An investigation of the year-eight primary school students understanding and comprehension of some concepts taught in the study unit `steps towards the contemporary Turkey within the curriculum of the revolution history of Turkish republic and the principles of Atatürk course

The content of social studies and RHTRPA courses covers a wide range of abstract concepts. It is an important area of investigation to research and assess how and in which level those concepts are taught and how and in which level they were understood and comprehended by pupils. This study aims to investigate the state of the year-eight pupils? understanding and comprehension of those concepts related to the first five attainment targets of the study unit named as ?Steps Towards the Contemporary Turkey? within the curriculum of RHTRPA course.A mixed method research design is employed as a methodological standpoint of this study. The sample of the study comprises of 75 year-eight pupils attaining two different classes in two schools in Konya province. A focus group interview protocol, an observation schedule and an achievement test, all developed by the researcher are used as the data collection tools. The collected data were analysed and displayed descriptively.During the classes, teachers mostly focus on the completion of the curriculum and use teacher talk as the main mode of teaching. The findings reveal that while they got good grades from the multiple choice achievement test, some pupils do not recognise and define some concepts examined in this study. They could not relate some concepts to the others and could not distinquish their common and different characteristics. As a result, it can be stated that the ideas and examples pupils associate with those concepts under consideration includes some wrong and defficient elements.