Social Studies Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions on Local Children’s Games


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UYGUN K. U.

Kalem Uluslararası Eğitim ve İnsan Bilimleri Dergisi, vol.13, no.24, pp.58-81, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal) identifier

Abstract

Game is one of the methods used in teaching social studies. The aim of this study is to reveal the opinions of social studies teacher candidates about local children’s games. Phenomenology, which is one of the qualitative research designs, has been used in the research. The study group of the research consists of 20 social studies teacher candidates (female=12, male=8) who studied at the Social Studies Teaching at a state university in the 2019-2020 academic year and took the “Local Children’s Games” course. The study group was determined using the criterion sampling method, which is one of the non-random purposeful sampling methods. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and analyzed by content analysis method. The views obtained were collected in 54 codes. Considering the opinions of social studies teacher candidates, local games such as “hımbıl”, “bezirganbaşı”, “kördüğüm” came to the fore. They stated that local children’s games develop communication, cooperation and social participation skills, and values of responsibility, solidarity and respect. Place problem, communication problems and difficulty in determining the appropriate game for the age level of the students were identified among the problems related to local children’s games. Arrangement of playgrounds, raising the awareness of students and increasing the lesson time were presented as suggestions.