Examination of social study teacher's opinions on natural disaster: The case of Amasya University

Natural disasters are one of the indispensable facts of our world and our country, and these natural events, which have a significant risk of danger, take their place in our lives as processes that can be encountered in every moment of life and can cause loss of life and property. Although the concept of natural disaster and the concept of disaster are different from each other, they are confused by many segments of the society. Social Studies course has an undeniable place in introducing and transferring disasters and natural disasters to individuals in primary school age in terms of scope and content. Turkey; Its position in the world, being a young country, differences in landforms, distinct elevation differences, etc. It is exposed to many different types of natural disasters due to many factors such as The aim of this study is to determine the opinions of social studies teacher candidates of Amasya University about natural disasters occurring in our country. Because the role of future teachers in raising awareness of natural disasters in our children, who are the most valuable members of society, is an undeniable fact. In this context, answers were sought to questions such as determining the natural disaster awareness levels of social studies teacher candidates, categorizing what should be done before, during and after natural disasters, and suggestions of teacher candidates related to this subject in the curriculum. In addition, it was examined whether the social studies teacher candidates of Amasya University were instilled in the primary school age individuals with natural disaster awareness in applied education, and whether they received natural disaster awareness sufficiently during their education at the university. In the research, the theory building pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study was formed as a purposive sampling from 23 pre-service teachers who graduated from the Department of Social Studies Teaching at Amasya University and are still studying. In this context; The opinions of the participants were taken with the semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. In the interview made by the researcher, 7 of the participants gave permission to be interviewed by voice recording, the other 16 participants volunteered to record the interview with note-taking. As a result of the research, positive and negative opinions about the education of social studies teacher candidates about natural disasters, the transfer of natural disaster awareness to individuals and the inclusion of the concept of natural disaster in the curriculum were revealed, but the general views of the participants on the subject were negative. The opinions of the pre-service teachers are also stated in the findings section. It is expected that the results of the research will guide the society in our country and especially the individuals in the education age to gain awareness of natural events and natural disasters.