Teaching the subjects of the class of the history of revolution of Republic of Turkey and Kemalism with a synchronic approach in the context of chronological and spatial thinking skills

Due to their nature, historical events and facts appear in a specific time and space as a result of a contextual relation with elements other than the time and place in which they take place. This characteristic of the historical information makes it mandatory to evaluate it together with its context within the time and place in order to understand it. Due to the fact that the national history narratives which have been shaped in the light of the positivist science paradigm since the 19th century gained force with a diachronic form, these contextual relations existing in the nature of information are rendered invisible. The problem in question has been started to be resolved partially in the field of historiography with the "comparative historical method" pioneered by the Annales School. However, the learning environments have not experienced such a reform yet. This study aims to provide a method in teaching the history subjects in a synchronic manner as well as creating a relational and unique structure related to the cognitive skills required in order to be able to evaluate/learn historical events and facts in a synchronic manner. In this context, the aim of the study is to determine the influence of synchronic approach in teaching on the synchronic, chronological and spatial thinking skills. The "intervention design" and "explanatory sequential design", which are mixed method designs, were applied in the research. In the quantitative phase of the study, "pretest-posttest control group design", which is a true experiential design, were used for the first problem case; as well as regression analysis were used for the second problem case. In the context of the "explanatory sequential design" which aims to explain the collected quantitative data with qualitative data, the "grounded theory" method were used in the qualitative part. The unique nature of the subject to be researched, the demonstration of the dimensions and elements of synchronic thinking skills and the fact that its relation with other thinking skills were researched had an impact on adopting the grounded theory approach. The research were carried out with the eighth grade students of a state school in the Narlidere district of the Izmir Province in the academic year of 2018-2019. "Maximum diversity sampling", which is a purposeful sampling, will be used in determining the group to be studied during the phase where the qualitative method were applied. There was no standard scale encountered in the national literature regarding the synchronic, spatial and chronological thinking skills which were studied within the scope of the research. As for the international literature, "Spatial Thinking Ability Test" (STAT) developed by Lee and Bednarz (2012) was found related to the spatial thinking skill. This scale were adapted to the sampling group to be studied and to the conditions of Turkey within the scope of the study. Scales related to chronological and synchronic thinking skills which could not be found in the international literature either were developed within the scope of the research. It is thought that this dimension of the study will introduce scales related to important thinking skills into the national and international literature and will resolve a practical issue for future studies regarding the evaluation of thinking skills. In the study, it was concluded that the teaching performed with the synchronic approach has a significant positive effect on synchronic and spatial thinking skills. On the other hand, it was seen that this method had no significant effect on chronological thinking skills. Another result of the study shows that spatial thinking is an important thinking skill that predicts chronological and synchronic thinking skills. The research also includes the development of a synchronic timeline which were used throughout the teaching process. In this timeline were developed, a new technique called "scaling" by the researcher were used as well as abiding by the techniques of antecedent researches. It is thought that this technique will eliminate to a great extent the issue of manipulation experienced in representing the space while preparing a timeline and contribute in establishing a more objective approach of mapping the past. From this aspect, the research suggests a new technique to the dimension of spatial representation to the nearly three-centuries-old tradition of synchronic timeline preparation.