Primary School Teachers’ Views About Practice of New Turkish Primary Education Curriculum

Abstract

Teacher is the main factor at instruction of the new Turkish primary education curriculum. Teacher is the one who will understand the new primary education curriculum, practice it in the learning
teaching process and assess the results. In this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the primary school
teachers’ views about the new primary education curriculum which has been in practice since the 2005-2006
academic year. The participants of the study are 13 elementary school teachers who were selected randomly
from two schools, selected by means of the convenience sampling method. Interview technique and semiconstructed interview forms are used. In the research, main and sub categories are determined. The main
categories are arrangement, approaches, teacher, indoor/outdoor activities, learning environment, assessment,
collaboration and evaluation of curriculum. The results of research about new curriculum show that the process
of in-service training is short and inadequate and teachers faced many problems at first. Moreover, it was found
that teaching materials are inadequate and although the diversity of practices used in process assessments is a
positive quality, as those practices require too much stationery job and time and teachers are not equipped with
the knowledge about the application of some scales of those practices, they cannot be used. Additionally,
teachers stated that new primary education programs bring innovation and new approaches are positive. It is
suggested that studies about the new elementary curriculum can be prepared with participation of teachers,
students, tutors, directors and inspectors.