Abstract:

This study investigated the effect of children’s rights (CR) education on the understanding and attitudes of primary school teacher candidates regarding CR through active learning-based implementations. Explanatory sequential design was employed in the study. The quasi-experimental design with non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group and case study were employed. Experimental implementations were conducted with 72 third year teacher candidates. The experimental group was trained for 13 weeks by employing the Active Learning-Based Children’s Rights Education Curriculum (ACREC) developed in the study and the traditional teaching method was used in the control group. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with 12 teacher candidates were carried out. The findings revealed that posttest scores showed significant difference in favour of the experimental group, and that the development of understanding was higher in this group. The ACREC was found to contribute to teacher candidates in the context of understanding, attitudes, behaviours and professional development concerning CR.

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