Dördüncü ve Beşinci Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Sosyal Bilgiler Dersine İlişkin Görüşleri Views of the 4th and 5th Grade Students On Social Studies Course

Abstract

Primary education is quite important in terms of preparing children for life, and providing them with specific habits and skills. Students will reinforce, enrich, and use the skills and knowledge that acquired during primary education throughout their lives. Social Studies and Civic Education courses are quite important in teaching skills and knowledge to students that they use throughout their lives. Civic Education course is taught at the first, second and third grades, while Social Studies course is taught at the fourth and fifth grades of the primary school education. It is known that, with respect to their developmental characteristics children from first to fifth grade of the elementary level are in the concrete operational level. And beginning from the fifth grade, students pass into the formal operational period. These facts are also taken into consideration in preparation of relevant curricula. This research is a comparative case study utilizing survey method. Numerical values obtained with using quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used in the study. The population of the study consisted of 4th and 5th grade students studying at 8 primary education schools located in a number of towns of the Istanbul province. And the sample is composed of 559 students from total of 16 classrooms, 8 from among 4th grade and 8 from 5th grade, which were selected from the population using random sampling method, in the 2008-2009 school year. The quantitative data of the study were gathered through a questionnaire, while the qualitative data were obtained from open-ended questions that were asked to 40 students who selected randomly among students constituting the sample. Oral and written answers were obtained from open-ended questions. The data gathered through questionnaires were subjected to evaluation on computer environment. Percentage distributions of answers which were given to questionnaires were measured during the statistical analysis, and the data obtained from open-ended questions were subjected to content analysis. The data obtained from the content analysis were coded within the framework of specific categories. Then, the quantitative and qualitative data were tabularized and interpreted by comparison. It is also considered that this study, which aims to evaluate the Social Studies Curriculum that is based on constructivist approach on the fourth and fifth grade levels through views of students, will fill an important gap. Key words: Social Studies, students views, primary education.