Abstract
AWARENESS OF SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER CANDIDATES’ ON STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL STUDIES COURSE AND INTEGRATION OF TEACHING
Integrated teaching, an understanding which was built up by studies at the onset of 20th century, is basically defined as a learning-and-teaching system in which subjects and matters are handled in a multi-dimensional and holistic approach rather than separate disciplines and applications. Turkey has adopted the integrated teaching principles since the onset of 20th century. One of the most important reflections of the integrated teaching applications to the Turkish education system is Social Studies course. Teachers should be aware of integrated teaching principles in order to achieve the outcomes of course. Thus, teacher candidates should also obtain necessary training and skills to fulfill the objectives of Social Studies as an integrated teaching course. The aim of the study is to specify the views of Social Studies teacher candidates on the course curriculum and integration of teaching. This research was carried out in accordance with the qualitative research approach. The participant of the research is 18 Social Studies teacher candidates who are in the last period of the undergraduate program. The data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analyzed in an inductive manner. The results of the study showed that majority of the participants agreed on the integrated teaching on primary education rather than disciplinary approach. They also emphasized the problem of associating units on the present Social Studies curriculum. The participants stated that the courses at the Social Studies teaching department are mostly disciplinary and that they lacked the chances of learning about integrated teaching. At this point, they also suggested to apply more practice in building relationships among different disciplines.
Keywords
Social Studies course, integrated teaching system, teacher candidates.
