Teachers' Opinions on Social Studies Students' Misconceptions Regarding the Human and Environmental Learning Area

Abstract

Educational programs prepared under the influence of educational theories not only shaped all environments of education and training, but also influenced the contents of the social studies course. Difficulties arise in transferring concepts and information to daily life due to the fact that activities in accordance with active learning principles are not included in the content and practice of social studies courses in Turkey. On the other hand, with the education program published in 2004, constructivist education has been adopted in Turkey. The purpose of this research is to determine the misconceptions of 5th grade students about the learning field of Human and Environment according to the views of social studies teachers, to reveal the reasons for the formation of these misconceptions, to determine the suggestions of the teachers about what activities should be done in order to prevent and eliminate the misconception. The problem of the research; “According to social studies teachers, what are the misconceptions of students about the concepts in the field of people and environment learning?” poses a question. In the research, the data were collected with a structured interview form consisting of four questions. The study group of the research consisted of 40 social studies teachers working in 10 official secondary schools in Esenler district of Istanbul in the 2021-2022 academic year.