Pre-Service Social Studies Teachers’ Views About Teacher Training (Focus Group Interviews)

The purpose of this study is to reveal the pre-service social studies teachers’ opinions about teacher training. This study is carried out via qualitative research method. The study group consisted of 6 4th year students studying in the department of social studies teaching in Kazım Karabekir Education Faculty of Ataturk University in 2018-2019 academic year. The data obtained with focus group interview technique was analysed via content analysis. Considering the results, the pre-service teachers argued that the purposes of the education faculties were to graduate students or only tell subjects based on memorization. According to the pre-service teachers, education faculties generally fail in teacher training. They stated that only existing applied courses would make contributions to their professional experience. In addition to this, they mentioned focusing more attention on practices and stated that the training practices should be increased. They determined that the courses in social studies program should be redesigned according to their functionality.