Middle School Students’ Views On Common Heritage

ARTICLE INFO In this study 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school students’ views on common heritage was examined. This study was conducted in descriptive survey design. As generalization was not aimed one of the purposive sampling methods, convenient sampling was used. Within this scope, there are 127 5th grades, 59 6th grades, 59 7th grades and 85 8th grades, in total 330 middle school students in the study group. Data was collected in written by a data collection tool that consisted of open ended questions about their opinions and information questions with pictures of common heritage. Descriptive statistics what is used for data analysis. Besides, simple frequency and percentage calculations used to digitalize qualitative findings. According to the results obtained in the study, students’ common heritage descriptions and literal descriptions show similarity. Students described the importance of the protection of the common heritage as cultural, historical and universal values, to hand down to the next generations, contribution to tourism and development social relations. The students described common heritage’s contribution to humanity as tourism, economy, social relations, knowledge acquisition and cultural. The students stated that the factors that cause common heritage to extend are human, reckless behaviours of people, environmental pollution, wars, and urban architecture planning. They stated that the precautions that must be taken are security, awareness raising activities, legal protection and non-governmental organizations. Students specified individual precautions as security and non-governmental organizations. When students’ recognition level of the pictures of common heritage elements evaluated, it was seen that the least known common heritage element is Divriği Ulu Mosque, and the most known common heritage elements are Leaning Tower of Pisa and Statue of Liberty. Article History: Received: 23.01.2021 Received in revised form: 17.02.2021 Accepted: 25.02.2021 Available online: 06.01.2021 Article Type: Standard Paper