SINIF ÖĞRETMENİ ADAYLARININ BİRLEŞTİRİLMİŞ SINIF UYGULAMALARI: GÖRÜŞ VE ÖNERİLER.

The concept of multiage class is based on the fact that different groups are taught together by a single teacher. Multiage teaching is applied not only in Turkey but also in many countries of the world. This approach has some advantages and disadvantages for students and their teachers. It is argued that creating quality teaching environments based on constructivist approach can be an advantage for both teachers and students. To achieve this, teachers should be prepared based on the conditions of multiage classrooms. For this purpose, a multiage teaching course is offered to senior primary teacher candidates in Turkey. However, the course is taught theoretically for two hours a week and teacher candidates do not have the opportunity to apply the knowledge learned in this course in real teaching settings. To overcome this and provide experiences, the teacher candidates were offered to observe and apply their knowledge in multiage classrooms in the Spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The candidates were taken to three multiage schools of Kilis for four weeks to observe and practice. The purpose of this research was to explore primary teacher candidate's opinions about teaching in multiage classrooms. In this basic qualitative research, an interview form that has open-ended questions was used to collect the data. The analysis showed that the participants had different views about multiage teaching and how to improve education in multiage classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]