Investigation of Chronological Thinking Skills of Secondary School Students and Development of These Skills Based on Grade Level

The aim of this study is to determine the chronological thinking skills of secondary school students in the light of two approaches in the literature and to reveal the role of age (grade level) in the development of these skills. The study group of the research, which was designed as a screening model, consisted of 102 students (52 girls and 50 males) who studied in a high school in the city centre of Ankara in the academic year 2017-2018. The data of the study were obtained from performance tasks, prepared in accordance with the learning outcomes in the 2017 Curriculum of Secondary Education History Lesson (9th, 10th and 11th Grades) and Republic of Turkey Revolution History and Kemalism Lesson, with the aim of acquiring chronological thinking skills present in the curricula mentioned. The performance tasks included activities for six sub-dimensions of chronological thinking. The performance tasks were evaluated through a graded scoring key (rubric) by the history teacher who gave the lessons to the students in the study group and a faculty member apart from the researcher himself. According to the results of the study, the chronological thinking skills of the students at the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades of the secondary education and aged between 15-18 continue to develop depending on the grade level. This situation supports the ideas of child-centred thinkers in the teaching of the concept of historical time. In addition, the students in the study group have low skill levels also in six sub-dimensions of chronological thinking. This is more evident in the sub-dimensions of chronological thinking skills that require students to produce written or visual products. This result supports the idea that learning-teaching environments, as well as age-related development, are determinant in the teaching of historical time concept and related skills, and reveals that historical time and related skills cannot be acquired sufficiently in history lessons in secondary education level in our country.