SUMMARY

This study discusses the development of historical time concept and the skills depending on such concept in the elementary school’s students attending to grades 4 to 8 (aged between 10-14).

The thesis consists of eight chapters, namely Introduction, History and the Child, Concept of Time in the Child and Teaching of Historical Time Concept, Relevant Publications and Research, Methodology and Comments (Quantitative Findings and their Interpretation, Qualitative findings and their Interpretation), Conclusion and Suggestions.

The study is a descriptive field study, where quantitative and qualitative methods are used. The investigation was carried out in the Elementary Schools of Cacabey, Vali Mithat Saylam and Ahi Evran located in the inner city of Kırşehir, which represent, respectively, the socio-economically upper, middle and lower settings. In the quantitative part of the study, the achievement test regarding the subject were applied to each branch of students from grades 4-8 of the three schools, each being randomly selected (422 in total), and the collected data were analyzed statistically, using the t-test, Anova and Correlation techniques in the SPSS program. In the qualitative part, ten students from each of these branches (149 in total) were interviewed and data were collected employing the semi-structured interview technique.

Interpreting the data obtained from the investigation, one can conclude that a number of variables such as socio-economic environment, gender, grade level (age), mathematics and language (Turkish) success have an effect on the acquirement of historical time concept by the student. Regarding the quantitative findings, it was found remarkable that there was such a significant difference between grades 4, 5, 6, and grades 7 and 8 that they could constitute two distinct groups.

The qualitative results of the investigation support the quantitative results. Furthermore, while the students were quite successful in expressing the concept of change through exemplification and in employing the perception of change, they were found insufficient in exemplifying the concept of continuity. While almost all students were able to define the concept of history, they were found to associate it with the concept of time. Although success of most of the students in making operations based on the concepts of A.D. and B.C. differed depending upon the socioeconomic variables, and increased in line with the level of class, the overall achievement was found to be low. Moreover, it was observed that the students failed in comprehending what the time expressions included in the historical subjects denoted, which was associated with the inattentive style in the textbooks.

It can be concluded from the study that in addition to the mental maturity which develops with the age, certain factors, namely gender, their socio-economic environments including the school they attend to, the teaching programs regarding the subject, the textbooks, employed teaching strategies, methods and techniques as well as teaching materials have an impact on their acquirement of the concept of history.