Perceptions of Early Childhood Preservice Teachers on Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program Courses

Early childhood Undergraduate program Preservice teachers General culture courses Pedagogical knowledge courses Content knowledge courses The purpose of the study was to find out the contribution of general culture (GC), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK) courses to the professional development of preservice teachers in early childhood education programs. As a part of a mix-method research study, this survey uses a rank-order judgment methodology. Using a two-stage-cluster and random sampling 432 students from 35 universities participated in the study during the 2018-2019 academic year. Data were gathered using an “Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program Course Evaluation Form” and analyzed using pairwise comparison. With reference to the results, “Effective Communication” was chosen as the most beneficial one among the GC courses, and “Statistics” was selected as the least beneficial course. In addition, among the PK courses, “Teaching Practice I” was the most beneficial one, and “Assessment and Evaluation” was the least helpful course related to student perceptions. While the “Introduction to Early Childhood Education” course was the most beneficial course among the CK, “Research Project II” was listed as the least beneficial course. It was found that students’ opinions about courses did not change concerning their gender, academic achievement, and the type of high school they had attended. Article Info: Received Accepted Published : 08-09-2021 : 05-04-2022 : 18-06-2022


Introduction
Economic issues such as the effective use of the available resources of countries and the creation of new resources are directly related to the quality of human resources. Increasing the quality of human resources is only possible with quality education (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2017;. Therefore, education contributes not only to the development of individuals but also to the development of societies. Teacher training is a process that has been worked on since the existence of formal education systems and is shaped by different perspectives in different periods in line with the political, economic, and social expectations of countries. Similarly, until today, teacher training in Turkey has been shaped by different institutions and introduced in different formats considering society's needs after the Republic's proclamation. Since the key to quality education is the teacher, teacher training programs should be carefully and thoroughly considered. The previous literature has shown that teacher training program quality is directly related to teacher quality (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005;Darling-Hammond, 2006), and teacher education programs have a profound impact on preservice teachers' learning, as well as the learning of children in schools from kindergarten to high school (Diez, 2010). Teacher knowledge and teaching expertise acquired in these programs have a good potential of impacting students' learning at all levels. With the understanding of the importance of teachers' roles in the quality of education (OECD, 2011;World Bank, 2011), efforts to increase their quality have gained momentum in Turkey, as well as in the rest of the world (Borko, 2004;İlğan, 2013;Lasley, Siedentop, & Yinger, 2006;Ministry of National Education [MoNE], 2017;OECD, 2005) The importance of teacher quality, as one of the critical tenets of quality education, is not limited to the quality of educational outcomes. Teachers also play a crucial role in helping children overcome poverty, lack of parental support, integration into school, and other obstacles they may face (Havik & Westergård, 2020). In other words, reaching educational reforms' goals can be fulfilled by having high-quality teachers in the workforce (Loeb, Rouse, & Shorris, 2007).
Another crucial dimension of a quality teacher program is its structure. Research points to the importance of combining theory and practice to complement each other and structuring both domains in a balanced way (Beck, Kosnik, & Rowsell, 2007;Nahal, 2010). Similarly, Darling-Hammond (2006) describes some of the standard features of quality teacher education programs. All coursework and clinical experiences should create a coherent learning experience, and coursework and clinical work should be guided and evaluated by well-defined frameworks or standards. Moreover, Yıldırım (2011) suggests that teacher education programs should contain both content and pedagogy, support practice with theory, and be able to establish effective collaboration with schools.
Since 1998, Turkey has used centralized teacher education programs in all education fields and levels-with some minor variance. Later, in 2006 and 2018, the Higher Education Council (HEC) revised and updated these programs. In this regard, as a part of this centralized structure, the early childhood education undergraduate program was revised and updated in 2006 and 2018, and 2013.

The Past and the Present of early childhood pre-service teacher education programs in Turkey
In Turkey, early childhood teacher training is a new field in terms of high school, secondary school, and primary school levels; teacher training for early childhood levels was first discussed at the 10 th National Education Council on 23-26 June 1981(MoNE, 1981. At this meeting, some of the decisions agreed upon included the improvement of the access to early childhood education, development of an early childhood education curriculum, preparation of handbooks, organization of in-service training for early childhood teachers, and evaluation of teacher training resources. At the 12th National Education Council (18-22 June 1988), it was decided that early childhood education in higher education programs (pre-school and kindergarten) should continue to provide education for two years (MoNE, 1988). At the 14th National Education Council, committees and subcommittees were established to determine the definition, scope, importance, dissemination, material supply, and teacher training of early childhood education; it was also decided that universities initiate program development studies for training early childhood pre-service teachers and start opening practice schools within their premises (MoNE, 1993). In 1997, departments and programs for early childhood pre-service teachers were extended to a 4-year education period for the first time within the scope of the general restructuring of the HEC, and early childhood education departments were subsequently established (HEC Executive Board Decision Dated 04 November 1997, Number 97.39.2761).
The first early childhood education undergraduate program was introduced in 1998. In order to graduate from this initial program, 146 credits, 51 courses, and a total of 120 hours of theory and 58 hours of practical courses had to be completed. In addition, the program included practice courses in the 2nd, 6th, and 7th semesters, and the teaching practice course was included in the 8th semester (HEC, 1998a;1998b). After restructuring teacher undergraduate programs in 2006, early childhood education was included in the department of primary education, and the undergraduate program of 1998 was updated. This program included courses that fell under three main categories: general knowledge (GC), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK). This course categorization has been preserved in all programs until today. The updated program of 1998 included 57 courses: 127 hours of theoretical courses and 48 hours of practical courses had to be taken to graduate with 151 credits. Practice courses were limited to one semester (5th semester), and teaching practice courses were offered in 2 semesters at the 7th and the 8th semesters (HEC, 2006). In 2013, the undergraduate program was revised within the scope of the Strengthening Pre-School Education Project. In this program, 61 courses were included, and, for 163 national credits, 139 hours of theory and 49 hours of practical courses had to be completed. The practice course was included in the 6th semester, but there was no change regarding teaching practice courses in the 7th and 8th semesters. As a result of the 2018 program update, the early childhood education undergraduate program was updated with all other pre-service teacher education programs (HEC, 2018). There were 59 courses in the updated program. With reference to the program structure, pre-service teachers were able to graduate by earning 141 national credits in return to complete 134 hours of theoretical courses and 14 hours of practical courses. The teaching practice courses remained the same, but the school experience course was removed from the program (HEC, 2006;. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the course hours by area across four early childhood education undergraduate programs in Turkey.

Figure 1. The Comparison of the Course Hours at Four Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Programs
It is evident that there has been a steady decrease in practice hours (from 58 hours to 14 hours) in early childhood education undergraduate programs over the years. Similarly, the hours and number of CK course hours decreased to the minimum in the 2018 program, while the number and hours of PK courses increased. This trend shows that the balance between theory and practice (Nahal, 2010) and content and pedagogy (Yıldırım, 2011) have diminished over the years. Considering that the changes in the number and hours of the GC/PK/CK courses and practice course hours affect the quality of education in teacher training programs, we believe that learning the opinions and needs of preservice teachers will be helpful to guide new program changes.
Teacher training programs need to undergo constant change to effectively address the needs of a changing society and be evaluated to understand whether they produce highquality teachers. In the literature, stakeholder opinions are considered critical components in curriculum development studies (Akpınar, 2012;Brooker & Macdonald, 1999;Demirel, 2007). On the other hand, it is stated that there are disruptions in ensuring stakeholder participation in the curriculum development process in countries with a central education system like Turkey (Evin-Gencel, 2017). Another critique is that sufficient information is not shared about the opinions collected from the stakeholders in previous curriculum development studies in Turkey (Çobanoğlu & Yıldırım, 2021). The HEC (2018) acknowledged that stakeholder opinions were received during the 2018 undergraduate program revision process, but there was no methodological explanation in the program document. The present study sheds light on student perceptions to fill this gap, students being one of the key stakeholders in the curriculum development process.
Teachers' personal characteristics such as age, gender, academic achievement, and socioeconomic status constitute a different dimension of teacher quality. The literature argues that there is a relationship between teachers' demographic data and their attitudes towards the teaching profession. Tannen (2001) stated that males and females have different ways of communicating during teaching and learning. Some studies have shown that males are more talented than females in learning mathematics and science (Spelke, 2005), and gender is a debatable issue regarding math and science (Navarro, Martin, & Gomez-Arizaga, 2022). The level of professional dedication of teachers is in favor of women in some studies (Apak, 2009) while it does not differ by gender in other studies (Kozikoğlu Özcanlı, 2020;Turhan, Demirli, & Nazik, 2012).
Some studies still present a need for further research about students' views on teacher training programs. For instance, Parylo, Süngü, and Ilgan (2015) noted that more research is required regarding the impact of university courses on preservice teachers' attitudes toward the teaching profession. Yıldırım (2011) argued that research on teacher education is limited and that there is a need for comprehensive studies in this area to guide the reconstruction of teacher training programs. In the present study, unlike many previous studies, the data were not collected from one teacher training program; rather, 35 early childhood teacher training programs in Turkey were involved in the data collection process. Moreover, at the time of the data collection, a new early childhood education undergraduate program was introduced by the HEC (2018), and it was put into action in Fall 2018. However, the participants in this study, fourth-grade preservice teachers, took courses in programs offered in 2006/2013. Therefore, the current study provides a good opportunity to evaluate whether the concerns of preservice teachers who underwent the old program courses had been addressed in the more recent 2018 program structure. In addition, the results are likely to be helpful for early childhood undergraduate departments that will update their programs after the HEC's authority transfer in 2020 to universities (HEC, 2020). Finally, most of the studies mentioned above are qualitative and do not allow for generalizations. Existing quantitative studies often examine students' opinions from a single university or from two to three schools. In this study, however, nationwide representative data were obtained and analyzed. Yazçayır and Yıldırım (2021) stressed that GC and CK courses should be analyzed comparatively. In this regard, courses in the early childhood education undergraduate program were analyzed as a whole and listed in order of importance within their groups. There was also an attempt to reveal the opinions of preservice teachers objectively. To address this, the following questions were asked and answered: 1. How do early childhood preservice teachers perceive the importance of GC, PK, and CK courses for their professional development?
2. Do the preservice teachers' perceptions regarding the importance of GC, PK, and CK courses vary by gender, academic achievement, and type of high school?

Method
This survey study is a part of mixed-method research. Survey studies are helpful to obtain the opinions of participants about a problem/issue or their knowledge, abilities, and attitudes (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012). In this study, fourth-year preservice teachers' opinions about the usefulness of the courses they took were obtained. In the study, the scaling methodology, based on rank-order judgments, was used to obtain the decision-maker's decisions. For scaling based on ordering judgments, the situation or feature to be measured is ranked from the highest to lowest or lowest to highest in reference to a predetermined feature (Turgut & Baykul, 1992). In this method, the observers performing the ordering consider the situation or feature as a whole, compare each situation and feature with others, and provide a numbered rank. In this way, the situation or feature is converted into a composite standard against which each situation or feature is compared. Scaling values are obtained by comparing the numbers given to each situation or feature with this composite standard (Turgut & Baykul, 1992).

Sample
The population of this research consists of 4,846 fourth-grade preservice teachers studying early childhood education at public universities in Turkey during the 2018-2019 academic year. A two-stage random sampling strategy was employed. In the first stage, a cluster random sampling method was used as the sampling method. In the cluster random sampling method, groups rather than individuals are randomly selected; this is convenient when random selection of individuals is not feasible (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012). In this regard, 35 universities were randomly selected as clusters from 56 state universities with early childhood education undergraduate programs from 12 regions according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) I of TURKSTAT. Since the observation unit was preservice teachers, in the second stage, a random sampling method was used to reach the fourth-grade preservice teachers. The data gathering tools were delivered in electronic form and class environment to the 4th-grade preservice teachers with the help of their heads of department. Feedback was provided from 858 of 2,529 preservice teachers studying in the 35 universities (33.9% response rate); however, 432 (17% response rate overall) were used for data analysis after a data cleaning process. Almost half of the data were not used due to missing data or because the data extracted were not from 4th-grade preservice teachers. Table 1 shows the demographical data of these preservice teachers whose data was used. Early childhood education is a field of teaching in which females are more significant in number, and 87.5% of the participants in this study are female pre-service teachers. In general, the academic achievement of the participants is high. In terms of the high school type, most of the participants were high school graduates. The participating pre-service teachers' average age was 22 years and three months. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the 432 pre-service teachers by universities.

Figure 2. Distribution of the Sample by Universities
The participants mostly attended İnönü University, Afyon Kocatepe University, and Dokuz Eylül University, while the participation rate was the lowest for Çanakkale 18 Mart University, Adıyaman University, Anadolu University, and Sakarya University in the study. Seventy-four out of 432 preservice teachers studied in 9 universities that opened after 2000, while the rest of the preservice teachers were studying in universities that opened earlier.

Data Collection Tool
The Early Childhood Education Undergraduate Program Course Evaluation Form, developed by the researchers, was used as the data collection tool. The form consists of 20 questions in total: 8 questions on demographical characteristics, three questions on the ordering/ranking of GC, PK, and CK courses (including all the courses in the program), 4 questions about the specification of some features (e.g., a course should be in the program or a course should be removed from the program) about the courses, and five open-ended questions allowing participants to write their reasons. The form was sent to 5 experts who have doctoral degrees in early childhood education to gather their opinions on content validity. According to the views of the experts, no changes were made in the course ranking section. Still, additions were made to the demographic information section, and terminology changes were made to the open-ended questions. Afterward, the data collection process was initiated. Afyon Kocatepe Üniv.

Data Collection Process
Ethics Committee approval was obtained on April 17, 2018, with decision No. 973 from the university affiliated with the researchers. However, the data collection was carried out between April-June 2019 due to issues related to the online data gathering tool. In the process, an online link was sent by e-mail to the heads of the early childhood education departments. In addition, a printed data gathering form was sent to 2 universities upon their request. Preservice teachers were asked to rank their favorite courses among GC, PK, and CK courses separately, starting from the 1st rank. In addition, the open-ended questions were obtained but not used in the current study.

Data Analysis
The data were analyzed using the scaling method based on rank-order judgments. In the analysis, the pairwise comparison method was used in full order, and the calculations were made over the fifth situation equation, the third situation equation, and the full data matrix. In the first stage of the analysis, the rank frequencies matrix, which shows how many times the courses given under three different groups were placed by the preservice teachers, was created separately. The n (Sji > Ski) frequencies matrix was calculated with the help of the n (Sji > Ski) = fji.(fk < i+1/2.fki) equation for each rank frequency in the Ordinal Frequencies matrix (Turgut & Baykul, 1992). These matrices were then divided by the column sums for each frequency matrix by N2 = 432, and by substituting the relevant elements of the matrix, the ratio matrix (P Matrix) was then obtained. Following this, the z values in the unit normal distribution corresponding to each element in the ratio matrix were collected, and the unit normal deviations matrix (zjk) was found. In the bottom row of the unit deviation matrix, the values of each column were summed up, and the mean of each z value in this column across the columns was calculated to obtain the scale values (Sj) of each course. The minimum scale value is added to all scale values to make the minimum scale value equal to zero. As a result, all scale values (Sc) are reduced to an equally ranged linear dimension with a starting point of zero (Kara & Gelbal, 2013). The scale values of three courses for each independent variable category (gender, academic achievement, and high school type) were calculated separately.
Before interpreting the scaling findings, it is necessary to calculate whether they meet assumptions and internal consistency (Turgut & Baykul, 1992). Therefore, the error value was calculated, and its significance was tested with chi-square statistics. As a result of the analysis, the average error value was calculated as 0.00611 for GC courses, 0.01663 for PK courses, and 0.04663 for CK courses. The chi-square value calculated for the average error value was calculated as [χ 2 (df = 28, n = 432) = 4.396, p < .05] and the table value [χ 2 (df = 28, n = 432) = 41.337, p < .05] for GC courses; as [χ 2 (df =55, n = 432) = 67.835, p <.05] the table value [χ 2 (df = 55, n = 432) = 73.311, p <.05] for PK courses; as [χ 2 (df = 253, n = 432) = 1686.559, p <.05] and the table value was [χ 2 (df = 253, n = 432) = 291.101, p <.05] for CK courses. It was observed that the calculated chi-square value did not exceed the table value for the GC and PK courses for the 0.05 significance level and 28 and 55 degrees of freedom. However, it was also observed that the calculated chi-square value for the CK courses exceeded the table value for 253 degrees of freedom. According to these findings, the data, which is the basis for scaling, meet the assumptions of the 5th situation for the GC and PK courses. For the CK courses, scaling was made using the 3rd situation equation. These findings showed that internal consistency was achieved, and assumptions were met; they also validated the suitability of the scaling process.
After internal consistency was tested, scaling was first performed for the observers in the entire study group to cover each course cluster; then, by carrying out separate procedures for the independent variables of gender, academic achievement, and school type, scale values were calculated for each course cluster as well. The scale values are shown in tables and figures on an evenly ranged scale, allowing for the visual comparison of the significance levels of the features. In addition, the Spearman Rank Differences Correlation Coefficient was calculated to determine whether the courses differed in their ranking according to the scale values of courses based on the independent variables.

Results
In this part of the study, the course rankings of the fourth-grade preservice teachers enrolled in early childhood education programs during the 2018-2019 academic year are presented under the first subheading, followed by findings on whether these rankings differ by gender, academic achievement, and type of high school graduated from under the second subheading.

Perceptions of early childhood preservice teachers regarding the importance of GC, PK, and CK courses for their professional development.
The data linked to the 432 preservice teachers, who ranked the courses in terms of their significance, were scaled in full order with the pairwise comparisons method. Table 2 and Figure  3 show the findings of each course's scale value and order of significance according to the rank ordering requested from the preservice teachers.   Table 2 shows the courses in the order of the semester, and the last column shows the ranking of GC courses based on preservice teachers' perceptions of usefulness for their professional development. Figure 3, on the other hand, shows the order of the courses on an evenly ranged scale, and Effective Communication was found to be the most beneficial GC course by all preservice teachers by far. However, the Statistics course was considered the least helpful lesson by far. The remaining seven courses were close to each other on an evenly   Figure 4 show the findings related to scale value and significance order for each PK course.

. Representation of Ranking Judgments Scale Values of GC Courses on a Range Scale
In Table 3, although the PK courses are listed according to semesters, in the last column, the ranking of the courses by the candidate teachers was given according to the order of usefulness; Figure 4 shows the order on the evenly ranged scale. In the opinion of the preservice teachers, Teaching Practice I was the most helpful course compared to the other courses, including the two other practice courses. In contrast, the Assessment and Evaluation course was perceived as the least beneficial course by far. Among the remaining courses, the School Experience and Teaching Practice II courses were evaluated as the 2nd and 3rd most valuable courses with similar results. On the other hand, the Guidance and Special Education courses share the 2nd and 3rd places among the least beneficial courses, and the remaining teacher education courses are positioned at a similar distance. Table 4 and Figure 5 show the findings related to scale value and significance order for CK in each course. Tech. &Mat. Des.

Science Special
Teach. Meth.

Psychology
Teach.  Concerning Table 4 and Figure 5, the most beneficial CK courses are Introduction to Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Development I courses, respectively. The Psychology course ranks third. The Research Project II course was evaluated as the least beneficial course by far. According to Figure 5, CK courses were gathered into five groups regarding their rank scores. In the first group, there are the top two beneficial courses; the second group includes six courses such as Psychology, Early Childhood Education, and Development I; the upper middle group is next with four courses such as Children's Literature and Mathematics Education; the lower middle group includes nine courses, including Parent Education, Science Education, Music Education I-II; the remaining group is made up of the least beneficial courses, namely Research Project I-II, Primary Education Preparation, and Primary Education Programs. Perceptions of early childhood preservice teachers regarding the importance of GC, PK, and CK courses by gender, academic achievement, and type of high school. Table 5 shows the findings related to scale value and order of significance of GC courses for the independent variables of gender, academic achievement, and school type. Statistics 0.000 9 0.000 9 0.000 9 0.000 9 0.000 9 0.000 9 The consistency between the scale values was examined to test whether the independent variables affect the GC course rankings of the preservice teachers; the Spearman Rank Differences Correlation Coefficient was then calculated, and the values showed that for gender (rs = 0.967; p <0.01), academic achievement (rs = 0.933; p <0.01), and high school type (rs = 0.967; p <0.01), there was a high consistency among scale values. Therefore, it can be concluded that preservice teachers' gender, academic achievement, and high school type do not affect their ranking in the GC courses. As in Table 2, Effective Communication takes the first place as the most beneficial lesson in all groups, regardless of gender, academic achievement, or high school type. Once again, regardless of gender, grade, and type of school, Statistics was ranked as the least beneficial course. Educational philosophy and Educational Sociology courses seem to have changed places in some groups, but this is not a statistically significant difference. Table 6 shows the findings of the scale value and order of significance of the PK courses for the independent variables of gender, academic achievement, and school type.  The results for the PK courses showed that there was a high consistency among scale values for gender (rs = 0.874; p <0.01), academic achievement (rs = 0.972; p <0.01), and for high school type (rs = 0.993; p <0.01). Therefore, as with the results for the GC courses, there is no significant influence of gender, academic achievement, and type of high school on the ranking of the TP courses. The Practice I course remained the most useful course except for male preservice teachers' preference. On the other hand, Instructional Technologies and Material Design, Special Education, Guidance and Assessment, and Evaluation courses kept their rank in the bottom four places as the least beneficial courses. Table 6 shows that male preservice teachers' rankings differ compared to other groups but not in a statistically significant sense. Table 7 shows the findings related to CK course rankings for the independent variables of gender, academic achievement, and school type. The Spearman Rank Differences Correlation Coefficient showed that the values for gender (rs = 0.948; p < 0.01), academic achievement (rs = 0.970; p < 0.01), and high school type (rs = 0.990; p <0.01) had a high consistency among scale values for the CK courses. Therefore, it can be said that gender, academic achievement, and type of school do not affect the ranking of the CK courses. Regardless of gender, grade point average, and high school type, Introduction to Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Development I were the top two selections of the preservice teachers. At the same time, Research Project I, Preparation for Primary Education and Primary Education Programs, and Research Project II courses constituted the last three rows in terms of ranking.

Discussion
In this study, the views of early childhood preservice teachers regarding the usefulness of the courses they took in their programs for their professional development were investigated.
The Effective Communication course was clearly ranked first among the GC courses concerning the study's findings. Communication skills, a key asset in the 21st century (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009;Saavedra & Opfer, 2012;Voogt & Pareja Roblin, 2010), was also included in the MoNE Teacher Competencies as an essential competence that a teacher should have (MoNE, 2017). The rankings of the preservice teachers clearly show that preservice teachers value this course and have sufficient awareness of its necessity and importance. Ekinci and Kaya (2016) found that early childhood preservice teachers perceive communication, creativity, and aesthetics as critical aspects of teacher competency. Similarly, Şahin et al. (2013) found that Computers, Effective Communication, and History of Atatürk and Revolutions courses were the three most effective courses. On the other hand, in the 2018 undergraduate program, the Effective Communication course was removed from the compulsory course pool and replaced with a selective course pool under the name Human Relations and Communication. Based on the results of this study, it may be necessary to reconsider whether this course should be offered as a mandatory course in teacher training programs.
The results showed that the Statistics course took the last place by far among GC courses. In a study conducted with mathematics preservice teachers, it was observed that the Statistics course was not favored very much by candidates because they had difficulty comprehending the subjects (Aydın & Sevimli, 2019). In a qualitative study conducted with primary school preservice mathematics teachers, the participants did not view the Research Methods course as necessary in the undergraduate program (Akgün, 2012). Considering the current study results and other similar studies, since these courses do not have content specific to early childhood education or the relevant program, they may be evaluated as useless by preservice teachers. If the content of these courses was related to the students' field who took the classes, their perceptions of these courses might change. It may also be necessary for the instructors of these courses to clearly explain why it is essential for preservice teachers to learn statistics and research methods and how these courses may benefit students in their future roles as teachers and school administrators. The Community Service course, the only course containing practical content among the general culture courses, ranked 4th in the entire group and all subgroups except in terms of male pre-service teacher choice. There are contrasting views regarding female-male teacher perceptions towards this course. Yılmaz and Arslan (2016) found that female preservice teachers have more positive perceptions of the Community Service course. Still, Elma, Kesten, Kıroğlu, Uzun and Dicle (2010) found that gender was not a statistically significant variable regarding the preservice teachers' perception of the Community Service course. The current study found no statistical difference between male and female preservice teachers, although the ranking was lower (5th vs. 4th) for the male preservice teachers. Given these inconsistent findings in the literature, the differences between the perceptions of male and female preservice teachers about teacher education courses and the sources of the differences -if there are any -should be studied further in future research.
Preservice teachers should have reliable pedagogical knowledge, as well as content awareness and an understanding of general culture (Küçükahmet, 1986;Shulman, 1987). In the current study, the Teaching Practice I, School Experience, and Teaching Practice II courses were ranked the top 3 most beneficial PK courses. Similarly, Şahin et al. (2013) found that early childhood education preservice teachers ranked Teaching Practice I-II and School Experience as the three most effective teacher education courses. The results of the current study and the literature indicate that early childhood preservice teachers have a clear preference for the courses that are more closely related to practice in pedagogical knowledge. On the other hand, starting from 1998, there has been a steady decrease in teaching practice hours in early childhood undergraduate programs in Turkey. Both preservice teachers and academicians previously emphasized this problem (Ulubey & Tican Başaran, 2019). In one study, preservice teachers stress the inadequacy of the hours of teaching practice courses in their undergraduate program (Yıldız-Altan, Ulutaş, & Demiriz, 2018). Furthermore, academicians in early childhood education criticized the 2018 ECE undergraduate program's decreased practice hours for most of the courses and removal of the School Experience course from the program (Tican Başaran & Aykaç, 2020). The quality of these courses is yet another concern, as studies found that the content and implementation of these courses need to be improved (Aslan & Sağlam, 2018;Şimşek, Alkan, & Erdem, 2013;Tonga & Tantekin-Erden, 2021). In this regard, it is essential to point out that early childhood departments that will renew their undergraduate programs may consider increasing practice-based pedagogical content courses in their curriculum and offering better and additional practice hours for their students.
In this study, Assessment and Evaluation, Guidance, and Special Education courses were ranked lowest in beneficial courses. Similarly, Yalçın and Şengül Avşar (2014) found that Special Education and Assessment and Evaluation courses were found to be in the lower rankings in terms of their significance for preservice teachers. Assessment and evaluation are important content that may help teachers adapt curriculum and instructional approaches to students' needs and determine the overall effectiveness of programs and classroom practices; guidance courses may help teachers support children's developmental needs to achieve complete development and life-long learning. On the other hand, the Special Education course is another crucial course that needs to be included in every PK and CK course as sub-content rather than as a limited and standalone course. The reason why preservice teachers do not perceive these courses as useful may be explained differently. One explanation may be that these three essential PK courses are not offered beneficially in teacher training programs. This may be because their departments may not have a sufficient number of academic staff specialized in these areas, and unqualified instructors offer these courses. Also, there may be a need to differentiate the content of these courses for early childhood education as preservice teachers may have difficulty making connections between the course content and their study area. In which semester these courses are offered in teacher education programs may also be a factor influencing preservice teachers' perceptions of the significance of courses. For example, in the 2018 program, the Special Education and Mainstreaming course was offered in the last semester, and two different content types were merged into a limited 2-hour course without any opportunity for practice. It may be more effective to present this crucial content to preservice teachers in previous semesters and allow them to practice so that preservice teachers acquire core knowledge before starting their classroom practicum.
In the category of CK courses, the Introduction to Early Childhood Education course was ranked first and the Early Childhood Development and Education I course was ranked second. These courses, in which preservice teachers begin learning about their profession, are important for them to develop positive attitudes toward early childhood education. Similarly, in Bartan's (2019) study, early childhood preservice teachers stated that, during their practicums, introduction to early childhood education and early childhood development courses were the courses they benefitted from most in the whole undergraduate education program. On the other hand, in Şahin et al.'s (2013) study, these courses had middle ranks, whereas the Drama, Mother-Child Health and First Aid, and Music courses were found in the upper ranks. However, it must be noted that this study was conducted only in a single university, and the results may be attributed to the specific context of the university observed. The literature indicates that how lecturers implement a course dramatically affects the success of any course (Dereobalı & Ünver, 2009;Peker Ünal, 2017;Üstün, Erkan, & Akman, 2004). The results of the studies carried out in a single university may largely be influenced by how preservice teachers perceive the academic personnel of that institution; therefore, the results of such studies should be interpreted carefully.
The findings obtained from the current research suggest that preservice teachers benefit from such intro courses in the program; therefore, during program revision processes, the intensity of these courses should be maintained and even increased according to the HEC authority transfer decision of 2020 (HEC, 2020). Different from other studies in the literature, the Psychology course ranked in 3rd place in terms of usefulness leaving the Early Childhood Development II course behind among the CK courses. However, in Bartan's (2019) study, the Psychology course was found to be among the courses considered inefficient in terms of professional preparation and content according to preservice teachers. Similarly, Şahin et al. (2013) found that the Psychology course came in 9th place in terms of its benefits for the profession among the CK courses. The Psychology course in the early childhood education undergraduate program included topics such as philosophical foundations of psychology, child psychology, sub-branches of psychology, developmental psychology, and learning psychology. In the 2018 program, this course was removed from the program, but it can be considered beneficial and added to programs again because preservice teachers acquire some essential information through the course.
In relation to CK courses, the least beneficial courses were the Research Project I-II courses and the Preparation for Primary Education and Primary Education Programs course. In the literature, there are contrasting results regarding the usefulness of the research project courses. In some studies, preservice teachers stated that the Research Project course was a waste of time and included unnecessary topics (Bartan, 2019;Cengiz & Karataş, 2014), but in another study, the preservice teachers found this course necessary because it allowed them to follow the developments in the field more closely and acquire knowledge about research methods (Ersoy & Çengelci, 2008). Additional studies found preservice teachers had both positive and negative perceptions of these courses (Eti & Gündoğdu, 2016;Şahin et al. 2013). Considering the entire catalog of CK courses, it could be interpreted that these courses are not perceived as courses that prepare future teachers for the teaching profession; conversely, preservice teachers would rather learn drama, science, or math content to instruct children. To this end, in the 2018 program, the Research Project I-II courses were excluded. Another interesting finding of the study is that, compared to other studies in the literature (Bartan, 2019;Dereobalı & Ünver, 2009;İnce, 2019;Şahin et al., 2013), the Human Anatomy and Physiology course was not ranked in the bottom. This result might be because a sample from different universities was involved in the current study, which is likely to eliminate lecturer bias, as discussed previously. However, the course was removed from the 2018 program. This finding shows that curriculum development or revision processes need careful planning and execution and consideration of broader participation of preservice teachers in the decision-making regarding course inclusions/exclusions.
Regarding the second research question of the study, the opinions of preservice teachers did not change regarding gender, academic achievement, and the type of high school they had graduated from. The literature is very limited regarding the influence of demographical characteristics on the views regarding the significance of the courses. However, in a study, which used a similar methodology, Yalçın and Şengül Avşar (2014) found that the rankings of CK courses differed in terms of gender. Although the current study's findings reveal small differences, they are not statistically significant. Therefore, there is a need for future research on the sources of preservice teachers' perceptions regarding the importance of courses in teacher education programs. This study falls short in explaining why some courses are perceived as important and some are viewed as less critical.

Conclusion and Recommendations
This study examined fourth-year early childhood preservice teachers' opinions regarding the usefulness of the courses they took in their teacher training programs. In this context, we believe that the results obtained from 432 preservice teachers from 35 universities could be a guideline for policymakers and curriculum development processes of universities.
The opinions of preservice teachers, who are among the most critical stakeholders in the program development process, should be reflected in the program development/revision process (Kahramanoğlu, 2017). In this regard, the results of this study might have the potential to further integrate the voice of preservice teachers. The results also show that preservice teachers are more likely to value courses that are related to practice rather than focusing on theoretical courses. However, we believe that, regardless of the demographic characteristics, the preservice teachers' agreement on effective and ineffective courses could make it easier to decide which courses to exclude from the programs and which courses to maintain and strengthen in teacher education.
As in every scientific study, there are some limitations of this study, and the results should be evaluated considering these limitations. The present work included public university students, so private university students' views were not reflected. Although they were part of the PK course curriculum, the Turkish Education System and School Management courses were not included in the study as it they were compulsory in some undergraduate programs and optional in others. Scaling studies are generally conducted in the order of 8 to 10 items and, as the number of items increases, the reliability of the scaling decreases. In this study, GC (9 items) and PK (12 items) courses were scaled using fifth situation-higher accuracy, while CK (24 items) courses were scaled using third situation-lower accuracy. In this context, the margin of error may be higher for the rankings of the CK courses. For this reason, it is recommended that careful attention should be given to evaluating the rankings of this group.
Students are essential stakeholders of curriculum development studies, and this study attempted to highlight the voices of early childhood preservice teachers in terms of improving teacher education programs.