Abstract:

The social studies course is an elementary course which has a very important place in the construction of society, teaching the concepts of right, justice, equality, and freedom in shaping the society, transferring the social accumulation to the next generations. In this research, it is tried to reveal the thoughts of university students about social studies course they took in primary education. In this research, qualitative research approach has been adopted and designed according to phenomenological research design. A semi-structured interview form was applied to 88 university students who were deliberately selected in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The data were collected by using semi-structured interview form which was formed by expert opinion. Open-ended questions were directed to university students. The data of this qualitative research were analyzed by using descriptive analysis method. According to the findings of the analysis, it is thought that the majority of the participants see the social studies lesson as an important part of their lives, that they use the information they take in this course in their daily lives and that they constitute the basis for the lessons they have taken. In addition to this, it is noteworthy that teachers are still emphasized in the teaching of social studies by the mistakes of the traditional-essentialist education practice and by the practice of learning and doing more.

Keywords: