AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL STUDIES PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES REGARDING GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES, RENAISSANCE AND REFORM

The aim of this study is to reveal the cognitive structures and knowledge levels of social studies preservice teacher related to the concepts of Geographical Discoveries, Renaissance and Reform by using a word association test. To this end, this study was conducted with the participation of 311 volunteering preservice teachers studying in the social studies education department of a university in Ankara, in the Spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The survey method was used in the study. The Word Association Test (WAT) was used as the data collection tool. The Geographical Discoveries, Renaissance and Reform Movements taught as part of the 7th grade Culture and Heritage learning domain were presented to the teacher candidates. Teacher candidates’ answers to the key concepts were examined, conceptual associations were identified, and the candidates’ cognitive structures were thus revealed. Most of the words that the participants associated with the key concept of “Geographical Discoveries” related to the continent of “America.” The concept of the “Renaissance” was most often associated with the word “rebirth.” The “Reform” key concept was associated the most with “Christianity.” The preservice social studies teachers were found to make the highest number of sentences containing scientific knowledge related to the key concept of “Geographical Discoveries.” It was also found that as regards the key concepts of “Renaissance” and “Reform,” the proportion of sentences containing scientific knowledge fell sharply whereas the proportion of sentences that did not include any scientific knowledge or had misconceptions increased dramatically.

Keywords

Geographical Discoveries, Renaissance, Reform, Social Studies, Word Association Test