A CURRICULUM REFLECTION: NEW SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CURRICULUM IN TURKEY Meltem Savas 1 , Ridvan Elmas 1 and Nilay Ozturk 1 1 Middle East Technical University, Turkey Abstract: The goal of the present study was to investigate science teachers’ perceptions and reflections over the new science and technology curriculum in Turkey. New science and technology curriculum was based on the constructivist principles, multiple assessment techniques, and many daily life activities. Semi structured interviews with 6 elementary science teachers from 6 different public schools were conducted in Ankara, Turkey. Interview schedule consists of 23 questions and it was organized in 9 themes. These themes are personal information, structure of change, acceptance of change, opinions about the change, feelings about the change, personal accountability for the change, implementation of the change, teacher competency in change, and effects of change on teachers. Additional data was collected through observation forms which include 2 subthemes. According to data analysis, teachers and students are attempting to adapt themselves for their new roles as a facilitator and an active learner. In this context the previous learning experiences of both are an obstacle for the adaptation process. In addition, crowded classrooms, individual differences, socioeconomic status, parents over valuing of grades, physical restrictions, and insufficient in- service teacher training were determined as the main problems of the implementation. Keywords: Elementary Science and Technology Curriculum, Curriculum Evaluation, Curriculum, Elementary Science Teachers BACKGROUND, FRAMEWORK and PURPOSE In 2004, Turkish Ministry of National Education (MONE) began designing a new science and technology curriculum and disseminated new curriculum framework for implementation at the beginning of the 2005 fall semester. There were major changes in the paradigm, philosophy, teaching styles, teacher and student roles, unit organization, etc. The goal of the new science curriculum is to educate children as scientifically literate individuals regardless of their individual differences (MONE, 2004). The new curriculum is based on constructivist principles. There is an emphasis on conceptual learning, active learning and reflective thinking. Within the framework of spiral curriculum, main topics are repeated through the years. Finally, in the new curriculum, there are different assessment techniques such as performance assessment, concept maps, structured grid etc. Many significant changes was started to be implemented with the new curriculum and there are also some studies done as a preliminary results of the curriculum reform (Aydin & Cakiroglu, 2010; Ozturk, Elmas & Savas, 2011). However there is a need to design some other studies related to many aspects of the curriculum reform. Designing the new curriculum with modern educational ideas and paradigms in several cycles is the one side of the coin. The other side, teachers need time, training, activities to support their instructional design, new course books, sufficient subject matter knowledge and a paradigm shift in their pedagogies, and belief and value systems. Because there is mostly a gap between what was written on the curriculum and what was implemented in the classroom (Shkedi, 1998).