Examining the cognitive structures of social studies teacher candidates regarding the concept of effective citizenship

The main purpose of the social studies course is to raise active citizens. With active citizenship education, students can develop critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication skills, empathy, cooperation, solidarity, etc. They can develop different attitudes and behaviors. After that, they continue their lives as exemplary citizens who are aware of their responsibilities towards themselves and their environment in the future, and they respect different perspectives, attitudes and values. They use their constitutional rights and freedoms in solving the problems they face and develop reasonable and peaceful solutions to the events. With the changing time conditions and requirements, state systems impose some obligations on the people who make them up. In the ever-changing social structure, states shape their duties towards their citizens and themselves and organize them in a way that keeps up with the times. The development of the targeted human model and the acquisition of the values of the society by individuals are realized by giving citizenship education. Citizenship awareness is a bridge that connects individuals with both the state and the society they live in. In the research, phenomenology/phenomenology design based on qualitative research was used. This research is to determine the perceptions of social studies teacher candidates regarding the concept of "active citizenship" and the concepts of "right", "social studies", "responsibility", "country" and "citizen", which are considered together, by word association test. In addition, this study was applied to 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade and 4th grade social studies teacher candidates continuing their undergraduate education, and the change in their perceptions of key concepts given with a comparative approach was revealed. When we consider the research findings and results, it has been determined that together with the concept of active citizen given as a key concept, the concepts of rights, social studies, responsibility, homeland and citizen can be produced in sufficient number of answer words and associated with the related concepts. It has been revealed that they can produce more words for the concepts of social studies, homeland and active citizenship, which are among the concepts given as key concepts, and they can produce fewer words for the concepts of rights, responsibilities and citizens. In general, it has been revealed that the pre-service teachers' perceptions of the basic concepts of the social studies course are at a sufficient level. When the sentences of the social studies teacher candidates about the key concepts of active citizenship, rights, social studies, responsibility, homeland and citizen in the SOE were evaluated, it was revealed that they expressed the key concepts in sentences containing scientific knowledge. It was observed that the number of sentences containing scientific information increased as the grade level increased. In addition, it has been revealed that teacher candidates do not have many misconceptions about key concepts. Keywords: Effective Citizenship, Social Studies, Word Association Test.