Sosyal Bilgiler Dersinde Sosyobilimsel Konuların Öğretimine Yönelik Bir Durum Çalışması

Social studies is a subject aimed at equipping students with life skills such as inquiry, decision-making, and critical thinking. Students are confronted with current topics and issues in social studies class, which helps develop their life skills. Nowadays, socioscientific issues occupy a significant place within current topics. Therefore, the teaching of socioscientific issues in social studies classes plays an important role in achieving the objectives of the social studies curriculum. Based on this importance, the aim of this study is to reveal middle school students' experiences regarding the teaching of socioscientific issues in social studies classes. The study was conducted in accordance with the case study design, one of the qualitative research patterns. The study group consists of six fifth-grade students studying at a public middle school. As data collection tools, student diaries, researcher diaries, and focus group interviews were utilized. Content analysis was used for data analysis. The study concluded that the teaching of socioscientific issues in social studies classes offers various contributions to both students and the course delivery. Based on the results of the study, it has been suggested that various research be conducted on the teaching of socioscientific issues in social studies classes to provide students with skills, and that the number of such studies be increased.