What are teachers' opinions about including topics of natural events and their risks in primary curriculum in Kocaeli (Turkey)?

Science and technology teachers in Kocaeli-Izmit were selected as the participants in this study. This study was conducted in 2011 with the working group of 20 identified 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 events and "Safe Living and Disaster Prevention" interdisciplinary learning outcomes have been identified. In the 6th grade Science and Technology program, only the topic of erosion is being taught to students. In the 7th grade program, the risks posed by natural events are only being taught in an indirect and superficial manner. The largest topic about the risks posed by natural events is seen in the last unit of the 8th grade Science and Technology Program as "nature processes".

In this part of the research study, semi-structured interviews with teachers were conducted. The interview the form approach was adopted. This approach allows for flexibility in terms of time and a way to organize the data analysis. Three science and technology teachers were interviewed about this questions while be preparation the open-ended questions in this form. The researcher explained the purpose of the interview. She gave reassure to teachers related with the remain confidential of interviews. All interviews were done in a comfortable and natural environment for teachers. Interviews were recorded with their permission. In addition, the researcher took notes to facilitate data analysis.

Teachers were asked the following questions in the interviews:

1. What do you think about the existence of the topics of natural events and the disasters they cause in the Primary Science and Technology Program? Should they be included? Do you think they are adequately covered?

2. Do you take interdisciplinary learning outcomes such as safe living and disaster precautions into consideration while teaching in the Primary Education of Science and Technology Program? Do these learning outcomes need to be included in the Science and Technology Program? Why or why not?

3. What are the major problems you have encountered while teaching about natural events and the disasters they cause in the Primary Science and Technology Program?

4. What methods do you use to overcome such problems?

5. What do you suggest to make teaching of the topics more effective in the Primary Science and Technology Program?

Descriptive analysis method was used to analyze the data. The data obtained was analyzed separately and are written. It was created a coding key as bringing together of similar answers for each questions. In order to determine the reliability of coding key, randomly selected five interview form were reviewed by two separate researchers. With this technique, the framework for data analysis was formed based on the research questions. According to this frame, the data will be organized under the themes identified. The findings were defined with the frequency and percentage values and after reading and organizing the data. They were supported with the direct quotations as seen necessary. The number of participating in this study was 20. However, teachers reported many views for the questions to be included in more than one category. For these teachers' opinions of (N) are encountered more than 20.