Views of 4-5-Year-Old Children with No Nursery or Kindergarten Experience about School*

To have a successful school life, a child must be able to make a healthy start to this period both socially and mentally. For this, children's views about school have a strong potential to affect their entire lives. The research aimed to examine the views of 4-5-year-old children who have not started any formal school yet. The study group consisted of 12 children aged between 4-5 years who have not started kindergarten from the province of Rize in Turkey. For the study; an open-ended, concentrated interview and drawing methods were applied with a small group. The data obtained from the group interviews with the children and the interpretation of the drawings were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. Based on the data, it was concluded that the family and the media are among the strong information sources of children about school and that positive features are frequently repeated. Negative features included crowding, rules, etc. The results also revealed that children who have no school experience and those who attend a pre-school education institution full-time have similar views about the school.