THE INVESTIGATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ OPINIONS ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HISTORICAL EVENTS IN TERMS OF SOME VARIABLES

ORTAÖĞRETİM ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN TARİHSEL OLAYLARIN ÖNEMİNE İLİŞKİN GÖRÜŞLERİNİN BAZI DEĞİŞKENLERE GÖRE İNCELENMESİ

Abstract

History beginning with the invention of writing has brought along thousands years old life experiences. The topic of history has been wars, disasters, victories, heroes, countless events like these, and people and phenomenon. It is necessary to determine which or what kind of events are worth to be learned and known or in other words, which events have historical significance within this long process. While the students are learning a historical event, they want to learn why that event is important and what effects can be seen today. Within this context, the aim of this study is to determine whether the opinions of high school students about the significance of historical events differ in terms of some variables. Screening model was used in this study. The participants of the study were composed of 237 students studying at Tokat Anatolian High School in 2012-2013 academic year. The data were obtained through Historical Significance Scale (HSS), which was developed by the authors. Using this scale, the perceptions of students about the historical significance of events were determined depending on some variables (year, gender, interest, and department). Independent-samples t-test, one-way Anova, hom ogeneity test, Scheffe test and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the quantitative data. In addition, the values of the descriptive statistics of the items of HSS were examined. (Arithmetical average, frequency and percent) In the light of those Historical Significance Scale (HSS) results were attained findings: i)There are significant differences in high-schoolers’ perceptions and opinions about the significance of historical events in accordance with their interest levels in history course while there are no significant differences according to the gender, grade and department, ii) the students think that complex events which include political, military and social points are more important than one-way events History educators and historians agree that the knowledge of everything cannot be taught and everything cannot be remembered. In order to solve this problematic, the concept of “significance” was discovered at the last quarter of the 20th century. The concept of historical significance is about making sense of the past and why people are interested in the past. The events, people, institutions, groups, periods and ideas in the past may have historical significance (Brown and Woodcook, 2009). According to Seixas (1994), one of the primary materials of historians is the subject of historical significance. It is impossible to research and work on everything; historical significance is to assess the criteria by evaluating out of which parts of the probable whole of the history can historians construct a meaningful and coherent story Most historians agree that the base of the historical thought is to “indicate the significance”. The lack in indicating the significance causes history to “turn into something boring from another boring thing”. In the limitless information era that we live in, being able to distinguish the significant and insignificant is an important skill (Cercadillo, 2006: 6). It is not possible to learn all the history lessons and historical events and to refer to all of them as significant. It is necessary for an effective history education that historical events are understood well, the underlying either apparent or hidden reasons behind the events become known, and students understand what makes an event historically significant. It also carries importance to know which events in the past secondary education students find significant and to what extent and that which criterion are necessary for an event to be historically significant is known by history educators because students’ interest in and approach to the events are a particular concern to history education. For a history education which achieves its purpose, it is necessary that teachers understand students and students’ perceptions and views are important for us as educators. With this purpose, the aim of this study is to investigate if secondary education students’ views about the significance of historical events show difference according to some variables. These questions were tried to be answered. 1. Are there significant differences in secondary education students’ views about the significance of historical events according to some variables (gender, grade, department)? 2. What are the significance levels of secondary education students related to the items in the Historical Significance Scale? In this study which investigates if secondary education students’ views about the significance of historical events show difference according to some variables, descriptive survey model which is a quantitative research design was used. Descriptive survey model is a research design which aims to describe a past or current situation as it is without any intervention (Sönmez and Alacapınar, 2011: 46). With this study, it was aimed to find out the secondary education students’ views about the significance of historical events. The current study which was conducted in relation to the investigation of secondary education (high school) students’ views about the significance of historical events was carried out in Tokat Anatolian High School in Tokat in the fall semester of 2012-2013 academic year. The historical significance scale which was developed by the researcher was administered to 117 female and 120 male students at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. In this study, quantitative data were gathered with the use of “Historical Significance Scale (HSS)” which was developed by the researcher. With this scale, students’ views about the significance of historical events were determined in relation to several variables (grade, gender, and department). HSS is composed of two parts. In the first part, 5-point Likert scale was used for the participants to grade the features of historical events to be histor

Özet

Yazının icadıyla başlayan tarih, binlerce yıllık bir yaşanmışlığı da beraberinde getirmiştir. Savaşlar, afetler, zaferler, kahramanlar, kaybedenler; bunlar gibi sayısız olaylar, insanlar ve olgular da tarihin konusunu oluşturmuşlardır. Bu uzun süreç içerisinden hangi olayların veya ne tür olayların öğrenilmeye ve bilinmeye değer olduğu yani tarihsel önemliliği olduğunun tespit edilmesi gereklidir. Öğrenciler tarihi bir olayı öğrenirken o olayın neden önemli olduğunu bilmek ve bugüne etkisini öğrenmek isterler. Bu bağlamda lisede öğrenim gören öğrencilerin, tarihsel olayların önemine ilişkin görüşlerinin bazı değişkenlere göre farklılık gösterip göstermediği bu araştırmanın amacını oluşturmaktadır. Bu araştırmada nicel araştırma yöntemlerinden tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu, 2012-2013 eğitim öğretim yılı Tokat Anadolu Lisesi öğrencilerinden 237 kişi oluşturmuştur. Veriler, araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen Tarihsel Önem Ölçeği (TÖÖ)ile elde edilmiştir. Bu ölçekle öğrencilerin olayların tarihsel önemine ilişkin algıları sınıf, cinsiyet ve bölüm değişkenlerine bağlı olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmada, nicel verilerin analizinde bağımsız gruplar t testi, One - WayAnova, Homogeneity testi ve Scheffe testi kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca ölçek maddelerinin betimsel istatistik değerlerine bakılmıştır (aritmetik ortalama, frekans ve yüzde...).TÖÖ ile; i) Orta öğretim öğrencilerinin tarihi olayların önemine ilişkin algı ve görüşlerinde;cinsiyet, sınıf, bölüm faktörünün etkili olmadığı ii) öğrencilerin, siyasi, askeri, sosyal vb. yönleri barındıran, karmaşık olayları diğer tek yönlü olaylara göre daha önemli buldukları sonucuna ulaşılmıştır