Fatih ÃÂaÃÂlayan Mercan
The renewal of the secondary school physics teaching program was initiated in 2008, however, there is limited research investigating physics teachers’ enactment of the teaching program in their classes. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe teachers’ views about the official teaching program and its implementation. The participants consisted of 39 teachers working in 27 different schools in Istanbul. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using constant comparative method. The data showed that 90% of the teachers stated that the aim of physics teaching is to prepare students for the university entrance examinations, 77% of the teachers said that their teaching methods remain unchanged, and 90% of the teachers said that they did not do experiments in their classes. The data showed that the teachers viewed the university entrance exams as the real criterion for assessment, and therefore they stressed the need for the alignment of the content and format of these exams with the teaching program. The results imply that the university entrance exams must be aligned with the teaching programs in order for the teachers to change their teaching methods.
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