A comparative study on social studies teacher training programs in Turkey(1998-2018)

In 1998, the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) decided to open programs to train branch teachers for the second stages of primary schools in faculties of education within the framework of restructuring the teacher training system and prepared programs consisting of course schedules and contents for these programs. The aim of this research is to comparatively examine the programs prepared by YÖK for undergraduate programs in social studies teaching in 1998, 2006 and 2018. The document review method was used in the research. According to the findings, of the 63 courses in the 1998 program, 28 were field knowledge; 8 were Turkish minor field, 11 were vocational knowledge and 10 were general culture courses. In the program, field knowledge courses have a weight of 41%, Turkish minor field courses have a weight of 14%, vocational knowledge courses have a weight of 29% and general culture courses have a weight of 16%. There are 66 courses in the program prepared by YÖK in 2006. 170 hours were allocated to these courses, 142 of which were theoretical and 28 were practical. With this regulation, the application of sub-fields was also abolished. In this program, there are 34 courses in the field education category, 15 in the vocational knowledge category, and 14 in the general culture category. Field education courses have a weight of 51%, vocational knowledge courses have a weight of 29%, and general culture courses have a weight of 20% in the program. There are 65 courses in the program prepared in 2018. 154 hours are allocated to these courses. The course hours in this program have been reduced by approximately 10%. There are 34 courses in the field education category, 22 in the teaching profession knowledge category, and 11 in the general culture category in the program. The weight of field education courses in the program is approximately 46%, teaching profession knowledge courses are 36%, and general culture courses are 18%. It has been suggested that new courses reflecting the disciplinary structure of social studies be added to the program, practice hours be added to the courses, and teaching practice be started earlier.