The contextual learning based interdisciplinary teaching practises in developing conceptual understanding skills in fourth grade social science classes: a case study

The aim of this study is to develop the Conceptual Understanding sub-skills (defining concept features, composing definitions, making associations, exemplifying features in examples, and rationalizing) of students in fourth grade social science classes during the spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year. This was accomplished using contextual learning-based interdisciplinary teaching practices and ultimately determined the reasons behind positive and negative factors affecting the development of Conceptual Understanding sub-skills in the target students. The study was designed as a case study which was one of the qualitative research methods. The sample of the study was determined on the basis of the Criterion Sampling Technique, which is a type of purposeful sampling. The inclusion criteria of the study were as follows: the students must be in the fourth grade; participate in the study voluntarily; have not exhibited the behaviors found in the People and Management unit in the Conceptual Understanding level; have not participated in a similar study before; and have displayed a heterogeneous feature in terms of success level. Two other criteria were that the classroom teacher allowed the researcher to implement the practices and that he voluntarily stayed in class during the practices to observe the students' performances. In accordance with these criteria, the sample of the study consisted of 24 students (12 girls and 12 boys) from one primary school class located in Yüreğir, Adana, during the spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year. The data of the study was gathered using the Conceptual Understanding Success Test (CUS) and the Conceptual Understanding- Two-stage Diagnosis Test (CU-TSDT), student worksheets, unstructured observation (video), semi-structured interviews, and the researcher's journal. The qualitative data was analyzed using descriptive and content analysis techniques whereas the quantitative data was evaluated using ANOVA for repeated measures and the Paired Group T-Test. The significance level for data obtained from quantitative analysis was p≤ .05. The study findings show that there was a significant difference in the arithmetic averages of five different measurements of the defining concept features, composing definitions and rationalizing sub-skills while there was not a significant difference in the arithmetic averages of the five different measurements of the making associations and exemplifying features in examples sub-skills. With the aim of determining any changes in students' conceptual understanding performances, the Conceptual Understanding Success Test (CUS) and the Conceptual Understanding- Two-stage Diagnosis Test (CU-TSDT) were applied twice - at the beginning and at the end of the practices. The results suggest that there was an improvement in the latter practice of the tests. The study findings show that the students enjoyed defining concept features and composing definitions the most out of all the sub-skill practices. Additionally, the results show that the students did not enjoy studying the concepts of freedom, sovereignty and government as they seemed too complicated to practice with, though they did enjoy studying the concepts of economy and democracy because they seemed to be more entertaining subjects. Also, the findings show that the students enjoyed studying the subject of economy because it addresses real-life issues such as means of living and how to spend money economically. Through the analysis for determining the positive and negative factors affecting the development of Conceptual Understanding sub-skills, it can be understood from the results that some variables such as adequate level of reasoning; prior knowledge and experience; motivation; interests and proficiency in related fields; clues; attendance at lessons; enjoying the activities; and fewer concept features at practices all have a positive effect on the process. On the other hand, it's found that an inadequate level of reasoning, low level of interest and proficiency in related fields, too much information about concept features (high number of questions) or a high number of concepts features, the lack of active participation in lessons, students' finding the concepts unfavorable, environmental distractions and time difference among the practices all have a negative effect on the process. According to the pre and post tests, the contextual learning-based interdisciplinary teaching practices did significantly improve students' conceptual understanding. Consequently, it can be inferred that these practices reinforce conceptual understanding among students. The same findings suggest that analogies made with information from various disciplines have a positive effect on the process of defining concept features. Additionally, it's found that the preferred approach supports the development of the Conceptual Understanding sub-skills of composing definitions and rationalizing while it does not make any significant difference in the development of making associations and exemplifying features in examples sub-skills. Key Words: Social sciences teaching, contextual learning and teaching approach, interdisciplinary teaching approach, analogy, concept teaching, conceptual understanding, case study.