Identifying Knowledge Levels of Turkish Teacher Candidates about Teaching Social Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine knowledge levels of teacher candidates about teaching
social skills and to examine whether program types of teacher candidates affect their knowledge levels about
teaching social skills. The study group of this study consists of 253 teacher candidates attending the Faculty of
Education at Abant Izzet Baysal University in Bolu, Turkey. The Personal Information Form for teacher
candidates and Knowledge Test of Teaching Social Skills developed by the researcher (2009) were used in this
study. The first finding of this study was that teacher candidates’ knowledge about teaching social skills and
modeling techniques was insufficient and rehearsal and rewarding techniques were not obtained. Another
important finding of this study was that the knowledge levels of teacher candidates about teaching social skills
significantly differed in terms of types of programs teacher candidates were attending