Measuring the concept of land among children in Public and private childrentons (comparative study)

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the role of both public and private kindergartens in developing the concept of Earth among preschool children. This was achieved through a comparative study conducted on children enrolled in both types of kindergartens in the Karkh district of Baghdad during the 2017–2018 academic year. The research problem centers on addressing the following question: Do public and private kindergartens contribute to the development of the concept of Earth among kindergarten children? The study sample consisted of 40 children—20 from public kindergartens and 20 from private kindergartens—equally distributed between boys and girls. The researcher utilized the Earth Concept Test, developed by Al-Mahfoudh (2017), for data collection. This test, in its final form, comprised six concepts approved by a panel of experts without the exclusion of any item. The test was scored using binary alternatives (1, 0).

Appropriate statistical methods were employed in data analysis, including the one-sample t-test to examine the significance of differences between the children's mean scores on the Earth Concept Test and the hypothetical mean, as well as the independent samples t-test to analyze differences between children in public and private kindergartens according to gender.

The findings of the study revealed the following:

1. Preschool children, whether enrolled in public or private kindergartens, possess a certain level of awareness regarding the concept of Earth.
2. Both public and private kindergartens contribute equally to the development of the Earth concept among children.
3. There are no statistically significant differences in the acquisition of the Earth concept attributable to gender (male/female).