The use of the museum medium for the education of social science teacher candidates

This study aims to determine the attitudes and opinions of prospective social studies teachers on museums, considered as one of the out-of-school learning environments, museum education and its contribution to education and to analyze how this learning method will be used by them. Subgroup analyses of the attitudes and opinions of prospective teachers were provided by sex, academic level, the place of residence before going to university, and the socioeconomic status of his/her family, the most read book/magazine/newspapers, the most watched TV programs, the most visited places and leisure time activities. In this context, a 39-item questionnaire was applied to the prospective teachers to determine their attitudes and opinions, and a 10-item form was applied to collect personal data. Subjects were asked to answer every question and to choice only option. Explanatory factor analysis was conducted for the data collected in pilot study to determine the factorial structure of the scale and to validate the study. The data was analyzed by SPSS 16 program. The target population of this study is the final year undergraduate students of social studies program of 2013/2014 fall semester. 7 universities from 7 regions included in the sample group. 272 students from 7 universities participated in the study. At the end of the analysis of the output it is seen that the students views about the museum education are positive students' views change according to university they attend, gender, and education level of his/her mother. There is no significant difference about museums among the attitudes and opinions of prospective teachers according to the academic level, the place of residence before going to university, and the socioeconomic status and education level of his/her father, the most read book/magazine/newspapers, the most watched TV programs, the most visited places and leisure time activities. Keywords: Social Studies, Museum, Museum Medium, Prospective Teachers.