SOSYAL BİLGİLER DERS KİTAPLARINDA BAZI TARİHSEL KAVRAMLARIN KULLANIMININ DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Conceptual Framework There have been several discussions about to define concept. Merrill (1993) defined concept as integral part of the human thought. It was also defined as intellectual structure which is developed by phenomenon (MEB, 2005). According to some scholars, concept is an act of grouping stuffs, objects, events, phenomenon, and ideas (Demirkuş ve Bayraktar, 2006; Yılmaz ve Çeltikçi, 2013). It is obvious that concepts are abstract thought. Thus concept learning is crucial for social studies knowledge acquisition. One of the main purposes of the social studies is to nurture democratic citizens who have knowledge, skills, and value which are necessary for democratic society. In order to realize this purpose, concept learning plays a key role. Indeed, concepts enable students to simplify and organize their environment and communicate effectively with others. Concept learning is one of the main components of effective social studies courses to help students to make informed and reasonable decisions (Kılınç, 2012). Thus new social studies curriculum recommended using the level of introduction, development, and enhancement for concept teaching. In this context, social studies curriculum stated that 121 main concepts must be thought at 4th and 5th grades and 131 main concepts must be thought at 6th and 7th grades. Purpose of the study Several studies have been conducted in the field of social studies about concept learning. However, there is a need to investigate coherence of concept level which used in the social studies textbooks for students. The purpose of this study is to investigate coherence of some historical concept that used in the social studies textbooks in terms of social studies curriculum. Method This study is based on the investigation of social studies curricula and social studies textbooks. The authors applied a descriptive content analysis to examine the social studies curricula and textbooks. Content analysis is described as a “research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts to the contexts of their use” (Krippendorff, 2003, p. 18). In this research, the authors tried to determine the teaching levels of some historical concepts in the “Trip to Turkish History” unit at 7th grade and its coherence 4-6th grades social studies curricula. The authors examined 4-7th grade social studies textbooks that were published by National Ministry of Education and a private publisher to investigate the coherence of usage of some historical concepts which were recommended in the curriculum.