A content analysis in the field of integrated and thematic curriculum studies

In the research, it is aimed to determine the trends of the dissertations and articles conducted in Turkey in the field of integrated and thematic curriculum. In the study it was used qualitative research method, content analysis. Data of the research were gathered from Google Scholar and Council of Higher Education (YOK) Thesis Center with key words: "Tematik", "Tematik program", "Tematik program yaklaşımı", "Thematic program/curriculum", "Bütünleştirilmiş", "Bütünleştirilmiş program", "Bütünleştirilmiş Program Yaklaşımı", "Integrated program/curriculum". It was reached 130 total studies and they were eliminated to 90 according to studies scope and content. The obtained studies were written in Excel program as "Thematic and integrated curriculum definitions, publication year, publication type, language used in studies, universities where theses were published, institutes where theses were published, departments that were published, research design, experimental design type of studies conducted in experimental design, method of studies, data collection. tools, data analysis techniques, sample/study group, sample size, subject, number of course subject areas in which the studies were conducted, results of the studies, suggestions in the study were classified in terms of the variables and the quantitative data were examined by assigning a code to each variable. According to the results, when we look at the definition of integrated curriculum, it is seen that "Integration of different courses/disciplines" with a rate of 44.68% at most, and when we look at the definition of thematic curriculum, it is seen as "Integration of courses" with a maximum rate of 66.67%. It was seen that the most studies were conducted in the field of integrated and thematic curriculum in 2016, and the most published type was the article with a rate of 55,55%. 90% of the studies were published in Turkish. It was observed that the dissertations were published in Hacettepe and Ankara Universities at the most 10%. 52.5% of the studies were carried out in the Institute of Educational Sciences and 35% in the Primary Education Department. 58.88% of the studies were experimental studies. 81.13% of the experimental studies were in the type of experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. 25.44% of the studies were conducted with mixed method, 20% with qualitative method and 7.77% with quantitative method. In the data collection tools, there were various measurement tools such as problem scenarios, voice recordings, and dilemma situations form, which were collected under the other heading with a rate of 47.77%, while interviews took the second place with a rate of 36.66%. In data analysis techniques, t-test was used with a maximum rate of 14.76%. It was observed that the studies were carried out with primary school students with a rate of 69.23% at most, and the sample size was made in the range of 0-50 with a maximum rate of 50.68%. In the distribution of the studies according to their subjects, it was seen that the most studies were carried out in the integrated curriculum area with a rate of 78.88%, and the least in the thematic curriculum area with a rate of 5.55%. According to the course subject areas of the studies, 47.56% of the studies were integrated with at most one course/subject area, and according to the results of the studies, it was seen that the most positive results were 73.33%. When the studies are classified according to the suggestions, "The effect of the suggestions on different courses/themes and skills can be examined" with the highest rate of 16,66%. appears to be. Suggestions for the development of applications are "More studies can be done in the field of thematic curriculum and integrated curriculum" and "Contribution to the literature can be made by increasing the number of academic studies." specified as.