PRESCHOOL TEACHER CANDIDATES' OPINIONS ON THE TEACHER STUDENT RELATIONSHIP
Problem Statement: Teachers could make important contributions to achieve educational goals throughout whole schooling experience of children especially in preschool. At this point, it is seen that the number of studies revealing the effect of teachers' relationships between their students on children's all areas of development and school achievements has been increasing recently. Purpose of the Study: Current studies have been conducted with teachers and in the quantitative research design in general. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine preschool teacher candidates' opinions on the teacher student relationship. Method: The single case design, which is a qualitative research method, was used in the research. The research sample was determined using the purposive sampling method to be 10 teacher candidates who were attending at the preschool teaching program of Mugla Sitki Kocman University in the final year. The interviews performed with the students were recorded via semi structured interview sheets prepared by the researchers. The research data were analyzed with the content analysis. Findings: According to the data obtained in the research, the teacher candidates reported that they regard the teacher student relationship as an element that facilitates the process of adaptation to school. The factors obstructing the teacher student relationship included that children do not obey the classroom rules as emphasized by the teacher candidates the most. The most emphasized factor among the factors supporting the teacher student relationship was teachers' temperaments. Conclusion and Recommendations: Our study revealed that teacher student relationship has been seen not only individual relationships but also group based relationship by the preschool teacher candidates. For this reason, it was suggested that teacher candidates need to take an elective course aiming to enhance the positive teacher student relationship can be included in the preschool teacher training program. Conducting research on the relationship between students and teachers relationships may be essential in improving the outcomes of children in early childhood educational settings. Article visualizations: