Turkish Studies International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 10/15 Fall 2015, p. 119-136 DOI Number: http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.8866 ISSN: 1308-2140, ANKARA-TURKEY THE EFFECT OF THE USE OF CONCEPT CARTOONS IN GAINING OF CITIZENSHIP CONSCIOUSNESS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS  Melek BABA ** Yücel ÖKSÜZ *** ABSTRACT One of the most important functions of primary education is to give the necessary information and to provide individuals with the minimum knowledge and skills to know their surroundings, to build healthy relationships, to have a broad view of the world and to use their rights as a citizen (Çubukçu&Gültekin, 2006). Through this education, the individuals who have reached the age of literacy do not only develop the knowledge of arithmetic, they also develop the awareness to live within a society and to become a good citizen. A good citizen is someone who is aware of his/her responsibilities and duties to the society, who is sure about himself/herself and respectful to differences, who cares about national independence and protects national values. It is possible to make individuals gain these features only through an effective citizenship education. Citizenship education is a multi-faceted process the aim of which is to develop citizenship awareness. Within this process, the most important duty of educators is to provide the students with correct modellings of citizenship concepts such as democracy, human rights and equality. However, when the literature is reviewed, it can be seen that students have some problems in their perceptions of citizenship concepts (Nayır&Akar,2009). Sabancı (2008) suggests that the reason for these problems is that these concepts are abstract concepts which are difficult to experience in real life. Thus, with reference to this view, this study analyzes the efficacy of using conceptual cartoons in developing citizenship awareness in primary school students. The study was prepared with an experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups and 62 5th grade students participated in the study. The lessons were taught by using conceptual cartoons in the experimental group while they were taught in line with the 2005 Primary School Social Sciences curriculum in the control group. “One Country, One Flag Unit Achievement Test” developed by the researcher and “Social Sciences Lesson Attitude Scale” developed by  This study was prepared for the first author’s master thesis that was published in 2012. Bu makale Crosscheck sistemi tarafından taranmış ve bu sistem sonuçlarına göre orijinal bir makale olduğu tespit edilmiştir. ** Arş. Gör. OMÜ Eğitim Fakültesi B Blok İlköğretim Bölümü Sınıf Öğretmenliği ABD, El -mek: melekbaba87@gmail.com *** Yrd. Doç. Dr. Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi İlköğretim Bölümü Sınıf Öğretmenliği Anabilim Dalı, El-mek: yoksuz@omu.edu.tr