Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the level at which the objectives of Social Studies lesson are attained in the light of the opinions of primary school 7th grade students. For this purpose, a scale comprised of one-dimensional 43 items was devised. The scale was applied on 197 students in Sakarya for validity and reliability purposes. The scale has a Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of .94 and accounts for 30.3% of the variance. The scale was conducted on a total of 460 students, 207 being female and the remaining 253 being male, in Serdivan and Adapazari, Sakarya during the Educational Year 2009-2010. During the analysis, Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U, two non-parametric tests, were used in accordance with the result obtained from Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The study suggested a meaningful difference, depending on gender, in favor of the female students, depending on whether students attended a private course or not, in favor of those who did, depending on the mark regarding Social Studies Lesson on their report cards, in favor of those who got “5” as a mark concerning the lesson. It was observed that the income level of the students’ parents and the type of their school did not lead to a meaningful difference. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions were made for further research.

Key words: Primary school, social studies, the objectives of social studies.