The effectiveness of field trips trips carried with parents in social studies course

In the present study, the effectiveness of field trips with parents in the fifth grade Social Studies course was examined. In this sense, it was aimed to examine the effects of these trips on the students' motivations and attitudes towards the Social Studies course, their attitudes towards scientific field trips, their awareness of cultural heritage and their academic achievements towards the "Culture and Heritage" learning area being one of the learning areas of the Social Studies course by comparing the effectiveness of the field trips carried out separately with parents and the teacher. The mixed method using both quantitative and qualitative methods together was preferred in the study. The sample group of the study consists of 113 fifth grade students studying at a state middle school in the central district of Kilis in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Quantitative data collection tools used within the scope of the research were applied to all groups as both pretest and posttest. Subjects in the "Culture and Heritage" learning area were taught in the same way in the classroom environment for six weeks in the experimental groups and control groups. Experimental Group 1 (EG1) students participated in the field trips with their parents and Experimental Group 2 (EG2) students participated in the field trips with their teacher. After the post-tests creating the quantitative data, the "Student Opinion Form" was applied to the experimental and control groups. SPSS 22.0 statistical package program was used in the analysis of quantitative data, and MAXQDA 12 package program was used in the analysis of qualitative data. In the present study, it was concluded that both the field trips carried out with the teacher and the field trips carried out with the parents increased the motivation and attitudes of the students towards the Social Studies course. In addition, it was concluded that the (EG2) field trips carried out with the teacher were more effective on both the motivation and attitudes of the students towards the relevant course. There was no statistically significant difference between EG1 and EG2 students in terms of students' attitudes towards scientific field trips, awareness of cultural heritage and academic achievement. Of course, field trips carried out with parents cannot be considered as the equivalent of field trips, which are traditionally carried out with a teacher as a class. However; based on the findings of the present study, it is thought that in cases where it is not possible to carry out the field trips with the teachers, it can be used as an alternative to carry out these trips with parents with the planning and guidance of the teacher and successful results can be obtained by including the parents in the process of carrying out these trips.