AN EXAMINATION OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON ORIENTATION TRAININGS OF THE TÜRKİYE CENTURY EDUCATION MODEL

The aim of this study is to examine the opinions of primary school teachers regarding the adaptation training programs organized for the Turkish Century Education Model. Using a qualitative phenomenological design, the study group comprised of 25 primary school teachers from six state primary schools in Diyarbakır province during the 2024-2025 academic year. To reflect the opinions of teachers with different professional experience levels, maximum diversity sampling, a type of purposeful sampling, was used. A semi-structured interview form was prepared as a data collection tool, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants. The obtained data were analysed using the content analysis method. According to the findings of the research, a significant portion of primary school teachers found the adaptation training programs inadequate in terms of scope, duration, and content. Teachers stated that the orientation training programs mostly remained at the theoretical level, that there were limited examples of practical applications, and that their direct contribution to classroom practices was low. The findings reveal that the orientation training programs contributed to teachers at the cognitive level; however, this contribution was not reflected at the behavioural level to the expected extent. Furthermore, problems related to the duration and planning of training sessions have been observed to negatively impact the achievement of the defined training objectives. Based on the research findings, it is suggested that orientation training sessions should be organized around teacher needs, include practice samples, and enable teacher participation. The planning of orientation training sessions should consider the actual classroom conditions and needs that teachers encounter in the field. It is recommended that phased and time-spread training models be adopted instead of short-term and intensive programs.