Perceptions of Primary School Teachers Regarding New Science and Technology Curriculum of Turkey in terms of Teaching and Assessment Methods

Özdemir Şimşek P.

ESSAYS IN EDUCATION, cilt.23, sa.3, ss.124-141, 2014 (Hakemli Dergi)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 23 Sayı: 3
  • Basım Tarihi: 2014
  • Dergi Adı: ESSAYS IN EDUCATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.124-141
  • Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate perceptions of the primary school teachers’ in 4th and 5th grade public schools on new science and technology curriculum in science and technology classes in Turkey. Whether primary school teachers familiar with the improvements in science and technology curriculum and whether they feel themselves adequate in terms of theoretical knowledge and application of the new approaches in science and technology lessons were also investigated.

The research type of this study includes survey and qualitative research in nature which are non-experimental research methods. The quantitative part of this study includes questionnaire administration and qualitative part includes interviews. A perception questionnaire was administered on 155 primary school teachers. Then, the researcher carried out in depth interviews with 13 primary school teachers. Quantitative part of the study was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics by using SPSS (e.g., frequences, percentage analysis). Qualitative part of the study was analyzed by using qualitative methods (Generating categories, themes, patterns and coding the data).

The findings from quantitative and qualitative data indicated that similar to the results of the studies carried out in other countries, primary school teachers have various perceptions to apply teaching and assessment methods related to knowledge, experience, students, parents, administrators, resources, opportunities, time, and science books. The interview results with the teachers yielded different categories like basic features of the New Science and Technology Curriculum, positive and negative perspectives on new curriculum, factors affecting the application of the new curriculum, and comparison of old and new curriculum. Although most of the teachers stated that the new curriculum is applicable and better than the old one, they have many problems especially regarding the application of the new curriculum.