The Project Approach in Preschool Education: The Inquiries of Dendrologists Project

Abstract

With its history dating back to the Open Education movement in the early 20th Century, the Project
approach include education applications supporting children’s development in multiple ways, especially with
its emphasis on research. Starting from this point of view, the purpose of this study is to outline the prominent
features of the Project approach and to illustrate how educators can apply this approach within the scope of
the Turkish Ministry of National Education’s Preschool Education Program 2013 in Turkey. To this end, the
main problems observed in the preschool education field in Turkey is briefly discussed and then overlapping
areas of focus between the Project approach and official preschool education program in Turkey are shown.
Then, basic features and phases of Project approach are outlined based on the works of Lilian G. Katz, Judy
Harris Helm and Sylvia Katz. Finally, the phases of implementing The Inquiries of Dendrologists Project that took
place in a publicly funded preschool is described using visual samples of activities in different phases of the
project. The project was implemented with children who live in disadvantaged life conditions. As the project
implementation shows, the Project approach offers flexible planning tools, therefore, it can be adapted as an
effective teaching and learning approach to support preschoolers’ development in Turkish Education System.