New Perspectives in Science Education

The aim of this study is to examine preschool teachers' views on out-of-school learning in early childhood. For this purpose, the research was conducted by adopting a case study approach from qualitative research methods. The participants of the study consisted of 27 preschool teachers working in the central districts of Malatya province in the 2024-2025 academic year. The participants of the study were determined by random sampling method. A semi-structured interview form was used to collect the data of the study. In order to prepare the interview questions in the ‘Teacher Opinion Form on Out-of-School Learning in Early Childhood’, a detailed literature review was conducted by the researchers and the form was finalised by taking the opinions of three expert researchers in terms of validity and reliability. The data of the study were analysed by content analysis method, one of the qualitative research data analysis methods, and the data obtained were reported as themes and sub-themes. As a result of the research, it was concluded that preschool teachers stated environments such as parks, gardens, museums, botanical gardens as out-of-school learning environments; out-of-school learning environments are important due to situations such as developing social skills, developing cognitive skills, supporting learning by doing, supporting permanent learning, supporting education at school, sense of discovery and curiosity. In line with these results, it can be suggested to provide the school environment and equipment for preschool teachers to carry out activities related to out-of-school learning, to facilitate the official procedures for the trips and observations they will make, to provide security measures against possible dangers, to extend in-service trainings to increase the competence levels of teachers, to provide necessary trainings to parents by ensuring school-family cooperation.