Analysis of Primary School Students’ Creative Thinking Tendencies towards Social Studies

Abstract

In the study it was aimed to examine primary school students' creative thinking tendencies towards social studies. The research was designed according to phenomenology design form, which is one of the qualitative research design forms. The participants of the study were determined according to the criterion sampling, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods. The participants of the study are the 4th graders where the social studies course is given. Research data are gathered through the interview method. An open-ended interview form was used while collecting research data. In the interview form, students were asked to form metaphors in one question and to answer the questions by drawing a picture in the other questions. Data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The results obtained according to the outcome of the research are as follows: Life, right, experience, life science, friendship, communication, children's rights, knowledge lesson, responsibility, box full of information, physical science, scholar, smart board, entertainment, information garden, culture, scientists, machinery, history, technology, justice, geography have been the metaphors obtained. When asked about their dream social studies course, they drew pictures illustrating activities where they actively took part. As for their dream social studies teacher; The illustrations of mostly more well-groomed, modern, smiling, more caring, polite behaving teachers and mostly the female teachers as a social studies teacher are among the pictures they drew. Regarding the question of what would you like to learn more from the social studies course, they mostly drew pictures illustrating subjects focused on social activities, sensitivity, child rights, subjects related to Ataturk and with themes of information related to the natural environment, protecting the natural environment, traffic rules they might use in their daily life, information on their personal identity and family, science and technology.