Parents who want their PreK children to have science learning experiences are outliers

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ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect

Early

Childhood

Research

Quarterly

Parents

who

want

their

PreK

children

to

have

science

learning

experiences

are

outliers

Mesut

Sac¸

kes

∗

BalıkesirUniversity,NecatibeySchoolofEducation,10100,Balıkesir,Turkey

a

r

t

i

c

l

e

i

n

f

o

Articlehistory:

Received23February2013 Receivedinrevisedform 17November2013 Accepted22November2013 Keywords: Preschool Kindergarten Science Curriculum Parents

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Thepurposeofthisstudywastoexamineparentalprioritiesregardingscienceeducationintheearly

years.Thestudysampleincluded1456Turkishparentsofpre-Kchildren(36–72months).Parentswere

askedtoprioritizeeightacademiccontentareas,includingscience,indescendingorder.Theresults

demonstratedthatthenumberofparentswhoprioritizedscienceoverotheracademiccontentareasin

pre-Kclassroomswasquitelow.Parentswhorankedsciencehighlydeviatedfromthewholesample

andalmostalloftheseparentswereidentiﬁedasoutliersbythetwo-stepclusteranalysis.Parentsof

boysandyoungerchildrenandparentswithhigh-SESlevelweremorelikelytoprioritizescienceover

otheracademiccontentareas.Theﬁndingssuggestthatparentalpreferencesoverallalignwellwithearly

childhoodteachers’tendencytoteachlesssciencethanothercontentareas,andparentalprioritiesmight

beanothermajorfactorthatcontributestolimitedsciencelearningexperiencesintheearlyyears.

1. Introduction

Science education in early childhood classrooms has been largelyunderrepresentedinpreschoolcurriculaandearly learn-ingexperiences.Childrenhavefeweropportunitiestolearnscience thanliteracy,mathematics,socialstudies,andartsintypicalearly childhoodclassrooms(Bracken&Fischel,2006;Earlyetal.,2010; Greenfield et al., 2009; Nayfeld, Brenneman, & Gelman, 2011; Saçkes,Trundle,Bell,&O’Connell,2011;Varol,2013).Mostearly childhood teachersteach science onlyonce or twiceperweek, resultinginverylimitedtimeforsciencelearning(Saçkesetal., 2011)andteacherstendtofocusonteachinglifescienceconcepts morethanphysicalandearthandspacescienceconcepts(Saçkes, inpress).

Thereasonsforthelimitedvisibilityofsciencelearning experi-encesinearlychildhoodclassroomstodatehavebeenexamined solelyfromtheteacher’sperspectives.These studieshave iden-tifiedseveralfactorsthatpreventearlychildhoodteachersfrom providingeffective sciencelearning experiencesfor young chil-dren. Studies have demonstrated that several factors influence earlychildhoodteachers’decisionstodevotelesstimeinteaching scienceintheirclassrooms.Thesefactorsinclude:(1)limited sci-enceandpedagogicalcontentknowledge(Appleton,1992;Kallery &Psillos,2001;Saçkes,inpress),(2)pressuretoteachcontentareas otherthanscience(Greenfieldetal.,2009;Nayfeldetal.,2011),

∗ Correspondingauthor.Tel.:+902662412762. E-mailaddress:msackes@gmail.com

(3) limitedavailability of science-related materials(Appleton& Kindt,1999;Earlyetal.,2010;Greenfieldetal.,2009),(4) percep-tionsthatyoungchildrenareincapableoflearningscienceconcepts (Fleer, 2009;Saçkes, inpress), (5) and lowteacher self-efficacy for teachingscience(Appleton, 1995;Garbett, 2003;Greenfield etal.,2009;Kallery&Psillos,2001;Maier,Greenfield,& Bulotsky-Shearer,2013;Nayfeldetal.,2011;Pell&Jarvis,2003).

Anincreasingnumberofstudieshaveexaminedhowoftenearly childhood teachers teach scienceconcepts and thefactors that influenceteachers’decisions toteach scienceintheearlyyears (Saçkes,in press).Studiessuggest thatparentalsupportfor sci-encelearninginschoolandathomepromoteschildren’sinterest inscienceandconceptualunderstandingofscientificphenomena (Alexander, Johnson, & Kelly, 2012; Mantzicopoulos, Patrick, & Samarapungavan, 2013; Tenenbaum, Snow, Roach, & Kurland, 2005).Positiveexperienceswithlearningscienceinschoolmight influenceparents’beliefsaboutteachingandlearningsciencein theearlyyears.Parentswithaffirminglearningexperiencesmight have a positive attitude toward learning science and have the resourcestosupporttheirownchildren’slearningofscience(Chen, 2001;Dierking&Falk,1994;Ferry,Fouad,&Smith,2000;George &Kaplan,1998;Kaya&Lundeen,2010;Zady&Portes,2001). Par-ents’beliefsabouttheimportanceandappropriatenessoflearning sciencemayinfluencethequalityandthequantityofscience learn-ingopportunitieschildrenreceiveathomeandinschool.However, parents’perceptionsoftheimportanceofsciencelearningin com-parisontootheracademiccontentareashavenotbeenexaminedin theliterature.Therefore,thecurrentstudyaimstofillthegapinthe literatureviaexaminingparents’preferencesforlearningscience

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inearlychildhoodclassroomscomparedtootheracademiccontent areas.

1.1. Parents’prioritiesforpreschoolandkindergartencurriculum Parental prioritiesfor earlychildhood curriculum havebeen extensively studied in theliterature. For example, the findings ofthestudiesconductedinHongKong, Australia,andU.S.have demonstratedthatparentsaremorelikelythanearlychildhood teacherstofocus onacademic learning(Dockett&Perry, 2004; Ebbeck,1995;Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris,1989).Morespecifically, parentsareinclinedtorankreading,writing,andmathematicsas beingmoreimportantthandoteachersofyoungchildren(Hewitt &Maloney,2000; Knudsen-Lindauer& Harris,1989).American fatherstend toemphasize academic learning more than moth-ers and parents’academic expectationsfor girls werefoundto behigherthanboys(McBride&Ferguson,1992).Parentsofolder preschoolerstendtoperceiveacademicskillsasmoreimportant thantheparentsofyoungerpreschoolersinHongKong(Fung& Cheng,2012).Likewise,parents with low socioeconomicstatus and minorityparents tendtofocus moreonacademic learning thannon-minorityparentsandthoseofhighersocioeconomic sta-tuses(Evans&Fuller,1998;Harding,2006;Kernan&Hayes,1999; Ojala,2000;Piotrkowski,Botsko,&Matthews,2000).Researchers alsohave identifiedcross-culturaldifferences inparents’ expec-tationsandpriorities.ForexampleAmerican,Chinese,Malaysian, andIrishparentsofpre-Kchildrentendtofocusmoreonacademic learning than Swedish,Finnish,Icelandic, and Japanese parents (Einarsdóttir,2010;Hewitt&Maloney,2000;Ojala,2000;Tobin, Wu,&Davidson,1991).Children’sacquisitionofmoralandethical valuesand behaviorsalsoisconsideredasanimportant educa-tionalgoalintheearlyyears(Brownleeetal.,2012;LePageetal., 2011;Luo,Tamis-LeMonda,&Song,2013).Turkishparentsexpect theirchildrentoacquiremoralvaluesearlyintheirlives(Nacak, Ya˘gmurlu,Durgel,&vandeVijver,2011).Thefindingsofarecent studywithTurkishparentsofpreschoolagechildrendemonstrated thatamajorityoftheparentsexpectsschoolstoprovide system-aticmoraleducationinpreschool classrooms(Balat,Beceren,& Özdemir,2011).

Althoughparentsofpre-Kchildren perceivesocial and emo-tional development as important areas to be targeted in early childhoodclassrooms,theytendtofavorcognitivedevelopment andrelatedacademicskillsmorethanotherareas.Evenparents whoreportthattheirchildren’ssocialemotionaldevelopmentis theprimaryreasonthattheysendthemtopreschooltendtoprefer activitiesthatsupportacademiclearninginpre-Kclassrooms,and theyperceiveacademicandcognitivedevelopmentastheprimary outcomesofpreschooleducation(Hewitt&Maloney,2000).

Instudiesthatexamineparents’expectationsandprioritiesfor earlychildhoodprograms,reading,writing,andmathematicsare theonly academic skills parents aretypically asked torank or rateamongalistofotherskills(Kernan&Hayes,1999; Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris,1989).Nopreviousstudiesincludedscienceas anoptionforparentstoconsiderorexaminedhowparents pri-oritizescienceamongotheracademiccontentareas.Theﬁndings ofonlyonerecentstudyprovideaglimpseofwhatparentsmight thinkabouttheplaceofsciencelearninginearlychildhood curricu-lum.Whiletheliteracyandmathematicsactivitieswerethemost preferredlearningexperiencesparentswantedfortheirchildren, activitiesthathaveapotentialtopromotescientiﬁcthinkingsuch assandplayandwaterplayweretheleastpreferredactivitiesby theMalaysianparentssurveyedinthatstudy(Hewitt&Maloney, 2000).

Greenﬁeldetal.(2009)suggestedthatpreschoolscience edu-cationisanemergingresearchareaandbasicstudiesthatprovide preliminaryempiricaldatashouldbeconducted.Theseresearchers

suggestthatfutureresearchinthis areashouldfocuson under-standingthereasons scienceis not targetedin earlychildhood classroomsandproposethatteacher-relatedvariables,suchas self-efﬁcacyandtime-constraints,anddevelopinginstrumentstoassess preschoolsciencereadinessandqualityshouldbemajorresearch topics (Greenﬁeld et al., 2009). A neglected factor in this pro-posedresearchagendaisanexaminationofparents’expectations andprioritiesforscienceinearlychildhoodprograms.Although earlychildhoodteachers’beliefs,theirclassroompractices,andthe child-relatedfactorsareimportantcomponents,parental involve-ment,expectations,andprioritiesregardingscienceeducationin theearlyyearsshouldalsobeincludedinsuchanagenda(Ginsburg &Golbeck,2004).

1.2. Earlychildhoodscienceeducation

A large body of literature provides evidence that children developideas,althoughmostlydivergentfromscientificaccounts, abouthowthenaturalworldworksveryearlyintheirlives.For example, studiesrevealedthat children have naïveideas about night and day cycle,the shape of the earth, themoon phases, distinctionbetweenlivingandnonlivingthings,propertiesof phys-ical objects, light and shadows, and the mechanism of rainfall (Carey,1985;Hannust&Kikas,2007;Hobson,Trundle,&Sackes, 2010;Krnel,Watson,&Glazar,2005;Saçkes,Flevares,&Trundle, 2010;Segal&Cosgrove,1993;Venville,2004;Vosniadou&Brewer, 1992;Vosniadou&Brewer,1994).Collectively,findingsfromthese studiesdemonstratedthatevenpreschoolerscometoschoolwith intuitive understandings of various natural phenomena. There-fore,researcherssuggestthateducationalexperiencesforyoung children should take their prior knowledge into account and provideopportunitiestohelpchildren inrestructuringand con-structingtheirconceptualunderstandingsofsciencephenomena (Harlen,2001;Osborne&Freyberg,1985;Trundle&Saçkes,2012; Vosniadou,Ioannides,Dimitrakopoulou,&Papademetriou,2001).

Scienceeducationinearlychildhoodclassroomsshouldprovide opportunitiesforchildrentodeveloptheirscientificthinkingskills, conceptual understanding of natural phenomena, and positive attitudestoward science(Saçkeset al.,2011;Trundle&Saçkes, 2012).Studies suggest that children’sunderstanding of science conceptsand theirscientificthinkingskillsdevelopsuccessively (Duschl,Schweingruber,&Shouse,2007;Hmelo-Silver&Duncan, 2009). Early exposure to developmentally appropriate science learningopportunitiesmaypromotechildren’slearningofmore advancedscienceconceptsandinquiryskillsinsubsequentyears (Saçkesetal.,2011;Tao,Oliver,&Venville,2012)andhelp chil-drendeveloppositiveattitudestowardscience(Mantzicopoulos, Patrick, & Samarapungavan, 2008; Patrick, Mantzicopoulos, & Samarapungavan,2009),whichislinkedtolaterscience achieve-ment and STEM-related career choices (Maltese & Tai, 2010; Osborne,Simon,&Collins,2003).

Contemporaryscienceeducationliteratureemphasizes inquiry-basedinstructionasoneofthemosteffectivewaystopromote conceptual understandings of scientific phenomena (Anderson, 2002,2007; Trundle& Saçkes,2012).Inquiry-basedinstruction withPre-Kchildren takes children’sexisting conceptual under-standingintoconsiderationandincludeshands-onactivitieswith sense-makingdiscussions where children areencouragedto be physically,mentally,andemotionallyactive(Saçkesetal.,2011). Inquiry-based instruction with Pre-K children should involve developmentallyappropriatestructuringandscaffoldingsuchas informulatingresearchquestionsandprocedurestoreducethe amountofcognitiveloadthatmayrestrainchildrenfrom construc-tingconceptualunderstandings and developing scienceprocess skills(Mayer,2004;Nayfeldetal.,2011;Peterson&French,2008; Trundle&Saçkes,2012).Insuchalearningenvironment,children

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are more likely to develop scientific inquiry skills, construct scientificunderstandingsaboutnaturalphenomena,andbuildan interestinandapositiveattitudetowardscience(Mantzicopoulos et al., 2013; Miller, Smith, Trundle,Saçkes, & Mollohan, 2013; Peterson&French,2008;).Inquiry-basedscienceinstructioncan beeasilyintegratedwithplay,whichisconsideredasaneffective and developmentally appropriate pedagogical tool for young learners(Baldwin,Adams,&Kelly,2009;Bodrova&Leong,2003; Fleer,2011;Trawick-Smith,2012).Althoughempiricalevidence regardingtheeffectivenessofplayinsupportingyoungchildren’s learningofscienceis scarce,preliminaryevidencesuggeststhat inquiry-based play activities may have a potential to promote youngchildren’sconceptualunderstandingsofsciencephenomena (Blake&Howitt,2012;Fleer,2009;Milleretal.,2013).

Inquiry-basedinstructiontoteachingscienceispossiblyquite differentthanwhatmostparentshaveexperiencedintheirformal schooling,whichtypicallyincludestraditionalordidactic instruc-tion(Kaya&Lundeen,2010).Intraditionalformsofinstruction, whereconceptsarepresentedinfinalformviaverbalexplanations andlectures,childrenremainpassiverecipientoftheinformation (Trundle,Atwood,Christopher,&Saçkes,2010).Thistypeof learn-ingenvironment,unlikeinquiry-basedinstruction,doesnotoffer opportunitiesforchildrentotest,reflect,andcomparetheir exist-ingconceptualunderstandingwithwhatemergesintheclassroom (Mayer,2004;Trundleetal.,2010;Vosniadouetal.,2001).Parents wholearnedsciencethroughtraditionalformsofinstructionmay perceivethelearningofscienceasthememorizationofscientific factsandformulas.Consequently,mostparentsofyoungchildren mightbelievethatteachingscienceinpre-Kclassroomsis develop-mentallyinappropriate.Indeed,studiessuggestthatparentstend toprioritizeacademiccontentareaslikereadingandwritingand donot preferactivitiesthat havea potentialtopromote scien-tificthinking(Hewitt&Maloney,2000;Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris, 1989).Therefore,inthisstudysciencewaspredictedtobetheleast preferredacademiccontentareabyparents,andparentswho pri-oritizesciencewereexpectedtodeviatefromthewholesample andbeidentifiedasoutliersintheanalysis.

1.3. Parentsandearlyscienceexperiences

Parentshelppreschoolchildrendevelopanearly understand-ingofnaturalphenomenaandbasicscienceprocessskills(Harris &Koenig,2006;Siegel,Esterly,Callanan,Wright,&Navarro,2007). Parentspromoteyoungchildren’sunderstandingofbiology con-cepts(Cumming,2003;Jipson&Callanan,2003;Rigney&Callanan, 2011), physicalscienceconcepts(Tenenbaum&Callanan,2008; Tenenbaum,Snow,Roach,&Kurland,2005)andastronomy con-cepts(Callanan,Jipson,&Soennichsen,2002)aswellascontribute tochildren’sunderstandingofthedomaindifferences,thatis, bio-logicaland astronomicalphenomena fallintodifferentdomains ofscience(Jipson&Callanan,2003).Duringparent-child interac-tionsathomeandininformalsciencelearningsettings,parents provideguidance andcausal explanationstosupportchildren’s understanding of natural phenomena and the development of theirscientificreasoning.Duringinformalscienceactivities, par-entspurposefullychangethetypeofexplanationstheyprovideto accommodatechild’sageandactivitytype.Forexample,parents becomemoredirective withyoungerchildren (threeyears old) duringstructuredactivitiesandwhenmakingpredictions. How-ever,theybecome more collaborative witholderchildren (five yearsold)duringopen-endedactivitiesandwhentestingtheir pre-dictions(Siegeletal., 2007).Parentsof boystend toencourage moredetailedscientificreasoningintheirsons,andtheyprovide boysmoreopportunitiestorespondindiscussionsofscientific con-ceptsthanparentsofgirls(Crowley,Callanan,Tenenbaum,&Allen, 2001;Tenenbaum&Leaper,2003;Tenenbaumetal.,2005).Early

sciencelearningopportunitiesprovidedathomeandparental sup-portforsciencelearningarelikelytofosterchildren’sinterestin science,contributechildren’slearningofscience,andpromotetheir comprehension of scientiﬁc discourse in early childhood class-rooms and beyond (Alexander et al., 2012; Tenenbaum et al., 2005).

Byhelpingchildren makesenseofthenaturalworldaround themandbyprovidingrelevanteducationalexperiences,parents functionasaprimaryfacilitatorofyoungchildren’searlyscience learningexperiences. Althoughabody ofliteraturehas demon-stratedtherole parentsplay in offeringandenriching informal sciencelearningexperiencesfor youngchildren,ourknowledge ofwhatparentsthinkaboutformalsciencelearningexperiencesin earlychildhoodclassroomisverylimited.

1.4. Turkishcontext

InTurkey,earlychildhoodeducationservicesaremainly over-seenbytheTurkishMinistryofNationalEducation,andwithfew exceptions,almostalloftheseservicesarecenter-based(Bekman, 2005; Bekman & Göc¸er, 2005; Kagitcibasi, Sunar, & Bekman, 2001).Startingfromthe1990s,earlychildhoodeducationgained considerable attentionas indicated by ongoing efforts for pro-gramdevelopmentanddisseminationofearlyeducationservices (Bekman,2005).Theteacherandtopic-centeredearlychildhood programof1989haveturnedintochild-centereddevelopmental programsduringtheyearsof1994,2002and2006(Can-Yasar,Inal, Uyanik,&Kandir,2011;Güler-Öztürk,2010).Anewprogramwas developedandpilotedduringthe2012–2013academicyear,and theprogramwillbeimplementedinsubsequentyears(Ministryof NationalEducation[MEB],2012).Adecadeago,theschoolingrate forearlychildhoodeducationwasabout11%(Bekman,2005).Since then,theschoolingratehasrisento26.63%andcurrentlyabout 1,077,933children(3–5yearsold)beneﬁtfrompublicorprivate earlychildhoodeducationservices(MEB,2013;TurkishStatistical Institute[TÜ˙IK],2013).

Althoughanumberofstateandnon-governmental organiza-tionssponsored campaignefforts hastaken placeover thelast decadetoraisepublicawarenessofearlychildhoodeducationand toincreaseschoolingrates,preschooleducationstillisnotapartof compulsoryeducationinTurkey(Bekman&Gürlesel,2005;MEB, 2011).Eventhoughpubliclyfundedpreschoolsarefreeoftuition charges,parentsneedtopayfortransportationandnutritionfees, whichvaryfromschooltoschoolandmaycostasmuchas$150 permonth(MEB,2004;WorldBank,2013).Consideringthecurrent legalminimumwagesofapproximately$400permonth,mostlow incomefamiliescannotaffordtoenrolltheirchildreninpreschool. Therefore,childrenoflowincomefamilies,thosewhoneedearly educationservicesmost,arelesslikelytoreceivepreschool educa-tionthantheirpeersfromhigherincomefamilies(Bekman,2005; WorldBank,2013).

TheTurkishearlychildhood educationsystemsuffersfroma highchild-to-teacherratio,unbalanceddistributionofresources, inadequate funding, a lack of diversity inthe types ofservices offered,andlowprocessquality(Bas¸türk&Is¸ıko˘glu,2008;Bekman, 2002,2005;Derman&Bas¸al,2010;Kalkan&Akman,2009;World Bank,2013).Thechild-to-teacherratioismuchhigherinTurkey thaninothercountriesliketheU.S.andSweden,anditissimilar tocountrieslikeKoreaandChina(McMullenetal.,2005;Sheridan, Giota,Han,&Kwon,2009).AsinPortugal,SwedenandGermany, self-careskillsandmotorskillsarehighlyemphasizedinTurkish earlychildhood classrooms,whereasdiversityand multicultural values are not commonly addressed (Bas¸türk &Is¸ıko˘glu,2008; Sac¸kes,2013;Sheridanetal.,2009;Tietze,Cryer,Bairrão,Palacios, &Wetzel,1996).SimilartotheU.S.,Finland,andKorea,variations inthequalityoftheservicesofferedinTurkishearlychildhood

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educationinstitutionsappeartobehigh(Bekman,2002;Hujala, Fonsén,&Elo,2012;Sheridanetal.,2009;Tietzeetal.,1996).Like mostEuropeancountries,abachelor’sdegreeisrequiredtoserve asanearlychildhoodeducationteacherinpubliclyfundedTurkish preschools(Kayhan&Kılıc¸,2011).Yet,highschoolgraduatesand associatedegreeholdersinchilddevelopmentcommonlyservein institutionsnotoverseenbytheMinistryofNationalEducation, andthisdifferenceinteachertrainingcontributestotheobserved variationsinthequalityoftheearlyeducationservices(Bekman, 2005).

Turkishearlychildhoodteachers’beliefsaboutteachingyoung children appear to be aligned well with the Developmentally AppropriatePracticesoftheNationalAssociationfortheEducation ofYoungChildren(NAEYC)(Erdiller,2013;Erdiller&McMullen, 2004).However,thecongruencebetweenTurkishearlychildhood teachers’beliefsandtheirclassroompracticesisweakerthantheir colleaguesintheU.S.,Taiwan,andKorea,buthigherthanChina (McMullenetal.,2005).Turkishearlychildhoodteachers’actual classroompracticesdeviatefromtheDevelopmentallyAppropriate PracticesofNAEYCforseveralreasons:limitedphysicalresources, highchild-to-teacherratio,limitedperceivedparentalandcollegial support,andthecollectivisttoneofTurkishculture,ormoreaptly cultureofrelatedness(Erdiller,2013;Erdiller&McMullen,2004; Kagitcibasi,2005;McMullenetal.,2005).

LikeSwedenandSouthKorea,Turkeyhasanationalearly child-hoodeducationprogramandearlyeducationservicesareregulated bythecentralizedgovernment(Sheridanetal.,2009).TheTurkish earlychildhood educationprogram isadevelopmentalprogram and theprogram doesnot include earlylearning content stan-dardsforthepreschoolandkindergartenlevel(Sac¸kesetal.,2010). Theprogramtargetsthedevelopmentofself-careskillsand socio-emotional,cognitive,motor,andlanguagedevelopmentofchildren (MEB,2012).Eventhoughthedevelopmentofsomescience pro-cessskills,suchasmakingobservationsandestablishingacause andeffectrelationship,aretargetedintheprogram,theprogram doesnotexplicitlyfocusondevelopingconceptualunderstandings ofbasicscienceconceptsinchildren.

IntypicalTurkishpreschoolandkindergartenclassrooms,very littletimeisallocatedforscienceactivities(Ayvacı,Devecio˘glu,& Yi˘git,2002;Özbey&Alisinano˘glu,2008;Varol,2013).When Turk-ishearlychildhoodeducatorsdoteachsciencetheymostlyfocus onspecificlife and spacescience conceptsand utilizeteaching strategiesthatarecontrarytothecontemporary science educa-tionliterature(Ayvacıetal.,2002;Güler&Bıkmaz,2002;Özbey &Alisinano˘glu,2008;Sı˘gırtmaç&Özbek,2011).Teachers’limited scienceand pedagogical content knowledgecoupledwith their lowself-confidenceforteachingyoungchildrenscienceappearto bemajorbarrierstoprovidingdevelopmentally appropriate sci-encelearningopportunitiesinTurkishpre-Kclassrooms(Ayvacı etal.,2002;Özbey&Alisinano˘glu,2008;Saçkes,Akman,&Trundle, 2012).

1.5. FactorsInﬂuencingParents’Priorities

Resultsofpreviousstudiesdemonstratedthatseveralfactors influenceparentalexpectationsandpriorities.Pastexperiencesare likelytoinfluenceparents’expectationsandprioritiesforpre-K curriculum(Evans&Fuller,1998).Parentswitholderchildrenwho hadpreviouspre-Kexperiencesmighthavedifferentprioritiesfor theirchildrenthanparentswithnosuchexperience(Joesch,Maher, &Durfee,2006; Palacios,1990).Parents’levelof educationand incomealsoarelikelytoinfluencetheirexpectationsand priori-tiesforpre-Kcurricula.Parentsmighthavedifferentexpectations forboysandgirls,andparents’expectationsmightdifferbasedon theirchildren’sages(Chang,Sandhofer,&Brown,2011;Crowley etal.,2001;Fung&Cheng,2012;McBride&Ferguson,1992).Also,

parents’residencystatus(i.e.,ruralorurban)islikelytoinﬂuence theirexpectationsforpre-Kcurricula(Nacaketal.,2011;Palacios, 1990).Parents in rural areas have limited access to resources, suchashighqualityschools,museums,libraries,and observato-riesthatsupportthedevelopmentandeducationoftheirchildren (Aydın,Sarıer, &Uysal, 2012; Shelley & Yildirim,2013; Tansel, 2002). Limited educational and cultural opportunities in rural areasappear tobeassociatedwithchildren’slow performances inlanguageandliteracyskillsandlowereducationalattainment (OrganizationforEconomicCo-operationandDevelopment,2013; Tansel,2002;Ulubas¸o˘glu&Cardak,2007).Anunbalanced distri-butionofeducationalandculturalresourcesbetweenurbanand ruralareasmightleadtovariationsinparentalpreferencesfor aca-demiccontentareas.Parentswhoresideinruralareasmightbe morelikely toprioritizetheacquisitionofknowledgeandskills (i.e.,literacy),whichareperceivedasfundamentalforsuccessin earlygrades,andtheymayplacelessimportanceonacademic con-tentareas(i.e.,science),whichareassociatedwithsuccessinlater grades.Basedontheresultsofthesepreviousstudies,analysisof variancewasusedtoexaminetheextenttowhich parental pri-orities for pre-Kcurricula variedbyhavingan olderchild with previouspre-Kexperiences,thenumberofchildreninthe house-hold,parents’genderandlevelofeducation,thefamily’sresidency status, and monthly household income, children’s gender and age.

1.6. Purposeofthestudy

Thisstudyaimedtoinvestigateparents’perceptionsoftheplace ofscienceeducationinearlychildhoodcurriculumandthe socio-demographicfactorsassociatedwithparentalpriorities.Basedon previousstudiesonparentalprioritiesfortheearlychildhood cur-riculum,thenumberofparentswhoprioritizescienceoverother academiccontentareasfortheirchildrenwaspredictedtobe sub-stantiallylower.Also,parentswhoprioritizesciencearepredicted todeviatefromthewholesampleandbeidentiﬁedasparentswith anunusualresponsepatternintheanalysis.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Thesampleofthisstudyincluded1456parentsofpreschool and kindergarten children (36–72 months) located in a mid-size province in the northwestern part of Turkey. Almost 63% oftheparticipantswerefromthedistrictsoftheprovince(and about37% of theparticipantswere fromtheprovincial capital, BalıkesirCity,whichcloselycorrespondstothecensusdata(TÜ˙IK, 2012).

Themajorityoftherespondentsweremothers(73.5%),while 26.5%oftheparticipantswerefathers.Themeanageformothers was33years(Median=32years)andthemeanageforthefathers was37years (Median=36years).Slightlymorethanonefourth (27.2%)oftheparentswereelementaryschoolgraduates,35.6%had ahighschooldegree,9%hadanassociate’sdegree,and28.3%had acollegeorpostgraduatedegree.Theaveragemonthlyhousehold incomereportedbytheparentswas2000TL($1111USD)witha medianof1600TL($888USD).Lessthantwentypercent(17.2%) oftheparentshadchildrenwhowerethreeyearsold,33.8%ofthe parentshadfour-year-oldchildren,and49%oftheparentshad chil-drenwhowereﬁveyearsold.Slightlymorethanhalf(51.4%)ofthe childrenwereboyswhile48.6%weregirls.Mostparentshada sin-glechild(50.7%),43.2%hadtwochildren,andafewparents(6.1%) hadthreeormorechildren.

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2.2. Datacollection

Aquestionnairewasdevelopedbasedonpreviousresearchand experts’opinionstoexamineparentalprioritiesforpre-K curricu-lum(Kernan&Hayes,1999;Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris, 1989). A panel of experts with postgraduate degrees in the fields of curriculumandinstruction,earlychildhoodeducation,and psy-chologywereconsultedtodeterminetheacademiccontentareas andestablishthefacevalidityoftheinstrument.Readabilityandthe understandabilitywereexamined,andtheinstrumentwaspiloted with10 parents beforedata collection.Eightacademic content areaswereselectedforinclusionintheinstrument,including math-ematics,arts,socialstudies,science,moralsandethics,pre-reading, pre-writing,andsecondlanguage.Inpreviousstudiesthat exam-inedparentalprioritiesforlearningexperiencesinearlychildhood programs,parentsaretypicallyaskedtorankorrateamongalist oflearningexperiences,activities,contentareas,orskills(Hewitt& Maloney,2000;Kernan&Hayes,1999;Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris, 1989).Asimilarprocedurewasadoptedinthepresentstudy. Par-entswereaskedtoprioritizetheseeightacademiccontentareas indescendingorderbyrankingthemostimportantacademic con-tentareaasthefirstandrankingtheleastimportantastheeighth onthequestionnaireform.Morespecifically,parentswereaskedto respondtothefollowingquestionwhichwasaccompaniedbyalist ofacademiccontentareasinalphabeticalorder:“Whichacademic contentareasshouldhavepriorityinyourchild’spre-Kclassroom? Pleaserankthebelow academicdomainsinthetablebygiving 1tothemostimportantand8 totheleastimportantacademic contentareas.” Thequestionnairealsoincludedquestionsabout parents’socio-demographiccharacteristics.Initially, administra-torsofeducationalinstitutionsservingpre-Kchildrenwithinthe BalıkesirProvincewerecontactedviaaninvitationletterthat pro-videsinformationaboutthestudy.Atthetimeofthestudy,there were32schools(publicandprivate)servingsolelypre-Kchildren inBalıkesirProvinceand23schoolsagreedtoparticipateinthe study.Also,aconveniencesampleof25elementaryschoolswith kindergartenclassroomswasincludedinthestudy.Theschools thatagreedtoparticipateinthestudygrantedpermissiontocollect datafromtheparents.Then,thequestionnaireformsalongwitha letteraboutthestudyweredistributedtoparentswhovolunteered toparticipateinthestudyandthecompletedformswereretrieved withintwotosixweeksofdistribution.

2.3. Dataanalysis

In thepresent study, a cluster analysisprocedure wasused to reveal clusters of parents with similar preferences for aca-demicdomainsinthedataset.Clusteranalysisisamathematical methodofproﬁlingparticipantswithsimilarpatternsofresponses (Aldenderfer &Blashﬁeld, 1984;Hair,Black, Babin,Anderson,& Tatham,2006).Clusteranalysisisanexploratorymethodthataims tounearththenaturalgroupingsinherentinthedata(Jain,2010). Likefactoranalysis,clusteranalysisaimstodetectpatternsinthe data,butclusteranalysisfocusesongroupingrespondentsrather thanvariables(Hairetal.,2006).Thisstudyseekstoidentify homo-geneous groups of parents with similarpriorities for academic contentareas.Therefore,clusteranalysiswasemployedinthe anal-ysisofthestudysample.Two-stepclusteranalysiswasusedasthe mainanalyticaltoolduetoitsuniqueadvantagesoverother cluster-ingmethods.Two-stepclusteranalysiscanhandlebothcontinuous andcategoricalvariables(includingdichotomous,ordinalandrank ordered),anditperformswellwithlargesamples,hasamechanism tohandleoutliers,andautomaticallyselectsthenumberofclusters (Chiu,Fang,Chen,Wang,&Jeris,2001;Norusis,2012; ˇRezanková, 2009;Yu,2010).

Parentswereclusteredusingthelog-likelihooddistance mea-sure,whichisasuitableclusteringmethodforthedatainthisstudy (Kaufmann&Rousseeuw,2005; ˇRezanková,2009).Thenumberof clusterswasautomaticallydeterminedbythesoftwareusingthe BayesianInformationCriterion(BIC)asaclusteringcriterion.The outlierhandlingoptionwasusedtocreateaseparateclusterfor parentsthatdidnotﬁtwellintoanyothercluster.The observa-tionswererearrangedinrandomorderbeforetheclusteranalysis wasperformed.Followingtheclusteranalysis,chisquare analy-sisandanalysisof variancewereused toexamine whetherthe parentalprioritiesdiffersigniﬁcantlyacrosstheclustersaswellas therelationshipbetweensocio-demographicvariablesandcluster membership.SPSSversion19wasusedinthedataanalysis. 2.4. Missingdata

Initially, thedata setwas examinedfor missing values. The percentageofmissingvalueswaslessthan1%forthedependent variables(parents’ratingsofacademiccontentareas).Missing val-uesinthedependentvariableswereimputedusingtheHotDeck imputation technique (Myers,2011). The Hot Deck imputation techniqueproducesimputationsthatdonotfalloutsidetherange ofpossiblevalues,whichmakesitmoreappropriatethan model-basedstrategiesofdealingwithmissingdata,suchasmaximum likelihood andexpectation-maximization, inestimating missing categoricalandrankorderedobservations(Myers,2011;Siddique &Belin,2008).Thepercentageofmissingvalueswasbetween1.4% to4.1% for theindependent variables (socio-demographic vari-ables),exceptforchildage(7.6%)andtheincomevariable(16.7%). Missingvaluesinthecategoricalindependentvariableswerealso imputedwithHotDeckimputationtechnique.Thechildageandthe incomevariables,however,wereimputedusingthe expectation-maximization(EM)algorithm(Jöreskog&Sörbom,2006).Allcases withmissingvaluesweresuccessfullyimputed.Theanalyseswere performedontheimputeddataset.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptivestatistics

Initially, parents’ ranking preferences were examined using descriptivestatistics.Thepercentagesofparents’rankingsofthe academiccontentareasareillustratedinFig.1.Results demon-stratedthatmoralsandethicswasthemostfrequentlyfirst-ranked area.Over one-thirdof theparents(34.3%)selectedmorals and ethicsastheirfirstcurricularchoice,andthepercentageof par-entswhorankedmoralandethicswithintheirfirstthreechoices was55.2%.

Aboutone-fifth oftheparents(21.1%) rankedpre-readingas themostimportantacademiccontentarea,andalmosttwo-thirds oftheparents’rankedpre-readingwithintheirfirstthreechoices (66.3%).Pre-writingwasanotherofthemosthighlyrankedareas bytheparents.Slightlylowerthanone-fifthoftheparents(18.8%) rankedpre-writingasthemostimportantacademicskill,andas withthepre-reading,almosttwo-thirdsoftheparentsranked pre-writingwithintheirfirstthreechoices(65.9%).

Althoughmathematicswasrankedbyonly10.9%of the par-entsastheirﬁrstchoice,thepercentageofparentswhoranked mathematicswithintheirﬁrstthreechoiceswassubstantial(40%). Pre-reading,pre-writing,moralsandethics,andmathematicswere themosthighlyrankedcurricularareasamongtheparentsinthis study.Fig.2illustratesthepercentagesfortopthreerankings.

Sciencewastheleastpreferredacademiccontentareabythe parents.A sizeablenumber ofparents (997participants,68.4%) rankedsciencewithintheirlastthreechoices(6th,7th,and8th).

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34.3 6.3 14.6 11 8.6 7.4 7.2 10.6 0 10 20 30 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Ethics and

Mo

ral

21.1 28.5 16.8 10.6 7.3 6.2 _{4.7 4.9} 0 10 20 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Pre-

Reading

18.8 30.1 17 11.2 7.6 4.9 6.5 3.9 0 10 20 30 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Pre-

Wring

10.9 7.5 21.6 19.5 17 11.6 7.8 4.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Mathem

acs

8 _7.1 11.6 15.3 19 12 11.2 15.8 0 5 10 15 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Second Langua

ge

5.4 12.6 8.9 12.6 13 14.8 14 18.8 0 5 10 15 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Art

1.4 5.6 5.9 8.7 13.1 20.3 25.9 19 0 10 20 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Social Studies

0.1 2.4 3.6 11.1 14.4 22.8 22.5 23.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Percentages Rankings

Science

Fig.1.Percentagesofparents’rankingsofacademiccontentareas.

34.3 21.1 18.8 10.9 8 5.4 1.4 _0.1 6.3 28.5 30.1 7.5 7.1 12.6 5.6 2.4 14.6 16.8 17 21.6 11.6 8.9 5.9 3.6 55.2 66.3 65.9 40 26.7 26.9 12.9 6 Morals and Ethics

Pre-Reading Pre-Wring Mathemacs Second

Language

Arts Social

Studies

Science

1st 2nd 3rd Within First Three

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Onlyoneparentrankedscienceasthemostimportantacademic contentareaandthepercentageofparentswhorankedscience withintheirfirstthreechoiceswasmerely6%.Followingscience, socialstudieswasthesecondleastpreferredarea.Asizeable num-berofparents(950participants,65.2%)rankedsocialstudieswithin theirlastthreechoices,andonly12.9%oftheparentsrankedsocial studieswithin theirfirstthree choices. More than a quarterof theparticipantsrankedarts(26.9%)andsecondlanguage(26.7%) withintheirfirstthreechoices.

3.2. ComparingtheTopandtheBottomScienceRankers

Parentswhorankedsciencewithintheirtopthreeandbottom threechoiceswerecomparedbasedontheirchild’sgender,age, andsocioeconomicstatus(acompositevariablethatincludes infor-mationaboutparents’income,levelofeducation,andthenumber ofchildren inthehousehold) usingtheChi-squaretest. Results demonstratedthatthenumberofparentsofboyswhoranked sci-enceasatopprioritywassigniﬁcantlyhigherthanthenumberof parentsofgirls(2_(1,_N₌₁₀₈₅₎₌_3.83,_p₌_0.05,₌_0.06)._Parents_of

olderchildrenweremorelikelytoranksciencewithintheir bot-tomthreechoices(2_(2,_N₌₁₀₈₅₎₌_8.52,_p₌_0.014,₌_0.09)._Also,

parentswithahigh-SESlevelweremorelikelytorankscienceasa toppriority(2_(2,_N₌₁₀₈₅₎₌_16.07,_p_<_0.001,₌_0.12).

3.3. Two-stepclusteranalysis 3.3.1. Crossvalidation

Thedatasetwasrandomlysplitintotwohalveseachcontaining 728cases.Two-stepclusteranalyseswereperformedoneachhalf. Then,theviabilityofasimilarresultwasexaminedinthefull sam-ple.TheMann–WhitneyUtestindicatednosigniﬁcantdifferences betweenthesubsetsonclustervariables(ps>.01).

Clustermembershipinformation obtainedfromthetwo-step cluster analysis was used as a dependent variable in the dis-criminant analysis to obtain discriminant function coefficients associatedwiththeindependentvariables.Then,thesecoefficients wereusedtoclassifycasesintheseconddataset.Two-step clus-teranalysiswasperformedfortheseconddatasetandresulting clustermembershipinformationwascomparedtothe classifica-tioninformationcreatedbythediscriminantfunctioncoefficients. Resultsdemonstratedthat81%ofthecaseswerecorrectly classi-fied,whichishigherthanthepercentage(76%)suggestedbythe MaximumChanceCriterion.Two-stepclusteranalysesonthetwo subsetsandthefullsampleresultedinthesamenumberandhighly similarclustertypesemerging.Theseresultssuggestthatthe clus-tersolutionsacrossthesampleswerehighlystable.Therefore,the resultswerereportedforthefullsample.

3.3.2. Threeclusters

Thetwo-stepclusteranalysisidentifiedtwodistinctclustersof parentsplusanoutliercluster.Variableimportancevalues (ran-gingfrom0to1)demonstratedthatpre-writing(1.0),pre-reading (0.68),andmoralandethics(0.6)werethemostimportant vari-ablesin defining membershipstocluster 1and cluster2 while sciencewastheleastimportantvariable(0.13).Variable impor-tancevaluessuggestthatmostparentshadsimilarsciencerankings (low)andparentsdonotdeviateintheirprioritiesforscience.In otherwords,parents’sciencerankingswerenotusefulin determin-ingwhethertheyareamemberofthefirstorthesecondcluster.

Themajorityoftheparentswereinthefirstcluster.Thefirst clusterincludedparentswhotendtoprioritizetraditionalacademic contentareasincludingreading,writing,andmathematics.The sec-ondclusterincludedparentswhodecisivelyprefertheinclusionof moralsandethicsandartsintheearlychildhoodcurriculum.The lastclusterconsistedofparentswhoareidentifiedasoutliersby

thetwo-stepclusteranalysis.Parentsinthisclustertendtoprefer teachingofscienceandmathematicstotheiryoungsterintheearly childhoodclassrooms.Adetaileddescriptionoftheclusterproﬁles isprovidedbelow.

3.3.3. Cluster1(ThreeR’s)

Thefirstclusterincluded736(50.5%)participants.Pre-reading, pre-writing,andmathematicswerehighlyratedbyparentsinthis cluster.Over90%oftheparentswhorankedpre-writingasthefirst (90.1%)orthesecond(94.1%)mostimportantacademiccontent areaswereinthiscluster.Therewereatotalof959participantsin thesamplewhorankedpre-writingwithintheirfirstthreechoices and727ofthem(76%)weremembersofthiscluster.Almost99% oftheclustermembersrankedpre-writingwithintheirfirstthree choices.

Over93%oftheparentswhorankedpre-readingasthefirst cur-ricularchoiceand74%oftheparentswhorankedpre-readingas thesecondmostimportantdomainwereinthiscluster.Therewere 966participantsinthedatasetwhorankedpre-readingwithintheir firstthreechoicesand728ofthem(75.4%)werethememberofthis cluster.Likethepre-writing,almost99%oftheclustermembers rankedpre-readingwithintheirfirstthreechoices.

Mathematicswasanotherimportantacademiccontentareafor themembersofthiscluster.Exactly39%oftheparentswhoranked mathematicsastheirfirstchoice,14.7%oftheparentswhoranked mathematicsastheirsecondchoice,and76.4%theparentswho rankedmathematicsastheirthirdchoicewereinthiscluster.There were 582participants in the sample who ranked mathematics withintheirfirstthreechoicesand318ofthem(54.6%)werethe memberofthiscluster.Over43%oftheclustermembersranked mathematicswithintheirfirstthreechoices.

Noneoftheparticipantsinthisclusterrankedsciencewithin theirﬁrsttwochoicesandonlysixparticipantsrankedscienceas thethirdmostimportanttopic.Therewere88participantsinthe samplewhorankedsciencewithintheirﬁrstthreechoicesandonly sixofthem(6.4%)werethemembersofthiscluster.Morethanhalf oftheparentsinthiscluster(473)rankedsciencewithintheirlast threechoices.

3.3.4. Cluster2(moralsandethicsandarts)

Thesecondclusterincluded415(28.5%)parents.Morals and ethicsandartswerehighlyratedacademiccontentareasbythe parentsinthiscluster.Almost81%oftheparentsinthiscluster rankedethicsastheirfirstchoiceand92.6%ofthecluster mem-bersrankedmoralsandethicswithintheirfirstthreechoices.There were500participantsinthesamplewhorankedethicsastheirfirst choiceand335ofthem(67%)wereinthiscluster.Likewise,there were804participantsinthesamplewhorankedethicswithintheir firstthreechoicesand384ofthem(48%)werethememberofthis cluster.

Morethanhalftheclustermembers(52.8%)rankedartswithin theirfirstthreechoices.Therewere392parentswhorankedarts withintheirfirst three choices inthe sampleand 219of them (55.9%)wereinthiscluster.Atotalof184parentsrankedartsas theirsecondchoiceinthesampleand149(81%)ofthemwerein thiscluster.Noneoftheparentsinthisclusterrankedscienceas theirfirstchoiceandonlyfiveparticipants(1.2%)rankedscienceas theirsecondorthirdmostimportantacademiccontentareas.The majorityoftheparents(92%)inthisclusterrankedsciencewithin theirlastthreechoices.

3.3.5. Cluster3(scienceandmathematics)

Therewere305(21%)parentsinthiscluster.Scienceand math-ematicsappearedtobethemostimportantacademiccontentareas fortheparentsinthiscluster.Atotalof88parentsrankedscience withintheirﬁrstthreechoicesinthesampleand77ofthem(87.5%)

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wereinthiscluster.Inotherwords,theparentwhorankedscience astheﬁrstand97.1%whorankedthesecond,and80.8%whoranked thethirdmostimportantacademiccontentareawereinthis clus-ter.Aquarteroftheclustermembersrankedsciencewithintheir ﬁrstthreechoices.

Theresultsweresimilarforthedomainofmathematics.Over 55%oftheparentswhorankedmathematicsastheﬁrstand51.4% whorankeditasthesecondmostimportantareainthesample wereinthiscluster.Morethanhalfoftheparents(59.7%)inthis clusterrankedmathematicswithintheirﬁrstthreechoices.

Lessthanonefourthoftheparentsinthisclusterranked pre-readingandpre-writingwithintheirﬁrstthreechoices.Only17.1% oftheparentswhorankedmoralandethicswithintheirﬁrstthree choicesinthesamplewereinthiscluster.

3.4. Comparisonofclusterpriorities

Differencesinthepercentagesofpreferredcontentareasacross thethreeclusterswerecomparedusingtheChi-squaretest.The clusterswerecomparedbasedontheirmembers’prioritiesfor pre-reading,pre-writing,mathematics,science,moralandethics,and arts,whichemergedasmajoracademiccontentareasindefining clustermembership.Theresultsdemonstratedthatthenumberof parentswhorankedpre-readingasatopprioritywassignificantly higherinthefirstcluster(ThreeR’s)thanthenumberofparentsin thesecond(MoralsandEthicsandArts)(2_(1,_N₌₁₁₅₁₎₌_539.71,

p<0.01,=0.68)andthethirdcluster(ScienceandMathematics) (2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_675.43,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.81)._The_number_of_parents

whoranked pre-readingasa topprioritywasalsosigniﬁcantly higherin thesecond clusterthanthenumberof parentsinthe thirdcluster(2_(1,_N₌₇₂₀₎₌_17.14,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.15)._Likewise,_the

numberofparentswhorankedpre-writingasatopprioritywas sig-niﬁcantlyhigherintheﬁrstclusterthanthenumberofparentsin thesecond(2_(1,_N₌₁₁₅₁₎₌_507.24,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.66)_and_the_third

cluster(2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_735.64,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.84)._The_number_of

parentswhorankedpre-writingasatopprioritywasalso signiﬁ-cantlyhigherinthesecondclusterthanthenumberofparentsin thethirdcluster(2_(1,_N₌₇₂₀₎₌_40.18,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.24).

Ontheotherhand,thenumberofparentswhoranked mathe-maticsasatopprioritywassigniﬁcantlyhigherinthethirdcluster thanthenumber ofparents intheﬁrst (2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_27.29,

p<0.01,=0.16)andthesecondcluster(2_(1,_N₌₇₂₀₎₌_137.74,

p<0.01, =0.44). The number of parents who ranked mathe-maticsasatopprioritywasalsosigniﬁcantlyhigherintheﬁrst clusterthanthenumberof parentsinthesecondcluster(2_(1,

N=1151)=70.07,p<0.01,=0.25).Likewise,thenumberof par-entswhorankedscienceasatopprioritywassigniﬁcantlyhigher in the third cluster than the number of parents in the ﬁrst (2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_175.41,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.41)_and_the_second_cluster

(2_(1,_N₌₇₂₀₎₌_100.68,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.37)._However,_the_difference

betweentheﬁrstandthesecondclusterwasnotstatistically sig-niﬁcant(2_(1,_N₌₁₁₅₁₎₌_0.43,_p₌_0.51,₌_0.02).

Thenumberofparentswhorankedmoralsandethicsasatop prioritywassigniﬁcantlyhigherinthesecondclusterthanthe num-berofparentsintheﬁrst(2_(1,_N₌₁₁₅₁₎₌_318.48,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.53)

and the third cluster (2_(1, _N₌₇₂₀₎₌_199.26, _p_<_0.01, ₌_0.53).

However,thedifferencebetweentheﬁrstand thethirdcluster wasnot statisticallysigniﬁcant(2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_3.75, _p₌_0.053,

=0.06).Also,thenumberofparentswhorankedartsasatop prior-itywassigniﬁcantlyhigherinthesecondclusterthanthenumber ofparentsintheﬁrst(2_(1,_N₌₁₁₅₁₎₌_352.74,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.55)

andthethirdcluster(2_(1,_N₌₇₂₀₎₌_4.34,_p₌_0.03,₌_0.08)._The

numberofparentswhorankedartsasatopprioritywasalso sig-niﬁcantlyhigherinthethirdclusterthanthenumberofparents intheﬁrstcluster(2_(1,_N₌₁₀₄₁₎₌_249.32,_p_<_0.01,₌_0.49).

Col-lectively,theresultsofthechisquareanalysesalignwellwiththe

resultsoftheclusteranalysisandtheseresultssuggestthatclusters containhomogeneousgroupsofparentswithsimilarprioritiesfor academiccontentareasandparentalprioritiesdiffersigniﬁcantly acrossthethreeclusters.

3.5. Parents’socio-demographiccharacteristicsandcluster membership

Inordertoexploretherelationshipbetweencluster member-ship and parents’ socio-demographiccharacteristics, a seriesof analysisofvariance withBonferronicorrection(˛=0.0063) was conducted.Theresultsdemonstratedthatparentsinthreeclusters donotdifferintheirprioritiesbasedonthenumberofchildrenthey have(F(2,1453)=0.91,p=0.40),whethertheyhaveaboyoragirl (F(2,1453)=0.78,p=0.46),andwhethertheyaremotherorfather ofthechild(F(2,1453)=2.49,p=0.08).

However,therewasastatisticallysigniﬁcantdifferenceinthe followingsocio-demographiccharacteristicsbetweentheparents in threeclusters:parents’level ofeducation(F(2, 1453)=64.68, p<0.001, 2₌_0.01), _child’s _age _(F(2, ₁₄₅₃₎₌_54.32, _p_<_0.001,

2₌_0.07),_parents’_income_(F(2,₁₄₅₃₎₌_48.65,_p_<_0.001,2₌_0.06),

whetherparentshaveanolderchildwithpreviouspre-K experi-ences(F(2,1453)=5.57,p=0.004,2₌_0.01),_and_whether_parents

resideoutsideoftheprovincialcapital(F(2,1453)=9.76,p<0.001, 2₌_0.01).

PosthoccomparisonsusingLSDtestsindicatedthatparentsin thefirstcluster(ThreeR’s)tendtohavealowereducationallevel andincome,haveanolderchild,andliveinruraldistricts(outsideof provincialcapital)thantheparentsinthesecond(EthicsandArts) andthethirdclusters(ScienceandMathematics)(ps<0.001).Also, significantlylessparentswithachildwithpreviouspre-K experi-enceswereinthesecondclustercomparedtothefirst(p<0.001) andthethirdcluster(p<0.043).

4. Discussion

Theﬁndingsofthepresentstudyindicatedthatthenumberof parentswhoprioritizescienceoverotheracademiccontentareas fortheirchildreninpre-Kclassroomsisquitelow.Whilethe major-ityoftheparents(68.4%) rankedsciencewithintheirlastthree choices,onlysixpercentoftheparentsrankedsciencewithintheir ﬁrstthreechoices.Scienceappearednottobeapopulartopicor ahighpriorityformanyparents,andfewparentspreferredtheir childrentolearnscienceintheearlychildhoodclassrooms.

Indeed,parentswhorankedsciencehighlydeviatedfromthe wholesampleandalmostalloftheseparentswereidentifiedas participantswithan unusualpreference pattern, which formed thescienceandmathematicscluster.Theparentsinthescience andmathematicsclusterwerealsodifferentfromtheparentsin theother clusterswithregard todemographic variables. These parentsweremorelikelytohaveahighereducationalleveland income, live in an urbandistrict, and have a younger child in comparison to the parents in the first cluster (Three R’s) and theyweremorelikelytohaveachildwithpreviouspre-K expe-riences than parents in the second cluster (Ethics and Arts). A comparison of parents who ranked sciencewithin theirfirst and last three choices also demonstrated similar findings. Par-ents’ofboysand youngerchildrenandparentswitha high-SES level were more likely to rank science within their first three choices.

Severalfactorsmightberesponsibleforthereasonmostparents rankedsciencelowerinthisstudy.Studiessuggestthatparental beliefsregardingtheirchildren’scompetencearelikelyto inﬂu-ence the learning opportunities parents offer to their children (Dunton,McDevitt,&Hess,1988;Hess,Holloway,Dickson,&Price,

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1984;Jacobs&Bleeker,2004;Miller,1995).Likemanyearly child-hoodteachers(Sac¸kes,inpress),mostparentsofpre-Kchildren mightbelievethattheirchildrenareincapableoflearningscience conceptsandskills,andtherefore,perceivelearningandteaching scienceinpre-Kclassroomsasadifﬁculttaskfortheirchildrenor theybelieveteachingsciencetoyoungchildrenisdevelopmentally inappropriate.

Parents’of boyswere more likely toinclude sciencewithin their first three choices than the parents’ of girls. This find-ingiscongruentwithpreviousstudiesongenderdifferences in parentalexpectationsregardingacademiccontentareas (Eccles, Jacobs, & Harold, 1990; Jacobs & Eccles, 1992). For example, parentsexpect boystoperformbetterin mathematicsand sci-encethangirls(Herbert&Stipek,2005;Tenenbaumetal.,2005). Thus,parentsaremorelikelytoofferlearningopportunitiesand providetoysandmaterialsthatsupportthedevelopmentof sci-entificandmathematicalthinkingskillsinboys(Alexanderetal., 2012;Freeman,2007;Simpkins,Davis-Kean,&Eccles,2005;Tracy, 1987). Even though there is no empirical evidence indicating that boys have an innate potential to perform better in sci-ence(Spelke,2005),boysareperceivedbytheirparentsasbeing more competent and eager to learn science(Andre, Whigham, Hendrickson,&Chambers,1999).Startingfromtheearly elemen-tary grades, boys tend to rate their science ability higher and reporthigher motivation tolearn sciencethan do girls (Andre etal.,1999;Breakwell,1992;Kahle&Lakes,1983;Patricketal., 2009;Simpkins,Davis-Kean,&Eccles,2006).Althoughstudieshave demonstratedthatthescienceachievementgaprelatedto gen-deris narrowing,theperceptionaland motivational differences betweenboysandgirlsregardingtheirlearningofscienceremains stable (Alexander et al., 2012; Baram-Tsabari& Yarden, 2010). Parentalbeliefsregardingtheimportanceandappropriatenessof learningsciencefortheirchildrenarelikelytoresultinboysand girlshavingdifferentialaccessand exposuretosciencelearning opportunitiesathomeandinearlychildhoodclassrooms.While thisearlysocializationmightsupportthedevelopmentof moti-vationalbeliefs thatfacilitatethelearning ofsciencein boys,it mightbedisadvantageousforgirls.Earlyparentalsupportmight explainwhythedifferenceinscienceachievementbetweengirls and boys becomes more prominent as they move into upper gradesand whyfemales are underrepresented inSTEM-related careers.

Inthepresentstudy,parentswithhigh-SESlevelsweremore likelytoratescienceasahigherprioritythantheparentswith low-SESlevels. Parents withhigh-SES appear tobe more sup-portiveoflearningscienceintheearlyyears.Thismightbedue tohigh-SESparentshavingnecessary economicalandcognitive resources to support children’s learning of science (Bradley & Corwyn,2002;Mantzicopoulosetal.,2013;Zady&Portes,2001). Alternatively,high-SESparentsmightbelievethattheirchildren arecompetentinbasicacademiccontentareastypicallytargeted inearlyyears,suchasliteracy.Hence,theyprefertheirchildren to excel in other content areas like science. Although parents withlow-SESvalueacademiclearningingeneral,theymightnot havetheresourcestosupporttheirchildren’slearningofscience (Zady&Portes,2001), thus,theydo not prioritizescience over otheracademic areas. Moreover,low-SESparents tend to have negativeexperiencesinlearningscienceandtheymightbe intim-idatedwhentheyneedtohelptheirchildrenin science-related learningtasks(Mantzicopoulosetal.,2013;Zady&Portes,2001). Parentsown experienceswithlearning sciencemight inﬂuence theirpreferencesforscienceeducationinpre-Kcurricula.Parents withapositiveattitudetowardlearningscienceandparentswho perceivescienceasfunmightbemorelikelytosupporttheir chil-dren’slearning of science(Dierking& Falk,1994; Ferry,Fouad, &Smith, 2000; George &Kaplan, 1998).High-SES parents and

parentswitha science-related educationandcareers mayhave positiveexperiencewithlearning scienceandperceivelearning scienceasa prerequisiteforsuccessinacademicandsociallife, whichmightexplainthehigh-SESparents’tendencytorate sci-enceasahigherprioritythanthelow-SESparentsinthecurrent study.

Children’s emergent scienceskills usuallyare not thetarget of instructional practices in typical earlychildhood classrooms (Saçkes, in press; Saçkes et al., 2011; Tu, 2006; Varol, 2013). Severalfactors,suchaslimitedscienceandpedagogicalcontent knowledge,thepressuretoteachothercontentareas,thelackof science-relatedmaterials,andlowself-efficacyforteachingscience havebeenidentifiedasreasonswhyteachersofyoungchildren devote less time toteaching science in theirclassrooms (Early etal.,2010;Garbett,2003;Greenfieldetal.,2009;Kallery&Psillos, 2001;Maieretal.,2013;Nayfeldetal.,2011).Thefindingsofthe present studysuggestthat parentalprioritiesmightbeanother majorfactorthatcontributesthelimitedvisibilityofscience learn-ingexperiencesintheearlyyears.Formorethantwo-thirdsofthe parents,sciencewastheleastpreferredacademic contentarea, whereasonlysixpercentoftheparentsinthisstudyprioritized providingsciencelearningexperiencestopre-Kchildren.Unlike literacy and mathematics, many parents do not expectscience to bea partof ordinary pre-K classrooms. The findings of the currentstudydemonstratedthatparentalpreferencesalignwell withtheearlychildhoodteachers’tendencytoteachlessscience (Greenfieldetal.,2009;Nayfeldetal.,2011;Saçkesetal.,2011; Varol,2013).

The present studyfocused onparental prioritiesfor science learning in pre-K classrooms by inviting parents to rank eight academiccontentareas.Futureinvestigationsshouldgatherdata about the rationale that guides parents’ rankings of academic contentareas.Morespeciﬁcally,futurestudiescouldinvestigate the reasons parents prefer (or do not prefer) that their chil-dren learn science during the earlyyears. In-depth interviews withtheparentswhoranked sciencewithintheirtop and bot-tom three choices regarding the reasons that motivate their preferences would help us better understand the factors that contributetothelimited visibilityofscienceinearlychildhood classrooms.Parentalprioritiesandpreferencesmightbe precur-sorstotheireducationalpracticesathome.Futurestudiesshould alsoinvestigatetherelationshipbetweenthequalityand quan-tityofinformalsciencelearningexperiencesprovidedbyparents andtheirprioritiesforscienceeducationinearlychildhood class-rooms.

Sofar,aconsiderableamountofliteraturehasbeenproduced onparentalprioritiesforearlychildhoodcurricula.However,the literaturetodate hastendedtofocus onparentalprioritiesfor developmentalareasandthetraditionalacademiccontentareas andskills(Dockett&Perry,2004;Ebbeck,1995;Kernan&Hayes, 1999;Knudsen-Lindauer&Harris,1989;Saçkes,2013).Parents’ beliefsaboutandtheirexpectationsandprioritiesforscience edu-cationintheearlyyearshavebeenlargelyneglected.Thecurrent studyprovidespreliminarydataonparentalviewsontheplace for science education within earlychildhood classrooms. More researchstudiesareneededtounderstandhowparental preferen-ces,beliefs,andattitudesinfluencesciencelearningopportunities providedtochildrenandchildren’slearningofscienceduringthe earlyyears.Parents’beliefsaboutandattitudestowardscienceare likelytoinfluencetheirchildren’sattitudetowardlearningscience andtheirmotivationtolaterpursuescience-relatedcareers(Chen, 2001;Dierking&Falk,1994;Ferryetal.,2000).Therefore, inves-tigatingparentalbeliefsaboutlearningscienceinearlychildhood classroomsmightbeakeytounderstandinggenderand socioeco-nomicdisparitiesinscienceachievementinlateelementarygrades andbeyond.

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Acknowledgement

ThankstoBalıkesirProvincial Directorateof National Educa-tion,ResearchandDevelopmentUnitfortheirassistanceindata collection.

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