Merkeziyetçi öğretim programının öğrenme ve öğretme sürecine dönüştürülmesi : tasarlanan programın uygulama yolculuğu

The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers perceive and understand the centralized social studies curriculum, and how they transform this curriculum into classroom practices through planning and teaching. A phenomenological qualitative study was employed in the study and data collection process composed of two phases. In the first phase, data were collected from 30 4th and 5th grade teachers through semi-structured interviews. In the second phase, observations and follow up interviews were conducted with 10 4th and 5th grade classroom teachers. The results indicated that transformation of curriculum, including teachers? thinking about the instruction, their instructional planning practices, their decision making process, and their classroom practices was related with teachers? perceptions of the curriculum and their understanding about the philosophy, theory, and policies behind the curriculum. Moreover, the level of teachers? commitment to curriculum during transformation of it was also linked to the level of their taking part in the curriculum development process. Challenges of curriculum implementation were also identified as standardized curriculum, national testing system, limited information about practicing constructivist curriculum in class, insufficient in-service training programs about implementation of constructivist curriculum, school context, classroom environment, large class size, lack of support from administrators, meeting the varied needs of students with different backgrounds, allocated time for units and instruction, ineffective curriculum materials, and lack of resources. The findings further revealed that teachers? varied approaches to transformation of curriculum depend on their perceptions and understanding of the curriculum, experience, educational backgrounds, knowledge on the subject matter, their educational approach, students, and school context.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra