Evaluation of the Human Rights and Democracy Education Course in Elementary Teacher Education Through Action Research

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Human Rights and Democracy Education (HRDE) course designed for elementary teachers through formative and summative evaluation. While preparing this course, theory and practice were prioritized to ensure pedagogical knowledge and teaching HRDE. Action research was conducted, and actions were taken for the problems encountered during the course implementation. For formative evaluation, reflection notes were written by 19 teacher candidates who took the course as elective. Their products and researcher field notes were evaluated. At the end of the period, in-depth interviews were administered to six teacher candidates selected by the criterion sampling method. For summative evaluation, teacher candidates' final reflection notes were also taken into account together with interviews. It was revealed that this practice-based course taught with active learning methods was influential in attaining pedagogical knowledge and skills in HRDE, in learning effectively, and in developing attitudes, awareness, and self-efficacy.