Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the general trends of master dissertations written in Social Studies Education and performed in 2008-2014 years in terms of thematic and methodology. Document review was performed in study. The study group was included in all the master's thesis recorded at thesis database of Higher Education Council established in Turkey. Through this database, we obtained 423 theses to open access for the readers. For data analysis, descriptive analysis was used. Accordingly, firstly, 423 master thesis were classified into themes by study areas regarding social studies. Then, methodological processes such as the research method, the audience, the statistical and qualitative data analysis methods, and the studies of validity and reliability used in research were examined using frequency and percentile. The findings of this study indicate that the theme most studied is about Teaching Practices; the research method most used is survey method; as the audience, theses mostly rely on middle school students. It reveals also an evidence that expert opinion was employed for validation and Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated for reliability at most. Furthermore, findings display that researchers have used Parametric Difference Tests in their master thesis.
Highlights
The importance of universities in knowledge production is incontrovertible
How is the distribution of the master's theses prepared in the field of social studies teaching according to years?
The first sub-problem of the research consists of the question, "How is the distribution of the master's theses prepared in the field of social studies teaching according to years?" For the solution of the problem, 423 theses were reviewed and classified according to their themes and year of writing
Summary
The importance of universities in knowledge production is incontrovertible. Universities are institutions that produce and disseminate the knowledge that people will take advantage of. Rapid development and complicating nature of knowledge in its historical process are accompanied by increasing specialization in disciplines In this mission of specialization, academics and researchers conduct postgraduate educational activities for the development of high-quality manpower. Rapid establishment of new universities has been increasing the specialization rates in higher education. For these reasons, postgraduate education plays an active role in the social, cultural, economic and intellectual development of a country. Postgraduate education plays an active role in the social, cultural, economic and intellectual development of a country In this respect, establishing the postgraduate education system well, and solving the problems encountered in postgraduate education are considerably important [11]
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