Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine the interests of preschool teacher candidates into the social studies education, to analyze the levels of their interests in terms of different variables and to identify their opinions on the social studies education. With the qualitative and quantitative research methods, the mixed method was used in the research. Therefore, the Interest Scale for the Social Studies Education was developed to determine the interests of preschool teacher candidates into the social studies education by the researchers and open – ended questions were prepared to identify their opinions on the social studies education. The study group of the research consisted of 703 senior teacher candidates in the department of preschool teaching from different universities in 2013 – 2014 educational years. The study group of the qualitative part of the research consisted of 346 teacher candidates participating in the study group of the quantitative part and giving complete and proper answers to the qualitative questions from each university. The data from the Interest Scale for the Social Studies Education were analyzed by using SPSS 21.0 and the findings were interpreted by means of tables. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data of the research as an approach for data analysis. When the results of the research were evaluated in general, it can be said that the interests of preschool teacher candidates into the social studies education were high. It was found out that the levels of the interests of preschool teacher candidates into the social studies education did not show any difference according to gender, education level of parents while they showed a significant difference according to their general academic average, the location of their life, the type of books that they read, the ways to spend their time and the ways of professional development. In addition, it is possible to tell that the opinions of preschool teacher candidates on the social studies education were positive. It is hoped that the results of this research will set light to the future research studies about the social studies education in the preschool period and contribute to the preschool education programme and the preschool teaching undergraduate program

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