AJESI

The objective of the present study is to attempt to determine the views of junior high school 7th grade students about the concept of "state" via metaphors. Based on the study objective, the following research questions were identified: 1. What are the metaphors that students related with the concept of the “state”? 2. Under which conceptual categories the metaphors put forward by the students could be grouped based on their common characteristics? 3. Do the metaphor categories formed by the students differ based on the gender variable? 4. Do the metaphor categories formed by the students differ based on the home town variable? 5. Do the metaphor categories formed by the students differ based on the family income variable? 6. Do the metaphor categories formed by the students differ based on the parents education level variable? The present study is a descriptive research because it aims to present the situation as it is. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in collection, analysis and interpretation of the collected data in the study. The qualitative research method, phenomenology design was used in the study. In the study, data were collected with a personal information form and additional survey forms that required the students to fill in the blanks in the following sentence: "State" is like ............, Because ............ ''. Based on the obtained data, it was determined that the students produced 42 valid metaphors about the concept of "state". Differences between the metaphors developed by the students on the concept of the state based on various variables were analyzed using adequate statistical methods. The data obtained in the present study were analyzed with SPSS 21 software. The present study yielded 6 different conceptual categories related to the concept of "state." These were Protection, Facilitating Life, Management, Unity, Power, and Negativity. Based on the results, it was observed that the perceptions of the students on the concept of the state did not exhibit statistically significant differences based on Gender, Hometown, Family Income, and Parents’ Education Level variables.

Keywords: State, metaphor, category.
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Social studies course consists of an individual’s effort to perceive, understand and interpret the world s/he lives in, but, beginning this in his/her nearby environment. As it is interdisciplinary, social studies course is closely associated with geography. In terms of contributing to the multidimensional development process of the individual, the location-orientation skills, the basis of students’ geographical knowledge, as well as the map-literacy skills are important. This study was decided to find out if these skills which, in a way, constitute the basis of geographic literacy were acquired by secondary school students and to what extent they used the knowledge. With this study, the answers for the questions as whether the 7th graders have sufficient knowledge on the research issue, whether the curriculum of social studies course is satisfactory in terms of the students’ location-orientation and map literacy skills, whether the curriculum includes acquisitions for these skills will have been sought. Of the qualitative research methods, the specific case study design was used in this research in which the 7th graders’ location-orientation and map literacy skills were evaluated. The working group of the research consisted of 96 7th graders chosen based on easily accessible case sampling method in 3 secondary schools in the city center of Adıyaman. The schools involved in the working group were considered to be distinct socioeconomically. For this purpose, a secondary school at the socioeconomically high level, a socioeconomically moderate secondary school and a secondary school at the socioeconomically low level were selected in the city center of Adıyaman. The 7th graders were preferred because social studies course is last studied at this grade and all acquisitions of social studies course and all skills regarding the research issue are thought to be acquired by them. A form with open ended questions developed by the researcher was employed as the data collection tool in the research. The curriculum of social studies course in secondary school and acquisitions of the course were based on while the questions were being prepared. Care was taken to ensure that the questions were related to the students' location-orientation and map literacy skills. The findings obtained have revealed that the 7th graders’ location-orientation skills didn’t develop sufficiently but studies to analyze the findings obtained through the research are going on. It has been found out that the students’ map literacy levels weren’t at the desired level, either. The students’ are thought not to acquire the basic geographic knowledge as they only memorized what they were taught during the course period but they didn’t employ it too much in practice. That the curriculum of the course doesn’t involve adequate acquisitions related to the research issue is regarded as a lack. The fact that the workbooks for social studies course for secondary school don’t involve the sufficient number of activities on development of location-orientation skills and map literacy can be said to contribute this lack of knowledge and skills negatively. The study is thought to be an important data source for further researches on this field. The content on location-orientation skills and map literacy can be increased in course books for social studies. More activities on this issue can be employed workbooks. More interesting maps, and in greater number, can be added in Social Studies course books, Social studies teachers can contribute to further development of location-orientation and map literacy skills by using various activities and materials while teaching the topics related to these skills for the 5th graders, the 6th graders and the 7th graders. Corners for maps can be designed in school corridors or classrooms. Students can be made to draw maps as homework while they are provided with responsibility. Students’ location-orientation and map literacy skills can be developed by benefitting from different applications for mapping on interactive boards in classrooms. Teachers can devote more time to the development of location-orientation skills and map literacy.

Keywords: Location-orientation, map literacy, social studies
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The aim of this study is to explicit views of pre-service social studies teachers on tourism and touristic assets in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. In addition, the effects of gender, grade level and permanent domicile were investigated. Participants were 207 pre-service social studies teachers studying at Afyon Kocatepe University. The KMO value calculated for the Likert-type survey was .888 and the Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (p=.00). The reliability coefficient of the bidimensional survey consisting of 19 items was found as .88. Survey items were found to be valid and reliable based on the results of reliability and factor analyses. Results revealed pre-service social studies teachers had positive perceptions of tourism in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey, but they argued tourism potential of Afyonkarahisar was underestimated. Besides, their views significantly differed on their gender and permanent domicile.

Keywords: Afyonkarahisar, perception of thetourism, social studies, pre-sevice teacher
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This study is a thematic content analysis study for the systematic study of the researches on democracy education in Turkey. There have been many studies in the field of democracy education by researchers especially in recent years, and this field is becoming increasingly important in Turkey. In various dimensions related to democracy education, master and doctoral thesis studies, articles and oral presentation presented at scientific meetings are made. It is important to determine which trends are coming forward in the researches on democracy education related to different study areas. The aim of this study is to analyze the researches conducted in the field of democracy education in Turkey separately and to determine the general tendencies in these researches. In the scope of the research, thesis, articles and presentation about democracy education were examined. Studies related to democracy education were filed according to the criteria determined by two researchers. In the analysis of the data, a "control form" was created by the researchers. Recording filed sources in the control form, classification of the data has been done. The data were analyzed according to the criteria in the control form to determine the research trends in democracy education. As a result of research, it is understood that the studies on democracy education in Turkey are in parallel with the preparation and updating of the curriculum and the majority of work has been written in Turkish.

Keywords: Democracy, democracy education, content analysis, scientific publication, research topics.
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This study aims to regulate the cognitive structures related to the concepts in Human Rights Citizenship and Democracy lesson of the 4th grade primary school pupils by means of active learning method. These 10 concepts are solidarity, equality, justice, participation, active citizen, democracy, freedom of expression, rights, freedom and responsibility. In parallel with the purpose of the research, an action research from qualitative research patterns was used. The research was conducted in a public school located in the central district of Aydın. There are a total of 23 pupils, 9 male and 14 female students, in the study group. Activities for concept teaching were held by the class teacher for 12 weeks under the supervision of the researcher. These activities were selected in accordance with the class level from among active learning activities. The cognitive structure between the concepts was tested using the Word Association Test (WAT) as a pre-test and post-test. Based on test results, concept networks were created. In addition, two worksheets were used to inspect learning. The concepts that the study group had difficulty to understand were rearranged in a different activity. At the end of the research, it has been revealed that the active learning model makes improvement on the cognitive structures of the learners about the concepts. The students made definitions about the concepts and found more qualified words. The study has revealed that there is a relationship between the cognitive structure about the concepts and the socioeconomic status of the students and their learning levels.

Keywords: Active learning, concept teaching, action research
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The uncertainty that is being shaped mutually with the changing meaning of art and work of art, is also reflected on the field of art education. The main objective of the research is to reveal the sense of authenticity of the teacher candidates of visual arts. Determining how the teacher candidates associate the concept of authenticity with life, art and art education and presenting their viewpoints to traditional, current and futurist art education approaches are the sub-objectives of the research. The research was performed by qualitative research phenomenology pattern. By the participation of six visual arts tearchers who experienced the process of searching directed to forms of expression in the workshop classes of main art and subsidiary art along with theoretical classes in the department of art teaching (esthetics, art criticism, art history etc.), profound interviews have been made about their studies that they “evaluated to be authentic”. As a result of thematic analysis done within the scope of the research, the themes of uniqueness, experience, affirmation and being open to possibilities have been dwelled on. Teacher candidates expressed the concept of authenticity by identifying it with being unique. And they described uniqueness together with “having the characteristics of being the first”, “being personal” and “being different”. Teacher candidates made descriptions related to the concept of authenticity during the process of visualization, related to “self-discovery” based on the person’s past experiences and reflecting it to his/her studies “integrating it with his/her personality” or the situation of self reflection by the “expression” of his/her inner experiences. Besides indicating that they themselves can decide whether a practice of art is authentic or not, they also emphasized that the approval of well-esteemed people and the audience evaluations have a determining role. Teacher candidates defined the relationship between being open to possibilities and authenticity with the expressions of “reinterpretation”, “freedom”, “reproduction paradox” and “changing perspectives”. Considering that they are intensely together with visuals, they indicated that they might inevitably get affected by these visuals during the formation of their own interpretation. However by integrating this affection through experience, with “free” and critical thinking and “adding something of oneself”, they emphasized that authenticity can be realized through reinterpretation.

Keywords: Visual arts education, visual arts teacher candidates, art, authenticity
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Technology changes and transforms our lives every passing day. The pace of this transformation that started in early ages constantly increases, and such a transformation affects all processes in our lives. One of the technologies that are likely to result in such a transformation as the steam engine, atomic energy, microchips and the Internet did once is three-dimensional printing. Economical, social, demographic, environmental and educational effects of three-dimensional printing are felt even more with each passing day (Campbell, Williams, Ivanova and Garrett, 2011). As new developments are often observed in this technology, there is still limited work on how it can be used in education. The purpose of this paper is to determine the areas of usage for this technology in education and social studies education, and explain the connections between three-dimensional printers and the 2017 social studies course curriculum with examples. In the study, it was seen that three-dimensional printers could be used as a tool in teaching the concepts, basic competencies, skills and outcomes included in the 2017 social studies course curriculum. Suggestions supporting the use of three-dimensional printers in social studies education were offered as a result of the study.

Keywords: Social studies, three-dimensional printing, three-dimensional printers
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