Turkish History Education Journal (May 2022)
Opinions of teachers on the 2018 secondary education Turkish Republic Revolution History and Kemalism course curriculum
Abstract
Revolution history research involves many elements—such as the teacher, student, course curriculum, and textbook—presenting the solutions in the context of the current situation. With the research question “What are the opinions and suggestions of teachers of the Secondary Education Turkish Republic Revolution History and Kemalism course about the new curriculum?”, this research examines the fulfillment of the 2018 Secondary Education Turkish Republic Revolution History and Kemalism Course Curriculum by the case study methodology. In this context, a questionnaire consisting of 18 open-ended questions covering the basic components of the curriculum, such as objectives, content, instructional methods, and evaluation was developed. The questionnaire was administered online in two academic semesters to 25 history teachers working in public and private secondary education institutions affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in Çankırı who were teaching the Turkish Republic Revolution History and Kemalism course. In the current research, the following conclusions were drawn: the duration of weekly course hours limits the fulfillment of course goals and learning outcomes, depth of content presentation, and instructional methodologies used; teachers have primarily favorable opinions about the objectives, but they identify some factors that limit the achievement of the objectives; teachers draw attention to the borders of the course, newly added topics, and the chronology in the determination, organization, and dealing with the content; although it is stated that more than one teaching method can be used in the instructional process, generally direct teaching is used; the traditional and alternative approaches are preferred together by indicating variety in the evaluation; teachers explain mainly methodological phenomena in the strengths of the curriculum, however they make explanations that focusing on content component, in comparison of the curriculum with the previous curricula, and on the weakness of the curriculum.
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