Skills, values and concepts in life science lesson curriculum

This study intents to reveal to what extent the Life Science Lesson Curriculum covers the skills, values and concepts that children should acquire, and also to depict the use of these concepts, skills and values in a comparative manner. In line with this core goal, the objectives, behaviors and achievements in the Life Science Lesson Curriculums have been reviewed with regards to skills, values and concepts. Furthermore, to what level these skills, values and concepts were covered and their distribution in the curriculums have also been studied. This study uses qualitative research methods in parallel to the objectives of the research. Document analysis method from the qualitative methods is used in this research and the data, which was analyzed and interpreted, is collected from the 1926, 1936, 1948, 1968, 1998, 2005/2009, 2015 and 2018 Life Science Lesson Curriculums each of which was considered a document. According to the document analysis related to the skills, values and concepts (1, 2 and 3 classes) that the 1926, 1936, 1948, 1968, 1998, 2005/2009, 2015 and 2018 Life Science Lesson Curriculums cover, all of the 1926, 1936, 1948, 1968, 1998, 2005/2009, 2015 and 2018 Life Science Lesson Curriculums include skills. 1998, 2005/2009 and 2018 curriculums, each covering 26 skills, are the ones that contain the highest number of skills. 2015 curriculum, covering 25 of the skills, follows these curriculums. It is also found that 1948 covers 23 skills and 1926, 1936 and 1995 curriculums cover 20 skills each. The 1968 curriculum, covering only 16 skills, is the one that covers the least skills. All of the Life Science Lesson Curriculums are found to be covering values. When reviewed in terms of Curriculum dimension, the 2018 curriculum, covering 22 values, is found to be the one that covers the highest number of values. The 2015 curriculum, with 18 values, ranks second after the 2018 curriculum. They are followed by 2005/2009 and 1998, and 1995, 1948, 1968 and 1936 curriculum covering 16, 13, 11, 10 and 8 values, respectively. The 1926 curriculum, covering only 5 values, is the one that covers the least skills. All of the Life Science Lesson Curriculums are found to be covering concepts. When reviewed at 1st class level, the 2005/2009 curriculum, covering 63 concepts, is found to be covering the highest number of concepts, among the others. This curriculum is followed by the 1998 curriculum with 26 concepts, 1948 and 1995 curriculums with 22 concepts, 2015 with 21 concepts, 2018, 1926 and 1968 curriculums with 19 concepts. The 1936 curriculum, covering only 14 concepts, is the one that covers the least concepts. When reviewed at 2nd class level, the 2005/2009 curriculum, covering 55 concepts, is found to be covering the highest number of concepts. This curriculum is followed by the 1998 curriculum with 31 concepts, 2015 curriculum with 24 concepts, 2018 curriculum with 23 concepts, 1948 with 20 concepts, 1995 with 16 concepts, and 1968 and 1936 curriculum with 14 concepts. It is understood that the 1926 curriculum, covering only 11 concepts, is the one that covers the least concepts. When reviewed at 3rd class level, the 2005/2009 curriculum, covering 79 concepts, is found to be covering the highest number of concepts. It is followed by the 1948 curriculum which covers 40 concepts. This curriculum is followed by the 2018 curriculum with 37 concepts, the 2015 curriculum with 35 concepts, the 1995 curriculum with 34, 1926 with 32, 1936 with 30, and 1998 curriculum with 29 concepts. It is understood that the 1968 curriculum, covering only 21 concepts, is the one that covers the least concepts. When skills, values and concepts dimensions were reviewed together, it is found that the 2005-2009 curriculum is the most concentrated curriculum among the other Life Science Lesson Curriculums and it is followed by the 2018, 1998, 2015, 1948, 1995, 1926, and 1936 curriculums while the 1968 curriculum is found to be the least concentrated one.