Fourth and fifth grade primary school teachers and students views about performance tasks in social studies course

Master Thesis, Department of Educational SciencesSupervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Memet KARAKUŞJuly 2012, 244 PagesThis study, has been carried out with the aim of identifying and evaluating primary school fourth and fifth grade students? and teachers? views about performance task in social studies course by using mixed research design. From the descriptive models the general scanning method constituted the qualitative part of the study while interview technique constituted the quantitative partThe quantitative data of the study were obtained from 255 teachers teaching fourth and fifth grade students in public primary schools in Şanliurfa city Halfeti and Birecik districts while the qualitative data were obtained from three primary school teachers who had filled in questionnaire and who were chosen on the basis of Convenience Sampling selected from Random Stratified Sampling techniques and five fourth grade and five fifth grade teachers who were selected on the basis of voluntary participation and 10 students selected from those teachers? classrooms randomly.The data obtained from the questionnaire were analysed with SPSS -Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences- through computer by the researcher. The descriptive analyses were performed by calculating the frequencies, percentages, and arithmetic mean s of the quantitative data in line with the sub goals. Furthermore, in order to determine the differences among the views, independent samples analysis of and "t" test, one -way anova, Scheffe test were done. In order to obtain teachers` and students` views about the application, semi-structured interview technique was used, the data elicited from the questions were investigated and evaluated through descriptive analysis.The result of the research revealed that,6.With the performance task, teachers are able to assess their students thoroughly and they do not want it to be removed from the programme; however the knowledge given to teachers about performance task is insufficient and theoretical, and it causes problems in the application phase, and teachers? knowledge is not clear and because of this reason, it cannot be utilised efficiently at schools7.The performance task improves higher order thinking skills, and since information gained this way is utilised in real life, it is appreciated by teachers. However, since the assessment of the tasks via performance task scale takes long time it causes problems. Furthermore, teachers have negative views about the performance task included in Social Studies teachers? manuals.8.While in terms of gender, there is no significant difference among teachers? views about the performance task used in Social Studies course there is a significant difference among teachers? views in terms of years of experience in their occupation; experienced teachers have positive views about the performance task.9.Teachers pay attention to the students? readiness level, the importance of the topic in the lesson, the socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of surrounding and they pay attention to the fact that tasks are meaningful, clear and prescribed and possible to be completed in the given time and the same tasks are given to the students by ignoring the individual differences in the selection of the performance tasks.10.Performance tasks lead students to do research but the findings of the research from the internet are copied in the same manner and the conduct of the tasks in such a short time decreases the quality of tasks; and students and parents are unconscious about the topic and yet they want to do performance tasks but they are not set free in the selection of the topics and not involved in the assessment process.In parallel with the findings of the research, it is suggested that in new educational system which is going to be put into practise in 2012-2013 some detailed, applied, and practical seminars should be given to teachers, students, and parents by experts. Moreover, it is thought that with the applications such as insertion of the end of the year or school tasks and addition of the task scores to the exam scores can increase the importance given to the performance task. In addition, updating social studies teachers? manuals and diversifying the tasks they include, creating homework pools, developing grade specific assessment scales will increase the functionality of the performance task. The feasibility of functional performance task can be increased by creating performance classrooms, performance corners in the classrooms, and by creating archives of sample performance tasks collected from the previous tasks. In this sense, creating websites approved by Ministry of National Education, maintaining the involvement of the parents in the performance task procedures officially or preparing performance tasks that parents can not intervene in, can make significant contributions to the utilisation of performance task in education.Key words: Social Studies, Assessment of the performance, performance task, teachers? views, students? views.