Social Studies Teachers’ Opinions on the Effective Usage of Reading Skills In Teaching Social Studies Course

This study was conducted to determine social studies teachers’ opinions on the effective use of reading skills in teaching social studies. The study used a cross-sectional research model with middle school social studies teachers in the Çorum District during the 2016-2017 academic year. The study aimed to include all 112 social studies teachers in the Çorum District as particpiants, but this goal was not achieved because some teachers did not want to participate, some were not present when the study was carried out, some were working as principals in schools, and some teachers were removed from the study due to their giving dishonest answers to survey questions. As a result, the study was completed with a total of 103 teachers. The study adapted Yildirim’s (2016) “teachers’ beliefs in using reading skills in their teaching fields” survey, and frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation distributions were calculated in the data analysis. Moreover, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis H test analysis were used to compare multiple variables. Results showed that the arithmetic average of the opinions of social studies teachers related to the effective use of reading skills in social studies courses was 5.43. This score means that social studies teachers’ opinions on the effective usage of reading skills in social studies was at the “Agree” level. The study also found that social studies teachers’ views on the effective use of reading skills do not vary by sex, years of teaching, major, or the school they attended. The study suggests to increase social studies teachers’ subject field reading skills and their beliefs through education. Education should also be offered to prospective teachers in order to increase their subject field reading skills.