Views of Turkish Primary School Teacher Candidates on Observation Field Trip to Combined Classes in Rural Settlements

Abstract

The general purpose of this study is to evaluate the views of primary school teacher candidates who have been taking the "Teaching in Combined Classes" course and who went on a one-time observation field trip to primary schools on this observation. The study is a qualitative research in the survey model. Study group of the research is made up of teacher candidates who were primary education department seniors at Konya University Ahmet Keleşoğlu Faculty of Education during the spring semester of 2011-2012 academic year. 40 volunteer teacher candidates participated in the study. In the study, since the views of teacher candidates were taken in writing, "descriptive analysis" method which is a qualitative research technique is used for data analysis. In this research, the data are presented by taking the survey questions into account. Survey forms were numbered from 1 to 40. Direct quotations have been taken from teacher candidates' statements to reflect the views of the teacher candidates. While taking quotations, the numbers assigned to teacher candidates were used. According to the data findings, the majority of the teacher candidates expressed that they would want to work in combined classes after the observation field trip. All of the teacher candidates stated that making an observation filed trip to village schools with combined classes contributed to their professional development. Most of the teacher candidates expressed that observation field trips to combined classes should be two semesters.