Teachers' and students' views on the use of current events in social studies courses

The purpose of this research is to determine the opinions of secondary school 5th, 6th and 7th grade students and social studies teachers about the use of current events in social studies lessons. An attempt has been made to draw attention to the importance of current events in the education-training environment. The sample of the research consists of 20 social studies teachers and secondary school 5th and 6th grade teachers working in Aksaray in the 2022-2023 academic year. It consists of 133 students studying in the and 7th grades. Since this study is a research based on teacher and student opinions, it is a qualitative research and a case study, one of the qualitative research method designs, was used. Research data; It was obtained through a semi-structured interview form consisting of 9 questions for secondary school students and 10 questions for social studies teachers. The data were evaluated with descriptive analysis and content analysis. As a result of the research, the social studies teachers who participated in the research think that they follow current events mostly on television, the oral narration technique is mostly used when covering current events, they have the most difficulty in covering current events on political issues, and current events are not given enough space in textbooks. It was concluded that the majority of the students who participated in the research follow the agenda, they see politics as the most important issue on the Turkish agenda, and politicians as the most important people on the agenda. It was concluded that according to the 5th, 6th and 7th grade secondary school students, the most important current event on the world agenda is wars.