Virtual Museums from the Perspective of Social Studies Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the perspectives of pre-service social studies teachers on virtual museums. The research employed a case study, one of the qualitative research designs. The study group consists of thirty pre-service teachers enrolled in a state university's Department of Social Studies Education, Faculty of Education. Individual online interviews were conducted with each participant using a semi-structured interview form. The method of content analysis was used to analyze the research data, and the data gathered from the research were presented with their frequencies using diagrams incorporating themes, sub-themes- themes, and codes. As a result of the research, Social Studies pre-service teachers who stated that they may encounter technical, virtual environment-related, teacher or student-related problems while using virtual museums suggested that virtual museum applications should be adapted to the level of students in terms of the effective use of virtual museums and technical impossibilities in schools should be eliminated.