Opinions of Primary School Teachers on The History Subjects in The 4 Th Grade Social Studies Curriculum, (original) (raw)
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Discussions on history teaching in Turkey indicate that the previous versions of the history curriculum and the pedagogy of history in the country bear many problems and deficiencies. The problems of Turkish history curriculum mainly arise from the perspectives it takes and the selection of its content. Since 2003, there have been extensive educational changes, including the alterations of primary social studies and secondary history curricula. The major goal of the preparation and projected practice of the new history curriculum is to overcome the problems and deficiencies of history teaching. This paper examines the documents of the new Turkish secondary school history curriculum and compares it with the previous state of history teaching in the country. A qualitative document analysis technique was employed to descriptively examine the content of the curriculum documents. It has been found out that most of the problems and deficiencies observed in the previous versions have still been existent in the current one.
Teachers’ Opinion Regarding History Contents in 5th Social Studies
Social studies is in the position of an important course that includes topics related to the discipline of social sciences such as geography, economics, sociology and history. History topics among these social science disciplines have a very important place in the social studies curriculum. It seems important to determine the opinions of the social studies teachers, the practitioners of this course, and their suggestions for this problem in order to increase the effectiveness of teaching of history topics in the social studies course. Thus, in the present study, it was aimed to analyze opinions of primary school teachers regarding the teaching of history topics in the 5th grade social studies. At the same time, in order to offer suggestions for teaching history topics effectively, this study is carried out. A survey method was used in this study. In the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis technique was used. Findings of this study indicated that the primary school social studies curriculum was not adequate, sufficient, and relevant. The history topics incorporated in the social studies curriculum were not intensive, the teaching hours were not adequate, the number of learning outcomes was high, and the concepts with which the most of students were not familiar. Accordingly, there was no integrity between the history topics. The topics were disjointed and no link could be established between them; besides, the chronological order was not followed and both teachers and students had difficulty in going through these topics. The number of historical places and museums to which they could take their students were limited and that they could not go to the historical places in the neighboring cities due to negative circumstances such as financial impossibilities, failure to acquire permits and climatic conditions. It was also understood that there were not historical personalities or elderly people accessible to them in their area. The methods that teachers use were not interested to the learner and that the classrooms were over crowed. At the same time assessment, procedures were also not defective from various perspectives.
Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 2017
The aim of this study is to determine the views of Turkish social studies teacher candidates about history lessons, as taught in the social studies teacher education program of the Faculty of Education at Karadeniz Technical University. Survey research based on a qualitative research methodology was used in this study. An open-ended questionnaire and semistructured interviews were used in the research as data collection instruments. 100 final-year teacher candidates participated in the questionnaire and 12 candidates were interviewed. The data collected showed that the history lessons they were taught did not provide them with enough benefits, because of insufficient time and because of teacher-centered approaches. Apart from this, more than half of the teacher candidates thought that the education they were given gave them adequate ability to teach history topics in the social studies curriculum effectively in social studies lessons when they became teachers. History lessons about Turkish history, especially the Seljuks, Ottomans and the Turkish Republic, were seen as the most important lessons. Teacher candidates thought that these lessons were important for transmitting knowledge of Turkish history and culture, which reflects the classic history teaching tradition in Turkey.
A Study of Students' Opinions About History Subjects in the Social Studies Curriculum
Social studies combines social sciences and the humanities, and has the purpose of raising effective citizens. There are many different areas integrated in social studies including history, geography, philosophy and psychology. Social studies is the presentation of the information produced by these areas in framework of a curriculum. Social studies curriculum is a multi-dimensional program. One of the objectives of this program is to raise individuals who know about their past and shape their future with the help of the lessons they learn from history. In this context, the aim of this study is to determine sixth grade students' perspective to the history subjects in social studies curriculum, learn the place of history in their lives and see how history subjects are taught in classrooms. This study is limited to the 2014-2015 academic year. The participants were identified using random sampling, a probability-based sampling method. This is a qualitative study. The study includes interviews with eight sixth graders, of whom four were female and four were male. The study data were collected in semi-structured interviews. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The study found that the students enjoyed learning history, had positive opinions about their history grades and their teachers continued to teach history using traditional methods. They also felt that history contributed to their lives. Based on the data collected, the study makes specific suggestions.
The Teaching of History in Secondary Schools
History subject is often seen as a boring subject. It has a lot of old facts that students find it difficult to memorize. This is the common complaint from secondary school students when asked about the History subject. This qualitative study is carried out to uncover the underlying reasons why History is seen as a boring subject. Methods such as observations, interviews and review of documents are used to gather the data. There are nine History teachers participated in this study. They have been observed, interviewed and the relevant documents were reviewed to find out their teaching approach and to identify the reasons for the approach to be implemented. The finding shows that these participants are using teacher-centred approach with conventional teaching activities and excessive used of the textbook. The main reason given for such teaching is the constraint of time. These teachers have to complete teaching the syllabus before the centralized exam being held. As a result of such teaching the values, especially the patriotic values, which was emphasized in the curriculum of this subject is last inculcated in the teaching. Based on the finding, it can be concluded that the examination is the underlying reason for the subject to be seen as a boring subject. These teachers do not have many options to change their approach of teaching History. Since the centralize examination is compulsory, therefore, teachers have to be creative and innovative in order to make the teaching of History more interesting for the students and the patriotic values can be inculcated. Keyword: Teaching History, Teacher-centred, Traditional Teaching, Conventional Teaching
This research aimed to identify the knowledge, attitude and skill levels of pre-service social studies teachers about using historical environment in teaching. Based on this aim it can be included in the scope of the survey research. Participants of the research which was realized in 2015-2016 academic year were 75 senior grade pre-service teachers in the department of social studies teaching of a university from the north of Turkey. In the research, qualitative approach was followed in data collection. A questionnaire including open-ended questions and semi-structured interview technique were used. The data were analyzed according to the content analysis method. As the result of the study, it was identified that pre-service social studies teachers had knowledge to a certain extent about the definition of the historical environment, elements of it, educational attainments it might provide and the method and techniques which can be applied to use it. Moreover, they did not have enough knowledge about the nearby historical environment. Furthermore, it was propounded that attitude levels of the participants about using historical environment in social studies teaching were high whereas the skill levels were low.
Just like it is the reflex of each nation to teach its own history to the next generations, it is essential that our country is also able to identify the sufficiency level of the Turkish history within the framework of developing a programme. Through this study, the parallelism between the social studies teaching programme within the education process and the textbooks and the instructors' views regarding the way the Turkish history subjects are presented and the discussion of solution suggestions about these issues is aimed. Towards this end, the opinions of the instructors of Social Studies have been taken. In the study, questionnaire technique is used, and it has been established that the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the scale is 0,89 (α = 0,89), and the results obtained from the scale have been analysed and interpreted through SPSS 15. The Social Studies teachers make up the universe of the study, and the instructors who teach 6th and 7th grade social studies in some towns of the city of Istanbul comprise the sample of the study, who were chosen by means of random method. According to the results of the study upon the views of the Social Studies teachers, it is realized that the textbooks of the Turkish history subjects and the way they are presented in the education programme and the methods and techniques employed in this issue are insufficient, and that the teachers fail to pay enough attention to benefiting from films, documentaries and various literary products throughout the education-teaching process. In the research, it is emphasized that students are particularly more interested in the history of the Ottoman Empire and the recent history, that the instructors are inadequate in terms of making use of the additional materials in the education-training processes, and that the textbooks fail to provide sufficient suggestions about the use of various teaching strategies in the education-teaching processes. In the textbooks, which are indispensable for the education-teaching processes, the materials that address the learning styles of students are not included sufficiently.
Analyzing the History Teaching Perceptıon Of Secondary Educatıon Students
knowledge and conscious for students. Every education strategy in that process needs to be student centered together with teaching. Determinig the perceptions of students towards history teaching has great importance to define the education strategies. The aim in that study is to define the perspectives of secondary education students towards history and history teaching and express the relation between the demographical characteristics and their perceptions towards history teaching of students. After a wide literature research about that aim, surveys were prepared and they were applied to 670 secondary education students in Seydiseehir district of Konya by using face to face conversation method in April and May 2013. The datas taken from the surveys were analyzed with SPSS 21.0 statistics programme. The study is thought to be useful because of defining the perspectives of secondary education students towards history and history teaching and shaping the strategies which run that process rationally.
Social studies and related courses have been taught in Turkey for years. In the last two decades, two reforms occurred in social studies education in 1998 and 2005. The aim of this study is to elicit social studies teachers’ perceptions about the changes brought by the 1998 and 2005 social studies curricular changes. Within the context of qualitative approach, this study used phenomenology, interviewing twelve social studies teachers who were teaching both 1998 and 2005 curricula in different public primary schools of Trabzon city center. The data were collected using a semi-standardized interview protocol. Participants were invited to the study by using a snowball strategy and the data were collected in the fall semester of 2011-2012 academic years. The collected data were analyzed using content analysis. The results of the study showed that contrary to the 1998 curriculum reforms, a majority of social studies teachers supported the 2005 curriculum except for presentation of historical and geographical subjects and they suggested some changes in in-service education to improve the quality of teaching the curriculum.