The evaluation of master thesis in the field of primary education according to the teachers' opinions

The aim of this study is to analyze the postgraduate theses done on the field of primary education between 2013 and 2018 in Turkey and evaluate them in accordance with the teachers' opinions. For this purpose, theses were evaluated in terms of year, method, data collection tools, sample characteristics, data analysis techniques and subject areas. Teachers were asked to express their opinions on the postgraduate theses in the field of primary education consisting of 5 questions. Theses have been analyzed by document analysis within the framework of descriptive approach and each thesis has been subjected to content analysis by using "Thesis Classification Form" which is used in the article called "A Content Analysis for Graduate Theses on Primary Education Field" developed by Küçükoğlu and Ozan (2013) for classroom education. Then, the teachers were asked about their opinions on graduate theses by interview technique. In this study, theses in the field of primary school teaching science or department which are available in the full text of YÖK National Thesis Database are included and it covers the theses between the years 2013 and 2018. Content analysis was used to analyze the obtained data. According to the results of the research, it was observed that the majority of the theses were quantitative studies, most of the studies were performed in 2015, descriptive survey type, mostly questionnaire or Likert type scales were used in the theses, teachers and the students between 1st and 5th grades were conducted for the theses, and the estimation statistics were used as data analysis technique. In addition, it was concluded that the theses examined were mostly made in the fields of Teacher Field Knowledge, Teaching Literacy and Life Science. In the interviews with teachers, they indicated that more classroom management and special education should be studied, they found favorable the contribution of postgraduate studies to method development and education, they are positive about their suitability for scientific developments and believed most of the participants are theoretical and not applicable in classroom practices.