Perceptions of Private School Geography Teachers Towards the New Secondary School Geography Curriculum in Turkey

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the applicability of the new geographycurriculum in geography lessons which was developed in 2005. A survey formincluding 18 questions in eight different sections was sent to private highschools all over Turkey at the end of the 2007-2008 education year. The surveywas responded by 75 geography teachers who were working at 52 different highschools located in 29 provinces. As the study revealed, majority of the teachersaccept the changes made on geography curriculum in 2005 as a positive step.However, as majority of the teachers indicated, they had been facing challengesto implement the new curriculum in their lessons due to various reasons rangingfrom the curriculum and textbooks to insufficiency of physical conditions atschools. As concluded in the study, topics like curriculums, textbooks, inserviceteacher education, physical conditions at schools, and supplementaryeducation materials should be considered together to improve geographyeducation