Using draw-write-tell technique to explore middle school students' conceptions of the social studies course

Abstract

The current research aims to use the ‘draw-write-tell’ method to explore middle school students’ conceptions of the social studies course. The study group of this qualitative research consists of 200 middle school students attending public middle schools in the city center of Gaziantep. The study was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, to determine the participants’ overall conceptions of the social studies course, they were asked to draw the first five things that the course evoked in them. In the second stage, the participants were asked to pick one drawing among the five, which they most identified with the social studies course, and write down why they picked that drawing. In the third stage, in-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with eight volunteering students. Results of the content analysis showed that students’ overall conceptions of the social studies course could be gathered under 10 themes. Also, drawings related to human geography and history were identified most with the social studies course. Besides, the reasons behind students’ conceptions of the social studies course were gathered under 12 themes. Our findings reveal that middle school students’ conceptions of the social studies course are very diverse and complex, but consistent with the general objectives of the social studies curriculum.