Social Studies Student Teachers’ Views on “School Experience Course”
This study sought to determine the opinions of prospective teachers studying in the last year of the social studies undergraduate program about the school experience. More specifically, it was aimed to determine the views of social studies preservice teachers concerning the necessity of the school experience course, the contribution of the course to them, their experiences in the process of the course, and their views towards the stakeholders of the practice. For this purpose, a total of 56 student teachers, 19 females and 37 males in their 4th year of social studies education, who attended the education faculty of a public university in the 2019-2020 academic year participated in the research. The data were collected through interviews which were analyzed following a basic qualitative analysis method, using content analysis while evaluating its questions. In general, it has been observed that social studies student teachers have expectations regarding the following subjects. The study found out that the student and student teachers’ experiences regarding themselves were among the positive attributes of the internship. The positive/negative reflections of the student teachers regarding the duties and responsibilities of the stakeholders have also been mentioned in the study. Based on the acquired data, this study recommends that the student teachers of social studies receive the attention they deserve during their internships; the Ministry of Education must inform and regularly inspect training schools and also use internship guides prepared specifically for social studies teaching to improve the efficacy of the internship.