The cognitive and erceptive level of secondary school students related to Çanakkale Wars and the teaching of Çanakkale Wars

Being the birthplace of Modern Turkish republic, Çanakkale has long been known as a legend and young generations are required to pass this legend on to new generations.Globalizing world leads cultures to be corrupted with their integrating with each other and it lays the groundwork for the gradual disappearance of nationalistic sentiments. Accordingly, states usually make use of heroic stories in order to stimulate patriotic sentiments of the public. Turkish state, similarly, regards Çanakkale Wars, which has taken place in the recent past, in the same respect.The aim of this study is to find out whether Çanakkale Wars are sufficiently taught to secondary school students , being our future values and ,if not, determine what the problem results from. The study has been divided into three fields which aims to determine the knowledge of students about Çanakkale Wars, establish the approach adopted by the teachers and school administrations and find out the attitudes and thoughts of the students related to the issue.In this study, which is based on the scanning model, the cities of Ankara, Van, Batman, Rize, Denizli, Isparta, Kırklareli, Çanakkale and two towns of each city are taken as samples. 1914 students studying at Anatolian Schools, Technical High Schools and Public High Schools are included in this study as samples.At the end of the research, the knowledge students have about Çanakkale wars and its starting date has been found to be insufficient. The real trouble of the students is related to the fact that they are not able to understand the cause and effect relationship about the events and they also have chronological problems. These inabilities are observed at higher rates in technical schools than in Anatolian High Schools and Public High Schools.It has been established that commemoration ceremonies of Çanakkale martyrs are ,in a way, underestimated at schools and even though school trips are required to be organized to Çanakkale War areas in the curriculums, these activities are found to be the least organized activities. Moreover, it has been pointed out that History teachers are observed to be ineffective in applying modern educational techniques in their classes.At the end of the study it has been found out that the perceptions the students have about Çanakkale Wars are positive but the knowledge and perceptions of the students vary negatively from Canakkale towards the east part of Turkey.