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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article 5 (Jun., 2013) |
What are teachers' opinions about including topics of natural events and their risks in primary curriculum in Kocaeli (Turkey)?
1Esma BULUŞ KIRIKKAYA and 2Beyza İMALI
1Kocaeli University, Faculty of Education, Department of Elementary Education, Kocaeli, TURKEY
E-mail: bulus@kocaeli.edu.tr
2 Kocaeli University, Graduate School Natural and Applied Science, Kocaeli, TURKEY
E-mail: beyzaimali@gmail.com
Received 6 Aug., 2012
Revised 9 Feb., 2013
Community awareness must be increased for communities to play an effective role in the mitigation of disaster damage. Education is the most effective way to accomplish this. It is important for people to know that even though they cannot intervene or prevent such events, they can take precautionary measures to reduce the damage caused by disasters. Therefore, the opinions of teachers in primary science education about these events and their risks are critical since they are responsible for teaching children about these important issues. The study group of this research included science and technology teachers in 2011 in Kocaeli-İzmit, and semi-structured interviews with teachers were conducted. This study was conducted with the working group of 20 volunteer teachers on their appointment dates only. First, the science teacher guidebooks published by the Ministry of National Education were examined. Units and learning outcomes about the risks created by natural disasters and "Safe Living and Disaster Prevention" interdisciplinary learning outcomes have been identified. According to the results, half of the teachers interviewed think that education about natural events and disasters should really be a part of the Primary Science and Technology Program, but that unfortunately it is not.
Keywords: nature events, risk of disaster, science and technology curricula, science teacher
*This article was presented, but only the abstract of it was pressed in The First International Congress on Curriculum and Instruction, 2011.
