An analysis of secondary school chemistry curriculum in terms of education for sustainable development: A case from Turkey

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Öğrenci: CANAN TÜRKMEN

Eş Danışman: GAYE TEKSÖZ, YEZDAN BOZ

Özet:

Sustainable development (SD) has been one of the overarching objectives of the United Nations. Member countries and stakeholders are reorienting education at all levels of the system to overcome the environmental, economic, and social challenges that the world faces, and to achieve a sustainable future. There has been a strong increase in the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into secondary school; there is a need for research to assess the relevance of the curriculum to reflect the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of SD. With this thesis, the learning objectives of the Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum of Turkey employed between 2013 and 2018 were analyzed in terms of their relevance to ESD and their inclusion of environmental, economic, and social dimensions of SD was evaluated with supporting excerpts from the course textbooks. The results of the study indicate that Fundamental Level Chemistry Curriculum successfully includes ESD related objectives. On the other hand, the inclusion of ESD related objectives in Advanced Level Chemistry Curriculum is found to be insufficient. Therefore, Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum of Turkey needs further improvement in terms of its ESD inclusion.