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Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 32163221

WCES-2011

Graduate thesis studies about using material at social science

education
ahin Oru a *, Burcu Teymurolu
a
Nide University, Faculty of Education Nide, 51100, Turkey
b
Nide University, Institute of Social Sciences (Graduate student), Nide, 51100, Turkey

Abstract

Graduate thesis work in the field of social sciences in Turkey is increasing rapidly. Especially in 1998, the process of
restructuring of faculties of education provides to an increase in both of quality and quantity of master studies in the field of
social sciences as with other areas. In addition, since 2005, transition to a constructivist approach at curriculum also positively
affected the diversity of graduate theses. These studies prepared by researchers have a major impact on the development of such
area.
At graduate studies in the field of social sciences, the researches about 'use of materials' are given wide coverage.
In this study, has been examined graduate thesis about use of material in the field of social sciences by using meta analysis
model. Total 93 thesis which are composed from 87 master thesis and 6 doctoral thesis, are the subject of this study As a result
of review of the literature has been reached to these studies that composes of content.
2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: Social sciences, materials, theses, master's, Ph.D.

1. Introduction

In Turkey, especially over the last ten years, as it has been in every field, the number of graduate thesis works
have increased and are contnuing to increase with time. Now it is possible to come across studies on various
different topics which have been written independently from one another. However, with the increase of these
studies comes the problem of getting them across to their tagert audiences. It takes a long time for the readers or
other researches to look over these findings and studies. Even if the reasearchers were to spare the time to look over
all of these studies, they experience great difficulty finding the information that is desired. With this said, it has been
decided that all of this information must be gathered under one roof, analized once more, and that new comments
and conclusions must be reached. To acquire this new necessity, Glass suggests that all findings should be gathered
under one roof. The name given to this process is metaanalyse.
In Turkey, in the year 1998 the period of restructuring of Teachers Colleges had begun. By doing so, many
departments of history and departments of geography have combined to form the departments of social sciences. In
the department of social sciences, as in other fields, studies based on education have began. The change in program

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +903882112816; fax: +903882112801.

E-mail address: sahinoruc44@hotmail.com

18770428 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.274
 Sahin Oru and Burcu Teymuroglu / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 32163221 3217

completed in the year 2005 (the transition to restructive approach) has had a great effect on the field of education
and works regarding it (Oruc, 2009)
Most of the works regarding social sciences that are to be found to be recorded in the YOK National thesis center
are based on the topics of lesson plans, textbooks, teaching methods, and the use of materials. This is so because
now, the use of materials in the lesson of social sciences have gained great importance. Because this paper studies
the use of thesises as educational material in the lesson of social sciences, it gives information on the use of
materials in class environments.
For the learning environments to be as students want them to be, we must be able to enrich them. This
enrichment can be made by using learning materials in class (Isman, 2003:32). By doing so, the most important
things in an individuals education such as mental development, effective individual development, and having the
newly learned information become permanent can be obtained.
Nowadays when terms such as active learning and student center teaching entegration are of great importance the
use of different materials in teaching holds great importance (Gulbahar, 2008: 87).
Materials that are of great importance in the process of education-teaching also carry great importance in the
education of social sciences. Social sciences is a lesson where there are a lot of abstract topics. With this said, the
lesson of social sciences requires the use of materials for enrichment. Otherwise, the teacher-student relationship can
only be formed verbally.
There are may objects around us that can be used as teaching materials. Materials enable students to learn in a
concrete and lasting manner. They enable students to restructure individually. However, some objects, events, and
studies are either too big to bring to a class environment, too small to observe, dangerous, or too delicate. In such
cases, materials such as graphics, fotographs, films, etc. can be used (Oztas, 2009: 347). In social sciences, teachers
use materials generally for the following reasons:
It save time.
They help form a visualization of a certain idea.
They simplify difficult ideas.
Teaching becomes lively and clear.
Students become more interested and involved. It enables the students to make practice on the topic that they are
studying.
Enriches education.
Makes learning and understanding more simple.
Students become less likely to forget and more likely to remember.
Prevents confusion.
Improves the students problem solving skills.
Enhances the desire to research (Meydan, Akdag, 2008. 148)
Also, these materials; Written, Visual, Audio, Audio-visual, the others.

2. Method

The model of the research is metaanalyse which is one of the many ways of literature screening. Lipsey and
Wilson define the metaanalyse method as a re-interpreting and statistical analizaton method which is done by
linking the acquired results from many specific different works which are independant from one another together
and then re-interpreting them. This method provides the researchers with quantitave data of the results of many
various different works and allows for the researcher to obtain a common evaluation by linking the results together.
Metaanalyse, which has a statistical method and is used in any given field to link together the results of the
similar works (Ergene, 2003), is also a method used to to combine the information known as size of effect in
quantitive terms is acquired by using the data from the works completed individually (Durlak, 1995).
Hypothesises are formed in the metaanalyse method as they are in other experimental studies. To test the wether
the hypothesis is correct or not, data is acquired and analized using statistical methods. The difference between this
3218 Sahin Oru and Burcu Teymuroglu / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 32163221

method and experimental experiments are that in experimental studies work groups are used but in these kinds of
studies the data from the previous works are used (Sahin, 2005). The metaanalyse method is based on statistical
techniques and mathematical data and therefor as opposed to literature screening methods, it is a quantitive working
method.
The content of this paper which gives information on the use of graduate thesis on the topic of the use of
materials in social sciences is made up of 6 doctorate and 87 graduate of a total of 93 thesises on the topic of
material use in social sciences. The acquired thesesis are found by looking through the database of the University
Council. The acquired data are evaluated using the qualitative analysis method called metaanlyse. Graduate thesises
are categorized by the year they in which they were published, university, the kind of thesis, and the materials that
they used.

3. Results (Findings) and Discussion

Between the years 1990 2010, a total of 565 thesises in the University Council on the topic of social sciences
were completed. 93 of these thesises are ones on the topic of the use of materials and are used in our research. 87 of
these thesises are graduate and 6 are doctorate thesises.
In this section, we will firstly give the thesises on the topic of use of materials based on the years in which they
were completed. Later there will be a table which shows which materials the thesises were based on and another
table which shows which catagory these materials belong to (written, visual, audio, etc.). The last table shows which
university the thesises belong to.

Table 1.Distribution by years of thesis themed the sourcing of material in field of social studies education

Years Master Doctoral

1990-2000 6 1
2000-2005 30 0
2005-2010 51 5
Total 87 6

As seen in table 1, there are only a few number of thesises completed between the years 1990-2000. But between
the year 2000-2005, there is a significant increase in the number of thesises due to the reconstructive process of the
teachers colleges which began in the year 1998. Between the years 2005-2010, the number of thesises began to
increase even more. This can be explained by the change of all the lesson plans in Turkey to the reconstructive
approach. The lesson plans and textbooks that were prepared according to the reconstructive approach have allowed
and made necessary the increase in the use of materials both in quantity and quality.

Table 2. Distribution by material kinds of thesis themed the sourcing of material in field of social studies education

Material Type Master Doctoral

Course Book 28 1
Vehicle-Materials Use 12 -
Map- Graphic 7 -
Visual-Auditory Materials 6 -
Current Events 3 1
Concept Map 4 -
Educational Game 3 -
Multiple Media 2 -
Tale 2 -
Siyasetname 2 -
Caricature 2 -
Concept Caricature 2 -
 Sahin Oru and Burcu Teymuroglu / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 32163221 3219

Biography 2 -
Historical Evidence 1 1
Computer 1 -
Movie 1 -
Children Literatre Products 1 -
Folk Song 1 -
Web Based Portfolio 1 -
Humor - 1
Historical Space Exploration 1 -
Power Point 1 -
Overhead Projector 1 -
Story 1 -
Written Literature Products 1 -
Newspaper - 1
History Diagram - 1
Total 87 6

As seen in table 2, there is a total of 27 thesises on the topic of the use of various material in the field of scoail
sciences. Many of these thesises include the use of textbooks as materials. Textbooks are accepted to be the basic
materials in the education-teaching process. Therefore it is normal for researchers to complete the most thesises on
this topic.

Table 3. Distribution by general material kinds of thesis themed the sourcing of material in field of social studies education

General Material Types Master Doctoral

Written 38 3
Visual 17 1
Auditory 1 -
Visual-Auditory 6 -
Other 25 2
Total 87 6

As seen in table 3, the kinds of materials are divided into 5 categories: Written, Visual, Audio, Audio-visual, and
Other. Among these categories the most frequently used are written materials.
3220 Sahin Oru and Burcu Teymuroglu / Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 32163221

Table 4. Distribution by Universities of thesis themed the sourcing of material in field of social studies education

University Master Doctoral

Gazi University 17 4
Seluk University 9 -
Marmara University 8 -
Hacettepe University 6 1
Nide University 7 -
ukurova University 5 -
Sakarya University 4 -
Anadolu University 3 1
Atatrk University 3 -
)rat University 3 -
Dokuz Eyll University 3 -
Celal Bayar University 3 -
Gaziosmanpaa University 3 -
Abant zzet Baysal University 2 -
Afyon Kocatepe University 2 -
Kafkas University 2 -
Uluda University 1 -
Yeditepe University 1 -
Dumlupnar University 1 -
Erciyes University 1 -
Rize University 1 -
Karadeniz Teknik University 1 -
<ldz Teknik University 1 -
Total 87 6

As seen in table 4, the university which has completed the most thesises on the use of materials in social sciences
is Gazi University. Gazi university is ahead of the other schools in both graduate and doctorate thesises.

4. Conclusion and recommendation

The thesises completed in the field of social sciences are increasing as time goes on. Most of the thesises
completed are on the topic of the use of materials. There has been a significant increase in the number of thesises
due to the reconstructive process of the teachers colleges which began in the year 1998. The change of all the lesson
plans in Turkey to the reconstructive approach in 2005 has allowed for the increase and variation of the thesises.
The thesises completed in the field of social sciences generally is based on lesson plans, teaching techniques, and
the use of materials. Because the use of materials is important in the field of social sciences, the increase in the
number of thesises completed is pleasant.
In the field of social sciences, graduate thesises on the topic of the use of materials should be given great
importance. There should be more research done especially in the doctorate level.
The works completed until now should be examined to help assist new researches in the field. Thesises on social
science lesson plans and teaching tecniques can be separate topics for different thesis works.

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