Ilköğretim ikinci kademe sosyal bilgiler öğretim programı ve uygulanması hakkında öğretmen görüşleri

2006–2007 Öğretim yılından itibaren Türkiye genelinde uygulamaya konulan ilköğretim ikinci kademe Sosyal Bilgiler Öğretim Programı’nın “yapılandırmacı” öğretim ve öğrenme yaklaşımını esas aldığı ifade edilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, yapılandırmacı yaklaşım esas alınarak hazırlanmış yeni Sosyal Bilgiler Öğretim Programı ve bu programa uygun olarak hazırlanmış ders kitapları ile eğitim öğretim faalyetlerini sürdüren öğretmenlerin yeni program ve uygulaması hakkındaki bilgi, deneyim, görüş ve önerilerini ortaya koyarak iyi örneklerin paylaşılmasına; problem ve aksaklıkların da teşhis edilerek giderilmesi yönünde önlemler alınmasına yardımcı olmaktır. Çalışmada önce Türkiye’de Cumhuriyet’in kuruluşundan yakın döneme kadar gerçekleştirilmiş olan program değişikliklerinin kısa bir tarihçesi ele alınmıştır. Yapılandırmacı yaklaşım ve bu yaklaşıma göre hazırlanan sosyal bilgiler öğretim programının temel nitelikleri tartışılan bir diğer husustur. Ayrıca, yeni sosyal bilgiler öğretim programının değerlendirilmesine yönelik olarak yapılan araştırmalar ve bu araştırmaların sonuçları da bu kapsamda incelenmiştir. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak, nitel yöntem esas alınarak hazırlanan bir yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme formu kullanılmıştır. Sosyal bilgiler öğretmenleri ile gerçekleştirilen mülakatlardan elde edilen veriler, fenomenografik içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Elde edilen bulgular, yeni programın öğretmenler tarafından genel olarak olumlu karşılandığını göstermektedir. Başta ölçme-değerlendirme etkinlikleri olmak üzere yeni programın öğretmenler tarafından anlaşılıp uygulanmasında çeşitli sorunlar yaşandığı da araştırma bulguları arasındadır.

Sosyal bilgiler öğretim programı ,

Yapılandırmacı yaklaşım ,

Sosyal bilgiler öğretmenlerinin görüşleri ,

The current Social Studies Curriculum has put into use in all Turkish schools in 2006-2007 academic year. It is claimed that the new upper-primary Social Studies Curriculum, which was started to be practiced by the teachers in all schools in Turkey in 2006-2007 academic year, is based on a constructivist approach. Putting aside the traditional aim of education in Turkey that is mostly established on the purpose of memorizing facts; the main aim of this new curriculum is to raise students as individuals who are able to produce their own knowledge/information, to interpret the world around themselves, to improve their learning capabilities, to think critically and creatively, to solve the real world problems, to posses higher order thinking skills and to be able to adapt themselves to changing circumstances. However, it is assumed that pupils have already possessed or will be soon acquiring the cognitive, emotional and physico-motor requirements set forth by the new curriculum. In addition, the question of whether do teachers, who are supposed to teach in accordance with this new curriculum, possess the necessary knowledge of the new curriculum and its theoretical basis, and require teaching skills is often neglected. Considering the current practice of upper-primary social studies teaching in which teachers have been applying the new constructivist curriculum and new textbooks that were written in accordance with this curriculum for over five years, this study aims to put teachers’ views forth in relation to the new curriculum and its practice. Through examinig the views of teachers, it is proposed to reveal their experiences and perspectives in order to show the problems and shortcomings of the new curriculum and its practice, and put forward their suggestions for improvement. Starting from the foundation of the republic, the historical background of the curriculum change in Turkey is examined first. Then, the theoretical basis of constructivist approach and the current social studies curriculum that has been prepared in accordance with this approach are discussed. Besides, research studies examining, discussing and evaluating the theoretical and practical dimensions of the newly introduced social studies curriculum are scrutinized. The relevant literature indicates that the attainment targets and suggested activities in the curriculum have been positively viewed by social studies teachers. However, those studies also reveal that most teachers are anxious and concerned about the requirements of the curriculum in relation with the suggested evaluation and measurement activities. In this study, a semi-structured interview schedule prepared in accordance with the qualitative research approach is used as a data collection tool. Interviews have been conducted with social studies teachers. NVivo qualitative analysis software was used to analyse the data collected through the semi-structured interviews. A phenomenographic content analysis process was used to analyse the interview data. The findings reveal that, despite the fact that they do not feel themselves confident enough about the theoretical basis and practical requirements of the constructivist approach, social studies teachers possess positive view points about the currently implemented curriculum in general. On the other hand, a group of the participants put negative view points about the introduction and implementation of the current curriculum. The reasons behind this perspective are the insufficient educational substructure and equipments in the schools and those theachers who are not willing to work more and not open to the change. Besides, they indicate several problems arising from the implementation of the new curriculum and other activities and study materials being prepared in accordance with them. According to the study findings, some of the problems arising from the curriculum are the intensive content knowledge, the lack of connections between study units and various topics, the inappropriate introduction of the content knowledge in some cases, the use of abstract concepts that are not suitable for pupils’ learning capacity and insufficient class-time and course materials. The problems arising from the practice of the new Erkan DİNÇ & Yasin DOĞAN 19 evaluation and measurement activities are viewed as the most problematic side of the curriculum by the participating teachers evaluation and measurement activities are viewed as the most problematic side of the curriculum by the participating teachers.

Social studies curriculum ,

Constructivist approach ,

Social studies teachers ,