Active learning-based children rights education for primary school teacher candidates

In this study, it is aimed to examine the effect of active learning-based children rights education on the understanding and attitudes of primary school teacher candidates towards children's rights. Explanatory sequential design, one of the mixed method research designs, was used in the study. The quantitative dimension of the study consisted of a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group, and the qualitative dimension of the study was a case study. Experimental implementations were carried out with 72 primary school teacher candidates, 36 of whom were in the experimental group and 36 in the control group, who were studying at the third-grade level. The participant group, from which qualitative data were collected, consists of 12 primary school teacher candidates selected by criterion sampling method among the primary school teacher candidates in the experimental group. In the study, an active learning-based children rights education program (ACREP) was developed, and children's rights education was implemented to the experimental group with ACREP and to the control group with traditional teaching method for 13 weeks. As data collection tools in the study, the Attitude Scale towards Children's Rights and the Development of Understanding Evaluation Form were implemented to the experimental and control groups as pretest and posttest. The Interview Form on the Effectiveness of the ACREP and Personal Development was implemented to 12 primary school teacher candidates who were the participants of the qualitative dimension of the study. Qualitative data of the study were collected by semi-structured interview. Quantitative data of the study were analyzed by independent groups t-test and qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The results of the research revealed that the posttest scores of the primary school teacher candidates' attitudes towards children's rights differed significantly in favor of the experimental group and the understanding development of children's rights was better in the experimental group. In addition, the results of the interviews with the primary school teacher candidates in the experimental group revealed that ACREP provided various contributions to the primary school teacher candidates in terms of understanding, attitude, behavior, and professional development regarding children's rights. The study is important in terms of being an exemplary implementation and presenting information on how children's rights education can be carried out with active learning in teacher education. Keywords: Children's Rights, Children's Rights Education, Active Learning, Curriculum Development, Primary Education