A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODS COURSE: EFFECTS OF A SMALL-SCALE RESEARCH PROJECT ON PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

Abstract

Selecting and applying appropriate research techniques, analysing data using information and communication technologies, transferring the obtained results of the analysis into tables and interpreting them are the performance indicators evaluated by the Ministry of National Education under teacher competencies. At the beginning of the courses that can meet pre-service teachers’ needs of these knowledge and skills, there is undoubtedly the course of scientific research methods. The scientific research methods course (SRMC) has an important mission in the upbringing of tomorrow's researcher pre-service teachers. However, this mission is not possible by considering only theoretical knowledge. At this point, practical-based the research project gains importance. The purpose of this study was to reveal the thoughts of pre-service teachers about a small-scale research project (SSRP) in the scope of a SRMC. The study was carried out with 61 pre-service teachers from the faculty of education of a state university in the north of Turkey. 32 of them were from the department of primary mathematics education and 29 studied in the department of Turkish language education. A five-point Likert-type questionnaire was administered and the participants’ responses were evaluated by means of a software for quantitative analysis. The results of the study revealed that doing a SSRP had many positive effects on the pre-service teachers. Indeed, the SSRP provided them the opportunity to transform the theoretical content of course into practice, to understand the nature of scientific research and respect for them, and to gain the courage to do scientific research and to pursue graduate education. Article visualizations: