The attitudes of 12th grade students towards geography lesson

The objective of this research is to put forward the attitudes of 12th grade students towards Geography lesson. By the help of this research, in addition to identifying of the students? general attitudes towards Geography, other factors which affect those attitudes are analyzed. These factors are as follows; education levels of the parents, the type of the high school to which students attend, the area in which they study and their gender.In this research, descriptive research design which is utilized to reveal by observing the truth existed in the past or still existing is used. In order to put forward the attitudes of the students towards Geography, an attitude scale was developed. The research was conducted in two steps as pre-application and main application. Developed scale was tested by a pre-application in order to be analyzed for validity and reliability. Pre-application was applied to 12th grade students (N=83) who are in fall semester of 2010-2011 academic year. With the help of the data obtained, the attitude scale was given its final form. Main application was applied to the 12th grade students (N=314) who are in spring semester of the same academic year. Students and Geography teachers were informed about the research and the attitude scale before the application.In the final stage of the research, data of conducted attitude scale was analyzed with SPSS 17 programme. At the end of the research, it is revealed that there are differences among the attitudes of 12th grade students towards Geography in general.Furthermore, as a result of the research, it is revealed that the attitudes of 12th grade students towards Geography lesson show differences according to gender, the area in which they study, the type of the high school which they attend to, and education levels of their parents.At the end of the research, results are as follows,1.Among the 12th grade students who participate in the research, girls have more positive attitude towards Geography lesson than boys.2.Among the 12th grade students who participate in the research, students in Turkish-Mathematics class have more positive attitude towards Geography lesson than students in other classes.3.Among the 12th grade students who participate in the research, students in vocational high schools (İmam Hatip High School) have more positive attitude towards geography than students in other types of high schools.4.Among the 12th grade students who participate in the research, students whose fathers graduated from primary school have more positive attitude towards Geography lesson than other students.5.Among the 12th grade students who participate in the research, students whose mothers graduated from secondary school have more positive attitude towards Geography lesson than other students.In addition to these, at the final part of the research, recommendations are made by the researcher based on the research data.Key words: Attitude, Attitude Towards Geography Lesson, Education