High School Students’ Views and Attitudes towards Geography Courses in Turkey

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 458 - 478, 31.08.2019

Erol Sözen

https://doi.org/10.33403/rigeo.566402

Abstract

Geography, which is very
important in understanding the place we live on, should be an area of interest
for students rather than just a course. Geography education is an important subject
in Turkey that has been offered in various institutions from pre-school to
post-graduate education. The first geography course curriculum began to be
implemented in 1924 in the history of the Republic. Geography course curricula
(GCC), as in other courses, have also been changed since 1924.With the
amendment of 2005, the GCC has reached a very different structure than the
previous curricula and has entered into the application with many changes and
innovations. The Geography Curriculum had new revisions and innovations in 2018
as well. Despite these changes, the curriculum’s structure has not been
changed. Students centered instruction, construvtivist approach, and active
learning strategies were the heart of the curriculum. The aim of this study was
to determine the views of high school students studying in Düzce province about
in-class learning-teaching activities, material use in geography courses and
their attitudes towards geography courses based on these, and to examine this
subject in terms of various variables (gender of student, gender of the
geography teacher, whether the course is liked, school location, class level
and school type). Survey model was used in this study. For this purpose, a
scale was developed for the study. A 25-item “learning process in geography course,
material use and student attitude” scale consisting of three factors including
developed. The study group consists of 568 students studying in various high
schools in Düzce during the 2018-2019 academic year. Statistical analyzes were
performed using SPSS 22.0 (Statistical Package for Social Science for Personal
Computers) software. The results indicated that even though the 2018 revised
curriculum implemented active learning, constructivist approach, and student
centered program, teachers utilize traditional instructional methods according
to students. Teachers mainly use textbooks and they hardly use instructional
materials. Results also indicated that teachers only use traditional assessment
methods. The use of student portfolios, group work, and student projects hardly
exist in classrooms.

Keywords

geography curricula, student viewpoints, material use, in-class activities

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