Opinions of social studies teacher candidates on digital literacy

The aim of the study is to determine the opinions of Social Studies teacher cadidates on digital literacy. The research was carried out with the 4th Grade Social Studies teacher candidates at Atatürk University, Erciyes University, Fırat University, Kastamonu University, Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Muş Alparslan University, Necmettin Erbakan University, Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Sivas Cumhuriyet University and Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University in the 2018 and 2019 academic year. In the present study, the mixed method in which quantitative and qualitative data were used together was used. In this study, "Digital Literacy Scale: The Study of its Adaptation to Turkish" developed by Hamutoğlu, Güngören, Uyanık, Erdoğan (2017) was used to collect the data related to the quantitative part. Semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used to collect the qualitative data. SPSS 16.0 was used for the analysis of quantitative data and N-VIVO 10 program was used for the analysis of qualitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed in accordance with content analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that the opinions of the social studies teacher candidates regarding the "attitude" and "cognitive" and "social" dimensions of the digital literacy scale did not differ according to gender. It was also found that the opinions of male and female teacher candidates differed with regards to the "technical" dimension of digital literacy. Teacher candidates' opinions concerning the "attitude", "technical" and "cognitive" dimensions of the digital literacy scale did not differ according to the variable of university. It was observed that there was a difference between the teacher candidates' views on the "social" dimension. Additionally, as far as the result of the present study are concerned, the following conclusions were also obtained; the concept of digital literacy, issues that the teacher candidates thought they were good in the field of digital literacy, the measures taken in the digital environment, how they questioned the resource reliability, the difficulties experienced in adapting to innovations, the deficiencies in digital literacy and the reasons of these deficiencies, the things that can be done in the development of digital literacy skills in the university and the things that can be done in order to help the students to gain digital literacy skills in Social Studies course. Accordingly, the courses that will improve the digital literacy skills should be included at various levels of the National Education and Higher Education. The activities that will provide support and guiding materials for the teachers can be prepared by enriching the acquisitions of digital literacy skills that have started to be offered in the national curriculum.