In this study, children's rights education is theoretically evaluated in the context of the new sociology of childhood. International documents identify the right to education as one of the fundamental human rights. In the 1980s and 1990s, when the new sociology of childhood emerged in response to developmental psychology and traditional socialization theories, many experts held that the sociology of childhood and children's rights were two complementary fields. The first of the prominent views in terms of an alternative perspective is the view that childhood is not a universal form and is considered under social, political, historical and moral aspects. This view has made a significant contribution to the discussion of rights in the political and social context in terms of sociological analysis and criticism. The second important view of the sociology of childhood is that childhood is considered as an active and creative social factor in an environment that surrounds and includes it. Child rights education should be provided in a structure that contributes to the development of the child as an active individual in the context of the new sociology of childhood. Hence, recognizing and integrating the insights from the new sociology of childhood is pivotal for a more nuanced, comprehensive, and effective child rights education.

Life science course has an important place in preparing students for life and higher education levels by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills and values. In the research, it was aimed to describe the similarities and differences by comparing the Türkiye and Azerbaijan Life Science Curriculum at primary school level. Case design, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. While examining the similarities and differences in both programs that were analyzed descriptively, the four basic elements of the education programs and life skills and values included in the Life Science Curriculum were taken into account. As a result of the research, it has been concluded that Türkiye and Azerbaijan Life Science Programs are quite similar in terms of general purposes, life skills, content, values and learning-teaching processes. It has been seen that the Azerbaijan Life Science Curriculum has the quality of a guide in terms of guiding teachers according to the Türkiye Life Science Curriculum.

In this study, it is aimed to apply the activities related to hospitality prepared by considering the teaching approaches suitable for the nature of values to primary school fourth grade students and to evaluate the results. In the study, a quasi-experimental design (selective) with a pretest posttest control group, one of the quantitative research designs, was used. The data of the research were collected through the scales of being respectful, loving, tolerant and hospitable. Data were analyzed with the Mann Whitney U test. As a result of the research: While there was no significant difference in the pre-test findings of the experimental and control group students' tendencies to be respectful, love, tolerant and hospitable; In the post-test findings, it was observed that there was a significant difference in favor of the experimental group in the tendencies of being respectful, loving, and tolerant. In the post-test findings of the tendency to be hospitable, it was seen that the experimental group scores increased, but this difference was not significant. According to these findings, activities related to hospitality, which are structured in accordance with the nature of values and the developmental characteristics of students, significantly increase the tendency of primary school fourth grade students to be respectful, affectionate, and tolerant; It can be said that it also contributed significantly to the tendency to be hospitable.

In today's rapidly evolving technological setting, having digital literacy skills is considered as a requirement to adapt to these developments. It is of great importance that secondary school students, often referred to as digital natives, acquire these skills. Similarly, the educators responsible for instructing them should have a sufficient level of knowledge. In this sense, this study aimed to examine the current state of digital literacy among social studies teachers and 7th-grade secondary school students with the goal of instructing digital literacy skills. In this study, in which the phenomenological method was employed, data was collected using two different interview forms, and was analyzed using content analysis. Both teacher and student participants generally described digital literacy as the ability to access, share, and create information in the digital environment. Since the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants reported that they used the Educational Informatics Network (Eğitim Bilişim Ağı) platform and social media for educational purposes. They also expressed a shared belief in practices such as using propoer passwords, antivirus software usage, and not sharing personal or others' information to ensure security in digital environments. In addition, it was found that both teacher and student participants were aware of at least one ethical rule regarding digital literacy. Teacher participants emphasized the need for an expanded curriculum that supports digital literacy in social studies through practical education. They also mentioned that the training they received in digital literacy was insufficient and ineffective. 

Social Studies, Science and Primary School Teaching undergraduate programs have a multidisciplinary structure and geography is one of the disciplines serving as a source for these branches. In this regard, the Student Selection and Placement Center (SSPC) asks questions from geography subjects in the teaching field knowledge test exams of these branches. This research was conducted to determine the distribution of geography questions asked in the Social Studies, Science and Primary School Teaching field knowledge test exams conducted by SSPC between 2015-2021years according to the subjects of geography.This study was carried out with a document analysis method of qualitative research design. According to the findings, it was determined that 161 questions were asked from geography subjects in the Social Studies, Science, and Primary School Teaching TFKT exams between 2015-2021. When the distribution of these questions according to branches and geography subjects is examined; 79 questions were asked in the Social Studies test in the TFKT exams, 45.6% of these questions were physical geography, 38% were human and economic geography, 5.1% were political geography, and 11.4% were geography of countries; in the Science test, 35 questions were asked, 61% of these questions were related to physical geography, 31.5% to human and economic geography, 6% to political geography; in the Primary School Teaching test, 47 questions were asked, 70.2% of these questions were related to physical geography, 25.5% to human and economic geography, and 4.3% to political geography.

This study aimed to determine the question type of the written exam questions prepared by the social studies teachers and to examine the compatibility of the questions with the item writing techniques by using the document analysis method. Study data were collected from 20 social studies teachers and analyzed through the "Item Writing Techniques Checklist". Research findings revealed that social studies teachers preferred multiple-choice question types the most in written exam questions, followed by two-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching and open-ended question types, respectively. In addition, findings showed that teachers were open to improvement reading criteria such as phrasing the stem of the question clearly, directly and simply, creating equivalent clauses in grammar, length, and complexity, distractor development, shaping items around a single proposition or idea, stating that each equivalent may not be used once, more than once, or not at all, including more responses than premises, not leaving spaces of the same width, and hinting at the correct answer.  Based on these result, it I suggested to conduct applied studies to investigate the reasons why open-ended questions are rarely used although they are crucial in terms of developing students' high-level thinking skills as well as to determine the level of acquisition of the achievements in the analysis, synthesis and evaluation steps and to develop projects to ensure the professional development of teachers in terms of acquisition-based and skill-based item writing techniques.

In Türkiye, it is crucial to link the 4th grade social studies course with mathematical concepts to unveil the interdisciplinary coherence of the curriculum. This study aims to identify mathematical concepts in the social studies textbook for 4th graders and explore how these concepts are presented. To attain this goal, document analysis is employed. The data for this study were sourced from the primary school 4th-grade Social Studies textbook, which was created according to the 2018 Social Studies Curriculum, and the 2018 Mathematics Curriculum. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the social studies textbook included mathematical concepts from various learning areas in the mathematics curriculum. Among these areas, measurement was the most common, followed by concepts related to numbers and operations.  Additionally, the social studies curriculum supports mathematics skills by incorporating concepts related to geometry and data processing into its learning areas. This offers primary school teachers an opportunity for interdisciplinary instruction.

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the learning objectives for 2nd graders in the 2018 Life Studies curriculum and root values and to find out the perceptions of 2nd grade primary school students towards root values by means of a word association test. It is a qualitative research in the phenomenology model. The study group for the research consists of 17 students attending the 2nd grade. List of Root Values and the Word Association Test [WAT] were used as data collection tools. The objectives in six units in the 2018 Life Studies 2nd grade curriculum were examined by the researchers in terms of their relationship with root values. The word association test on root values was applied to primary school students. Descriptive analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. Students' answers were evaluated, and frequency tables of the words were created. Considering the frequencies of the answer words, four cut-off points were determined. Conceptual network maps were then prepared with the words at the cut-off points. In the conceptual networks, the relationships between the words produced by the students related to the keywords were revealed. The findings obtained in the study reveal that the root values associated with the objectives do not show a balanced distribution across units and that student perceptions of root values are shaped independently of the relationship between the root values and the learning objectives. The results of the study show that word association tests can be used as a diagnostic tool. 

This study was conducted to determine social studies teachers’ views on reasons leading to difficulties in teaching and learning some subjects in the social studies course and their solution proposals. The case study model, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was employed in the study. Study data were collected from 36 social studies teachers working in Tokat, Türkiye in the 2021-2022 academic year. The data were collected by using a semi-structured interview form consisting of seven questions, and they were tabulated under certain codes and subjected to content analysis. As a result of the interviews with the teachers, it was concluded that history subjects were the most challenging in the teaching and learning of the social studies course. Reasons for the difficulties in the teaching and learning of these subjects included teacher, student, curriculum, method-technique, and material-related problems. It was concluded that factors, such as lack of interest in the course, poor motivation, not doing homework, and not revising the subjects, were effective reasons why students had difficulty learning history subjects. Teachers’ reasons why they had difficulties teaching history subjects were inadequate undergraduate education and school experience courses, not following the innovations in their fields, having problems with technology, and poor motivation. Students saw history subjects as rote learning, difficult, and boring, which decreased their motivation and negatively affected the teaching process of social studies course. For this reason, it is very crucial to use materials that will increase interest in the course and make it fun.

This study examines prospective social studies teachers’ competencies to use controversial issues in social studies. 45 prospective social studies teachers participated in the study using convergent parallel design. The data were collected through a competence scale developed by the researcher and the lesson plans prepared by the prospective teachers. The quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, and arithmetic average, as well as the independent samples t-test. The thematic analysis was used for the analysis of qualitative data. It was found that the prospective teachers think that they are competent at intermediate levels for teaching controversial issues in social studies classes. The results based on the analysis of the lesson plans reveal that prospective teachers can identify a wide range of learning outcomes and controversial topics in compliance with the curriculum; however, they address these subjects with a content-based approach. It was further determined that a limited number of prospective teachers create contexts in which different opinions are expressed by building scenarios that contain dilemmas for the students; that the questions they make use of, are insufficient in terms of quality, although they include the questions regarding argumentation processes in their lesson plans and that most of the participants failed to develop a net assessment and evaluation strategy for the assessment of teaching of controversial issues. The study results reveal that prospective teachers’ competencies must be improved, especially regarding the teaching process of controversial issues.

As an active member of the society, the social studies course contributes to the development of awareness on social and environmental issues among students. Today, the concept of sustainability is gaining importance, as environmental problems are increasing day by day and in negative forms all over the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of activities for sustainability awareness on students' sustainable living awareness in 6th grade social studies course. The research was carried out according to the embedded experimental design which is one of the mixed-method designs. The participants consist of students attending in a 6th grade of a public secondary school in Eskişehir in the 2021-2022 academic year. Data were collected with “Sustainable Living Awareness Scale” [SLAS] developed by Akgül and Aydoğdu (2020), and semi-structured interviews with students. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS 24 Package Program. Inductive analysis was used in qualitative data analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that activities for sustainability awareness significantly increased the sustainable living awareness levels of the students in the experimental group. Additionally, students emphasized that activities for sustainability awareness had a significant effect on the increase in sustainable living awareness level. In this context, suggestions put forth that activities for sustainability awareness can be used to improve students’ sustainable living awareness levels in the social studies course.

One of the purposes of education is to instill various values in individuals. Among the aspects of value education is the teaching of moral values. These moral values are now also sought in the digital environment as the usage of digital technology and time spent in digital spaces increase in this era. With this in mind, the aim of the research is to analyze students' levels of perception of moral values in digital environments and the impact of various factors (such as gender, class level, school location, duration of internet usage, and parents' educational status) on these perceptions. The study employs a survey model and involves a sample of 926 students from 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades in schools in Kırşehir and its districts. Data for the research were gathered face-to-face using the "Scale of Middle School Students' Perceptions Towards Moral Values in the Digital Environment." In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics such as mean (M), standard deviation (SD), frequency (f), and percentage (%) were utilized, alongside ANOVA and independent t-tests. The study concluded that students generally have a high level of perception related to moral values in digital contexts. In addition to this, a significant difference was observed favoring female students in terms of their perception levels of moral values in digital environments when viewed through the lens of gender variability. However, no significant differences were found when these perception levels were examined concerning class level, school location, duration of internet usage, or the educational status of parents. 

In the undergraduate programs implemented in Türkiye, there are two types of courses: compulsories electives. This reality may also affect the strategies that teacher candidates apply when choosing elective courses. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to determine the social studies teacher candidates’ strategies in the elective course preferences and to discuss the emerging pattern with social cognitive, reasoned action and planned behavior theories. The study was carried out in accordance with the phenomenology design, and interviews and focus group interviews were conducted with the participants who preferred elective courses at least ten times before. The data was collected from students enrolled in a state university during the 2022-2023 academic year. In the analysis of the data, the inductive approach was preferred and content analysis was used. As a result of the analysis of the data, the categories were combined under the headings of selection strategy, the purpose of elective courses and the effect of KPSS on course preference strategies. In addition, based on the themes and participant expressions, the patterns that the participants followed during their choice of elective courses were also determined. Based on the research findings, it was understood that pre-service teachers developed strategies for the purpose of passing the course effortlessly and easily, not for the purpose of contributing to their personal development or gaining an interdisciplinary approach. Finally, suggestions such as determining elective courses through needs analysis have been made.

Moral disengagement, which means that an individual does not feel remorse of conscience when he/she behaves outside of moral standards, has attracted research interest in recent years. The present study aims to reveal the direction and strength of the relationship between pre-service teachers' moral disengagement levels and their academic motivation. In addition, the research also reveals whether moral disengagement scores differ significantly in terms of various variables. The research, which was designed with relational survey method, was carried out on a total of 417 pre-service teachers studying in different departments of the Faculty of Education. "Moral Disengagement Scale" and "Academic Motivation Scale" were used to collect the data. Spearman rhu correlation test, Mann Withneyy U and Kruskall Wallis analyses were used in the analysis of the data. In addition, Dunnett T3 test was used to analyse which group was in favour of the significant difference between the groups. As a result of the study, no significant relationship was found between academic motivation and moral disengagement total scores. When the results of the research are evaluated in general, it can be concluded that moral disengagement is negatively related to positive behaviours and positively related to negative behaviours. In other words, as positive behaviours increase, moral disengagement decreases, and as negative behaviours increase, moral disengagement increases. For this reason, intervention programmes for positive behaviour should be developed.