Social studies teacher candidates’ understanding level and misconceptions with regard to the map and direction literacy

The aim of this study is to determine the concept understanding levels and misconceptions about social studies teacher candidates’ map and direction concepts. This research was carried out with a total of 102 social studies teacher candidates, 65 of whom were female and 37 were male. The study was designed according to the qualitative research approach. Semi-structured forms of open-ended questions developed by the researchers were used to obtain the data. In the analysis of the data, content analysis technique was used. According to the findings obtained from the research, it was found that the participants’ concept understanding levels were weak and they had difficulty in defining and explaining some concepts. However, it was found that the level of comprehension of the first year students for all the concepts in the study was lower than the other classes, and the second grade was higher than the other grade levels. In addition, some suggestions were made for students to understand the concept and misconceptions.