Investigation of the Effect of Inclusive Play and Special Movement Education to Social Communication in Disadvantaged and Peer Children in Preschool (Erzurum Sample)

The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of inclusive play and special movement education applied to disadvantaged and peer preschool children in Erzurum city center on their basic skills.22 students (10 disadvantaged children + 12 peer group children) consisting of disadvantaged children and peer children who were educated in special education and rehabilitation centers in the city center of Erzurum and participated voluntarily. Before the study, two seminars were given to the parents of the students, which determined the purpose and objective of the research. Students participated in a specially prepared game and movement training program for 45-60 minutes, 2 days a week during the summer period. Before starting the research, an interview and observation form consisting of 10 questions was prepared for the parents of the children and the results were recorded. At the end of the 2-month (8-week) period, interviews and observations were made with the parents of the children, and the last situation was recorded and compared with the previous situation.In the first parent interviews, the results of the research; it was observed that the children hesitated to participate in the study, they do not want to get close to other children, refrain from sharing game materials and avoid playing together and do not help. While they stated that they did not comply with the game discipline, they stated that at the end of the study program, their initial negative behavior developed completely in a positive way. In expert observations; it was observed that at the beginning, the children did not want to participate in the studies, did not listen to the volunteers, acted randomly, fought over the play materials used, and avoided playing together. While they observed that they behaved randomly, it was stated that the observations developed completely positively at the end of the research process.As a result, it was concluded that inclusive play and special movement training applied to disadvantaged preschool children and peers contributed positively to the social development of children.

Developing Basic Movement Skills in Primary School Students: Planned Games and Movement Education Applications

Aim: The aim of this study is to develop the movement skills of primary school students (1st and 2nd grades) in Erzurum city center with planned games and movement education applications. Method: 38 students (24 males + 14 females) living in the central campus of Erzurum province and selected according to the convenience sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, participated in the research. Students participated in specially prepared game and movement training programs between 60-90 minutes 3 days a week during the summer period. In the first stage of the study, basic skills were determined by applying basic skill tests which is flamingo balance, catching the thrown ball, standing long jump, throwing a tennis ball, running 20 meters straight, hitting the ball with the foot, vertical jumping and galloping as a pre-test. At the end of the 2-month (8 weeks) period, basic skill tests were applied as a post-test and their status was compared. Findings: According to the results of the research, a positive (p<0.05) improvement was observed in the initial basic skill tests which applied flamingo balance, catching the thrown ball, standing long jump, throwing a tennis ball, running 20 metetraight, hitting the ball with the foot, vertical jump and gallop. Result: As a result, it was concluded that the game and special movement training program, which is made regularly for primary school 1st and 2nd grade students, contributes positively to their basic motor skills. Key Words: Primary school, games, movement training, skill development.

Educating for Eupsychia: Maslow’s Unfinished Agenda and Aldous Huxley’s Role in Its Advancement

Although Abraham Maslow never specified how eupsychia (his paradigm for the best possible human society) might be achieved, he was inspired in the 1960s by Aldous Huxley’s notions that major changes in education were vital for its attainment: in Maslow’s view, spurring personality growth and fulfillment and ultimately leading to self-actualization on a societal level. In this light, Maslow’s scattered writings on the necessity for revisioning education provide meaningful direction for realizing the eupsychian ideal. Drawing particularly on his enthusiasm for revamped pedagogy as presented in Huxley’s utopian novel Island and related writings, we highlight three elements that Maslow deemed crucial: valuing children’s constitutional and temperamental differences, incorporating somatic and movement education including dance, and, related to peak experiences, fostering a sense of wonder. We also add a fourth element that Maslow was beginning to embrace at the time of his death—eudaimonic education comprising aspects such as volunteerism, mentoring, and civic engagement.

The Validity and Reliability Study of the Basic Motor Movement, Social Skill Observation, and Evaluation Scale for Basic Movement Education

It is aimed to develop a measurement tool which is a basic motor movement, social skill, attitude observation and evaluation scale for Basic Movement Education. In the study, the natural observation from qualitative research methods is used. The scale outline with 40 items is formed as a result of literature review and negotiations. To determine the content validity of the scale draft, the opinions of six field experts (lecturers), two preschool teachers, two physical education (PE) teachers, and two language experts were analyzed using the Lashwe technique. By analyzing the experts’ opinions according to Lashwe technique, four items are removed since their content validity rate (CVR) assets are less than 0.75. CVR shows that the scale provides 4-point Likert-type construct validity and consists of two subdimensions with 36 items (the basic motor movement skill dimension is 16 items and social skill dimension is 20 items). Total points of the Spearman correlation coefficient are checked among the observers. While the correlation coefficient of the basic motor movement skill dimension is .71 ( p = .000), the correlation coefficient of social skill dimension is .82 ( p = .002). The correlation coefficient among the total points is more than .70, and the results ( p < .01) are meaningful. This shows that the measurement tool is reliable, and the scale provides reliability with 4-point Likert-type gradation.

Principles of Somatic Movement Education for Architectural Design

An architect trying to predict the spatial effect of their design on its inhabitants often faces a dilemma. Their professional experience and personal feeling allows them to intuit its effect. Such intuition, however, might lack legitimacy in the dominant design practice. For over a century, the question of the felt space in architecture has been a topic of theoretical discussion, which led to the insight that the answer might lay not so much in studying the architectural structures, but rather in studying the bodies that inhabit them. And still the dominant architectural practice follows the outdated dualistic (mis-)understanding of the felt space. Another historical development took place in dance. Here, since the 1960s,the traditionally formalistic and objectifying understanding of dance has been strongly influenced by techniques of bodily sensitization, stemming from the field of somatics. In themselves rather diverse, these techniques have been institutionally delineated through the principles of somatic movement education. One of their characteristics is that somatic techniques are constantly re-emerging - not from a priori knowledge but from the study of one’s own body and its interactions with the environment. This article envisages how such principles might be applied to architectural design practice and give rise to new embodied design practices - which might foster architects’ sensory expertise and thus legitimize the felt knowledge in professional contexts.