Social Studies Teachers’ Perceptions about the Difficulty of Skills Development

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of Social Studies teachers about teaching students the skills in the curriculum. Obtaining the opinions of Social Studies teachers regarding the acquisition of the skills in the program will contribute to the improvement of the infrastructure and practices of the skills that are difficult to acquire. A qualitative research method was adopted to collect data in the study. Consistent with the research method, a phenomenological approach was followed. The study group of the research consists of a total of 16 Social Studies teachers who are work in middle schools, 11 of whom are female and 5 of whom are male. A form containing both closed and open-ended questions prepared by the researchers was used as a data collection tool in the study. These data were analyzed using the descriptive analysis method. According to the findings of the research, among these skills, the ability to recognize stereotypes and prejudice (N = 12) and empathy (N = 8) are among the most difficult skills to acquire; cooperation (N=11) and social participation (N=9) skills were found to be in the category of skills that are most easily acquired. As a result of the research, it was seen that the skills that the participants had the most difficulty in acquiring were the ability to recognize stereotypes and prejudices and the skill of empathy, whereas they did not have difficulty in gaining cooperation and social participation skills. At the end of the research, the factors affecting the acquisition of skills were interpreted in line with the findings and contexts were established.