Research in Social Sciences and Technology

1-16

Authors: Bittman, B., & Russell, W.

Social studies teachers instruct their students through a variety of instructional pedagogies. Social science education researchers have called for K-12 teachers to transition away from a traditional lecture format and move towards a format that encourages critical thinking. Classroom debates of controversial issues are a common method by which teachers engage students in higher-order thinking. This research study utilizes the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 12th grade civics assessment (n = 9,800) to identify instructional techniques that improve student’s score. Utilizing the NAEP Data Explorer online statistical analysis tool, a linear regression was conducted examining the effects of race, socio-economic status, instructional pedagogies, and access to newspapers and computers on student performance. Results show that discussing current events, at any frequency, increases student performance. Students who participated in classroom debates once or twice a month or less also improved.African-American and Hispanic students scored lower, as did students who qualified for free and reduced lunches. This study suggests that the inclusion of current events should be encouraged civics classes.

55-66

Authors: James Mauch & Bulent Tarman

In the early years of Social Studies education, great attention was given to “Social Studies Laboratories” and a teaching and learning pedagogy called “The Laboratory Method”. This study examines historical documents about the development of the social studies laboratory. The researchers examined certain periodicals published in the US such as Education, The Historical Outlook and The History Teacher’s Magazine along with the non-experimental historical research methodology. In an age of inquiry-based projects and “hands-on” approaches to the learning of Social Studies, a brief historical overview of the foundations of such approaches in the Social Studies seems appropriate from US perspective. Parallels are drawn by using comparative approach, and suggestions made, for a twenty-first century approach to a Social Studies Laboratory and a Laboratory Method of teaching the many disciplines that define the Social Studies. The findings of this study indicate that despite the social studies classroom, method and laboratory may have changed a great deal over the past century, the goals of the social studies teacher have not changed. The social studies teacher still works to keep his or her students actively engaged in learning, still works to help them learn new concepts and skills, and still works to help each and every student succeed. Above all, the social studies teacher still looks for strategies and tools to help students prepare for life outside of the classroom. In conclusion, a valuable lesson is to be learned from the early development of the social studies laboratory: the room, the technology and the innovative ideas are meaningless unless accompanied by a commitment to move toward student-centered activities and learning, a twenty-first century version of the “laboratory method”. It is when technological access becomes inexorably entwined with teaching strategies that empower students to use, develop and critique the technology that substantive learning takes place in the social studies classroom.

1-23

Authors: WATERS, Stewart & RUSSELL, William B.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of six secondary pre-service teachers that completed a semester long internship with a supervising mentor at a virtual school in the Southeastern United States. The secondary pre-service teachers in this study voluntarily chose a placement in the virtual school over a traditional classroom placement for completion of their initial licensure field experience. This study sought to examine why secondary pre-service teachers chose a virtual internship and what their experiences were like as online instructors. A total of six participants completed a sixty-minute semi-structured interview at the completion of the semester long virtual school internship. Results of the study indicated that secondary pre-service teachers’ primary motivation for entering a virtual internship experience was “convenience.” Additionally, participants felt prepared for future employment in virtual schools, but had some reservations about their prospects in a traditional classroom setting.

44-58

Authors: Korkmaz, U., & Yutrtseven Avci, Z.

The present study investigates pre-service teachers’ experience about playing technology games and their opinions about using contemporary technology to play games as an instructional tool. The participants are272 pre-service teachersfrom a university in Middle Anatolia. The present study used mixed methods. The data was collected through an online survey that was created by the authors. The survey contains demographic questions about the participants` gender, major,whether they play technology gamesor not,and questions about which technology games they play, their opinions about using technology (IWBs and tablets) to play games for instruction, and for which instructional purposes they plan using technology to play games. Following research questions were investigated for the current study: 1.Whether pre-service teachers play technology games or not? If yes, which technology games they play? 2. Whether pre-service teachers plan to use interactive white boards and tablets that were distributed by the government under FATIH project to play technology games for educational purposes? 3. Whether pre-teachers’ opinions about using the IWBs and tablets to play instructional games associated with their gender and playing technology games? 4. For which instructional purposes pre-service teachers plan to use IWBs and tablets to play instructional games? For the second and third questions descriptive statistics and crosstabs were conducted. For the first and fourth questions content analysis was applied. Fifty-four percent (n=148) of the pre-service teachers agreed to use the IWBs and tablets to play technology games for educational purposes while 46% (n=124) did not. There is no statistically significant association between gender and plans usingthe IWBs and tablets to play instructional games. There was a statistically significant associationbetween who PlayingTechnology Games and Plans Using IWBs and Tablets to Play Instructional Games. Pre-service teachers who play technology games reported higher scores than the ones who do not play technology games. The participants suggested that using IWBs and tablets to play games would make learning fun and easy. The study has implications forteacher education and K-12 education policy. The present study also adds to the knowledge of whether the Y-generation pre-service teachers find the recent technology games useful for education or not

77-97

Authors: Bulent Tarman

We are living in a world that is changing rapidly and becoming more globalized. Especially the changes in the areas of science, technology and economy are becoming effective in the areas like education and health that are closely related to human life. We are experiencing a quick process named ’globalization’ that changes economic, social and political structures of the world and that no one can predict the outcome. These changes create new opportunities while opening new challenging areas. In order for countries to compete with each other, they need to be creative in all areas and they also need to be reformist to cope with domestic, national and global problems. In this study, the innovations in the area of education throughout the world will be examined and the place of Turkey compared to other countries in educational innovations will be analyzed. Also the concept of ‘Charter Schools’ as acceleration in educational innovation in the United State of America, who is the leader in terms of innovation in the World, will be analyzed. This study will also analyze the Charter Schools in the USA and discuss whether the concept can be implemented in Turkey and bring dynamism to education or increase the quality of education. While looking for the answers of these questions, the researcher conducted a literature review and also used the data he gathered while staying in the USA for nine years for pursuing his MA and PhD degrees.