Abstract
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN TURKEY
The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of geography teaching in primary schools in Turkey with a historical perspective. In the study, curriculums from past to present, national education organization decisions and related the journals of tebligler are examined with document analysis method. The findings obtained by the descriptive analysis technique are discussed through the related literature and various suggestions have been put forward to contribute to the solution of the current problems related to the teaching of geography. In fact, from the 4th grade until the end of high school, geography was taught as a separate course in the foundation period of the republic. As a result of the American social studies movement since the 1960s, history, geography and civics courses have been transformed into a single course as a social studies course. In the 1970s, this integration was also carried out in secondary schools. After the 1980 military coup, the course of social studies in secondary schools was removed and National Geography, National History and Civics courses were included in the curriculum. In 1998, primary and secondary schools were united as elementary schools and in the transition period of 8 years of uninterrupted compulsory schooling, national geography and national history courses were removed and the social studies course from 4th to 7th grade was put back into the curriculum. In 2005, it was adopted a new approach that could affect all educational institutions and a strong emphasis was placed on the constructivist approach. In this context, all primary and secondary curriculums were renewed. Therefore, interdisciplinary new learning areas have been developed within the newly developed social studies program. The importance of geography cannot be ignored in the realization of the gains related to these learning areas. In addition, it is seen that the course of liv information and some gains in the course of science and technology are directly related to geography. However, it is also important to increase the effectiveness of the holistic approach of geography which has the feature of integrating between nature and social sciences in primary and secondary education. In addition, it has been proposed to increase academic studies in order to make more use of historical experience in solving current problems of Geography teaching.
Keywords
Geography teaching, Elementary School, Turkey, Historical Development.