Ilkokul Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The aim of Social Sciences education programs is to comprehend accurately the basic concepts of the
unit of Science, Technology and Society, created by a multi-disciplinary approach, which is part of Social
Sciences education programs. In accordance with the principles of the constructivist approach, new
social studies curriculum prepared in 2004 underlines the need to consider prior knowledge and conceptual
perceptions related to the concept of the curriculum (MEB TTKB, 2005, Yılmaz, 2013: 453).
It is important to know what are the concepts in the basis of all thinking skills forming the basic building
blocks of the cognitive structure of the individual in terms of ensuring meaningful and permanent learning
(Malatyalı & Yilmaz, 2010: 321). As we examine the students’ perspectives of technology in the base
of concepts, it will be useful to look at the definition of the concept. Concept, as definition, means mental
structure representing individual’s organized knowledge belonging to anything such as object, event,
action, quality, and relation (Klausmeier, 1992: 268). At the same time, it is an abstract and overall design
of an object in mind; as for philosophical meaning it is an abstract thought covering the basic elements
and the characteristics of the event, and gathering under a common term (TDK Büyük Sözlük,
2008).
The concept of technology has created the perception differences between generations. The youths’
outlook on the concept and use of technology were found to be different from elderly people, and to
vary in terms of use. As the impact of humans on the technology increases, the social structure, accordingly,
begins to change rapidly. In particular, communicative dimension of technology has been observed
to be more effective than other areas (Musarurw in 2011: 960; Ata, 2008: 10).
From this frame, in teaching the target concepts of science, technology and society unit, we need research
findings revealing their levels of perception regarding the concept of technology used by the students
in their daily life. This study was done to reveal the perceptions of the students emphasized very
often in the education of the 4th grade students in which they call “fortunately technology exists”.
The method of phenomenology, a qualitative research design, was used for the purposes of research and
sub-problems design (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2012). The data obtained was carried out under "content
analysis" model. The main purpose in content analysis is to achieve the concepts and relations to explain
the data obtained as a result of the study. Content analysis makes it sense the raw data obtained, forms a
certain frame and makes the codes and categories objective (Patton, 2002).
Research data were obtained through the participants completing the statements of “Fortunately there
is...... ”; “because ….. is useful / beneficial " . In analysing the data, we formed a tentative list of all the
concepts formed, and analysed as to whether they state a certain concept clearly. Examining all the concepts
and rationale, we identified common characteristics and revealed categories thought to represent
them using literature.
As a result of the study, the 4th grade students were observed to develop 65 concepts under 10 themes
for the statements of “fortunately there is”. When we thematise these concepts, they fell into 10 themes
for the purpose of technology, education, household, health, transportation, communication, production,
invention, entertainment, personal needs. Students appear to be dependent on technological devices. For example, a student’s statement of "we
could not have cooked without oven” may be an indication that they are dependent on the existing
technological tool at home. Batur & Uygun (2010) thinks that technological developments should be
followed, that technology causes addiction, and that overuse of technological tools makes a lot of people
lazy. Likewise, in our study technology was found to make people dependable. In addition, it is clear
that the students like technological tools as they provide convenience for their lives. Because the students
stated that the dishwasher and washing machine make their lives easier and they do house work
without getting tired
Today technology develops faster than the past and impress those using it (Sezer, 2011: 10; Miller et al.,
2012: 243; Aksal, 2011: 70). Consistent with previous studies (Common Sense Media, 2011; Lenhart, 2012;
Rideout et al., 2010), the results show that children and adolescents are keen to use media and to adopt
new technologies early. Students often use Internet to do their homework quickly and to learn something
they do not know. Mostly, they also use it to play games. The reason why children are dependable
on technological items may be that the parents spend their time for media use and they are more open to
screen use, more indulgent to create a family media environment (Lauricella, 2013: 121).
Batur & Uygun(2010) have concluded that young individuals are inclined to using technology compared
to elderly people in terms of technological perspevtive. We found out that our students also intertwined
with technology and they use technology at every stage of their lives.