Elementary school teachers' opinions on the skills in the social study curriculum

In this study, it was aimed to determine the knowledge of primary school teachers about the skills included in the Social Studies Curriculum at the fourth grade level and their views on the teaching of these skills. These skills are as follows: "Research, perceiving change and continuity, empathy, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, observation, map literacy, communication, collaboration, recognizing stereotypes and prejudice, using evidence, decision making, location analysis, perceiving space, self-control social participation, drawing and interpreting tables, graphs and diagrams, innovative thinking, perceiving time and chronology" The research was designed according to the qualitative research method and case study. Participants consist of three hundred primary school teachers working in public and private schools. A "teacher opinion form" consisting of open-ended questions was used to obtain the data. Both content and descriptive analysis were used to analyze the data. When the findings related to the skill knowledge of primary school teachers are examined; teachers used expressions such as "problem solving, asking questions, wondering, making consistent searches" when explaining their "research" skill; It was observed that they used expressions such as "to keep up with the necessities of the age, to be aware of the progress of time" while describing the skill of "perceiving change and continuity". While explaining the "empathy" skill, the teachers preferred to use expressions such as "putting yourself in someone else's shoes, understanding people's feelings, thoughts and different perspectives". It was concluded that the primary school teachers focused on the concepts of "making a budget, calculating income-expenditure, saving money, borrowing, evaluating the budget correctly" while defining the "financial literacy" skill. It was concluded that while expressing the "entrepreneurship" skill, they included the definitions of "dreaming, being brave, finding opportunities, working, being creative". Primary school teachers used the expressions "seeing, looking carefully, concentrating on" when expressing the "observation" skill; While describing the skill of "using a map", they used the definitions of "learning map elements and signs, acquiring location and direction information, creating a perception of space". It has been observed that while defining the "communication" skill, they include the actions of "speaking effectively, listening effectively, expressing oneself correctly". While defining the "social participation" skill, the teachers mentioned the expressions "being conscious of the environment, taking a place in the society". While describing the skill of "drawing and interpreting tables, graphs, diagrams", they mentioned "understanding the mathematically categorized figure, making inferences by comparing the data". It was observed that while describing the "innovative thinking" skill, they talked about "being researcher, original thinking, going out of the ordinary". Primary school teachers made definitions for the skill of "perceiving time and chronology" as "discriminating past-present-future time, making chronological order, explaining the concepts of year, month and day". According to the teachers, the most effective method that can be used in skill training is "experience-based" approaches. Primary school teachers made suggestions about the use of drama, trip observation, activity design, educational games and other methods and techniques related to skill education.