Evaluation of Master’s Theses in the Field of Social Sciences Education: 2011-2014

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the theses written in the field of social studies education in 2011-2014 in Turkey. Within the context of the current study, totally 307 master’s theses written in 2011-2014 in relation to their topic, study group and method were examined. One of the qualitative data analysis techniques, descriptive analysis was employed in the study. While examining the theses, a file was opened for each thesis with a code such as T1, T2 etc, the topic, study group and method of each thesis were recorded in its file and then these data were transferred to NVivo 9.0 program.  Then, as a result of the descriptive analysis conducted, the topics of the theses were coded in such a way as to collect them under themes. At the end of the coding process, models including the frequencies of the marking of each code were constructed.  The results of the evaluation show that the main focus of the theses is the effect of teaching methods and techniques that can be used in social studies courses on the attitudes, behaviors and academic achievement of students. In addition to this, there are also many theses addressing the efficiency of the social studies course in imparting target skills, values and information to students. Moreover, there are some theses aiming to develop the current social studies program.  While usually the students attending social studies classes constitute the study group of the theses, there are also some theses looking at the opinions of teachers and pre-service teachers. In general, descriptive survey and pretest-posttest experimental research design were used in the theses. In the analyses, quantitative data analysis techniques were employed.    

 

Keywords: social sciences master theses; social science education