A model trial for educating teachers in using information technologies: An example of augmented reality application

The purpose of this research is to examine the use of augmented reality application in social studies teaching within the freamwork of the opinions and experiences of pre-service teachhers. The research as carried out withh case study desing, one of the qualitative research approaches. The research was carried out in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Within the scope of the study, the creation the creation of augmented reality teaching activities in the context of social studies teaching was carried out in a state university in Eastern Anatolia, and the application of the created augmented reality teaching activities in social studies lesson was carried out in two state middle schools in Eastern Anatolia. The study group of the research consists of 29 teacher candidates studying in the department of social studies education, selected by criterion sampling method. Within the scope of the research, the process of developing augmented reality teaching activities took 14 weeks in total, and a total of 29 social studies teacher candidates, 15 females and 14 males, who were studying in the third grade, participated in this process. The created teaching activities were applied in the social studies lesson at the 5th, 6th and 7th grades. These practices, which were carried out on different days and hours, took place in a total of 6 course hours. During the research process, various data collection tools such as personal information form, SWOT analysis form, observation, researcher diary, semi-structured interview, focus group interview and student products were used. The data were analyzed by content analysis method. After the analysis, the augmented reality application was described by the prospective teachers as good, surprising, remarkable, entertaining and easy to use. During the augmented reality teaching activity development process, it was observed that pre-service teachers' readiness and technology literacy levels were low, and it was found that they experienced negativity due to the program. Other results were expressed that this process contributed to the teacher such as professional development, awareness, self-confidence and breaking prejudices. The preservice teachers emphasized that the application of augmented reality teaching activities in classroom in the context of social studies teaching will contribute to the students, the teaching profession and curriculum or the implementation processes of the social studies curriculum. Apart from these positive contributions, participants stated that the application process of the augmented reality teaching activities in the classrooms has various difficulties in terms of the curriculum or the implementation process of the curriculum. In addition to these, prospective teachers made various suggestions regarding the use of augmented reality application in future applications in the context of social studies teaching.