Teachers opinions about whether museum concience learning area avtivities are implemented or not

According to the understanding of contemporary education, it is intended to train adequately equipped individuals from emotional, cognitive, cultural and social aspects by focusing on life of students and offering them rich life opportunities. In accordance with this aim, course content, learning areas and activities were arranged in the new training program which was prepared according to student-centered educational approach. In addition, in 2005-2006 academic year, this program was put into practice. In parallel with this change, some arrangements were made in the visual arts educational curriculum. Furthermore, new learning fields were added to the program in terms of scope of the arrangements. One of these learning areas is museum conscience learning area.Gaining appreciation for art, taking pleasure in art, and recognizing and respecting own culture and different cultures with various applied artistic works inside and outside of the classroom take place in the museum conscience activity which is considered as one of the Visual Arts education learning areas. Museum conscience learning area activities must be implemented so that children can have these gains in the program. Whether these activities are implemented or not depends on teacher and various factors.It is intended to be taken the views of classroom teachers in order to determine whether the museum conscience activities considered as one of the Visual Arts education learning areas are implemented or not. This study was conducted in 2008-2009 academic year in the center of Eskişehir with 18 teachers who work in six primary schools coming from different socio-economic levels. All teachers? opinions were taken in to consideration in the research. The data in this study were collected using semi-structured interview technique, which is one of the qualitative data collection methods. For the analysis, descriptive analysis technique was employed and qualitative data were transformed into quantitative data. Then, the findings were interpreted based on the frequencies. Moreover, documents involving the activities which were prepared by teachers were examined.According to the results obtained from research findings, classroom teachers saw museum conscience learning area important and necessary in terms of attitudinal and behavioral changes of students. However, teachers found themselves insufficient in terms of knowledge and application. It was also found that teachers needed training in this field. It is concluded that classroom teachers did not have trouble while implementing museum conscience learning area activities in the classroom. However, it was indicated that due to shortness of time, crowded classroom size, difficulty of transportation process, ways of approach of museum staffs to children, inadequate museum presentations, and lack of proper museum for activities classroom teachers could not thoroughly conduct activities outside the classroom.