8. classroom the effect of reading historical novels on academic achievement in the history of the Revolution of the Republic of Turkey and Ataturkism course

History teaching is an important field for countries in terms of its duties and responsibilities. The ability of human beings to take steps towards the future by taking lessons from the past and to gain effective citizens with national values to the society passes through the correct teaching of history. In the research, the effect of reading historical novels, which is assumed to contribute to the teaching of the Turkish Republic History of Revolution and Kemalism course, on academic achievement was evaluated in the light of quantitative and qualitative data. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 30 students were selected from the 8th grade students of Dr. Cahit Ünver Secondary School as 15 experimental and 15 control groups. In the selection of students, past achievements and the opinions of branch teachers were taken. The data were collected by means of achievement test and interview questions, and independent sample T-test analysis was performed through SPSS-23 package programme in the evaluation of quantitative data. Then, descriptive analysis technique was used to analyse the qualitative data. In the analysis of quantitative data, no significant difference was observed between the experimental and control groups. However, the pre-test achievement averages of both groups were close to each other, and when compared with the post-test achievement averages, a result in favour of the experimental group was found to a considerable extent. Therefore, it was concluded that reading historical novels has a positive contribution to the academic success of the Turkish Revolution History and Kemalism course. When the qualitative data are analysed, it is seen that students have positive inferences about reading historical novels. One of the most striking results of the interview questions is that none of the students have read historical novels in historical subjects. The other result is that although their interest in the Turkish Revolution History and Kemalism course was weak, both their interest in the field and their academic achievement increased after the historical novel reading study. As a result of the research, it was seen that reading historical novels had a positive effect on teaching the learning outcomes of the Turkish Republic History of Revolution and Kemalism course. Both the literature studies on the subject and the issues stated in the conclusion and discussion sections of this study emphasise important deficiencies. One of the recommendations of the study is to make a reorganisation in the field of history teaching by taking into consideration the field and literature problems and the results of the study.