Investigation of the Assessment Literacy Levels of Social Studies Teacher Candidates in Terms of Various Variables

The aim of this research is to investigate the assessment literacy levels of social studies teacher candidates in terms of various variables. In this respect, the assessment literacy levels of the social studies teacher candidates have been examined according to, their genders, grade levels, taking assesment and evaluation courses, high school graduates and academic achievement averages. In this research, screening model was used. In this research, which was used convenience sampling method, the study group was composed of 282 teacher candidates in Ömer Halisdemir University, Faculty of Education, Department of Turkish and Social Sciences Education, Department of Social Studies Education, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes. Assessment Literacy Inventory developed by Mertler and Campell (2005) and adapted to Turkish by Tümer, Yiğit and Çimer (2010) has been used as data collection tool in the research. The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS 22.0 package program. Mann Whitney U, One Way ANOVA and Kruskal Wallis H tests were used in the analysis of the data. According to the results obtained from the research, the social studies teacher candidates assessment literacy levels are at a very low level and need to be improved. Besides, there is no statistically significant difference between the assessment literacy levels of the teacher candidates and their sexes and the high school graduates they graduated from, but there is a statistically significant difference between the grade levels, taking the assesment and evaluation courses and the academic achievement averages. In line with the results obtained from the research, it is suggested to increase the credit of the measurement and evaluation course given in the education faculties and to courses having the content of measurement and evaluation are given from the first year of university.