about the early childhood education in Eskişehir and Afyon. To collect data, a "General Information Form" was used to determine the general characteristics of the teachers and their classroom, and a "Thoughts and Practices about the Use of Computers Questionnaire" was developed by the researchers and used in this study. The questionnaire includes a total of 11 questions related to the experiences, the purposes and the frequency of computer use; classroom assessments for activities with computer, thoughts about the status of children participate in activities and achieve goals of activities with computer. The results of the study show that the majority of the teachers acquire their information and skills of computer all by their experiences and state that computer use is appropriate in early childhood education. It is also stated that a major part of the teachers use the computer to support the activities in daily plans and include the computer 1-2 times at a week in their curriculum. Moreover, it is indicated that the teachers use the computer mostly in their music activities and intend to support children's cognitive development by activities with computer. In addition, suggestions were made regarding the correct and effective use of computers in education programs. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd