Assessment of Classroom Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Social Studies Course

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal classroom teachers’ perception level of their efficiency to conduct social studies course. In this study both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. In quantitative section a 36-item five-point Likert-type scale, developed by the researchers, was used. In qualitative section an interview form including three semi-structured questions was used. Population of the study includes classroom teachers working in Elazığ and Sivas cities during 2009-2010 academic year. Sample consisted of fourth and
fifth grade classroom teachers selected from 40 different primary schools selected from education regions of Elazığ and Sivas cities. There are totally 249 classroom teachers in the study. Frequency, percentage, mean score, standard deviation, one way Anova, and independent groups t test were used to analyze the data. Though results revealed that classroom teachers found themselves quite adequate in conducting social studies course, it was also determined that they sometimes had some problems during teaching social studies to the students. They also argued that some courses should be conducted by subject-matter teachers.