Abstract:

Learning geography raises awareness of citizenship. Besides, the more individuals learn about there environment the more benefits it will gain from it. Thus, the education of geography plays a key role in this aspect. Geography shows itself up in the class of Knowledge of Life (Life Knowledge) in the first grade of primary schools, later appears in the classes of Social Studies (Social Information) and Science and Technology until the eighth grade. Education of geography in high school consists of subjects of both physical geography and human geography in order to make sense of the world, our country and the environment. In addition, education of geography, which is so significant to develop identity, is useful for determining anxiety of students. So it is conducted research for handling anxiety problems. The aim of this study is to determine the level of anxiety of geography students at high school level. The questionnaire used in this study which was prepared in accordance with the cross-sectional survey model was applied in three classes in 9th, 10th and 11th degrees in a high school in Avanos district of Nevşehir in the academic year 2018-2019. A sample group consisting of 185 high school students participated in the study; however, the survey was conducted with a sample group of 177 people after removing the questionnaires which are faulty and non-objective. In this study, "Social Studies Lesson Anxiety Scale" was used as a data collection tool after modified for this study. The Cronbach's Alpha value for this modified scale was 87 in final. T-test was applied in SPSS 20 package program depending on gender variable and anxiety levels of high school students were determined. When the whole study was examined, it was found that there was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of anxiety level. However, it was found that female students were more anxious about taking higher degrees and geography lessons. Moreover, it was found that subjects in geography lesson units consisted of numerical and verbal dimensions, but increased anxiety level due to interest and ability. Moreover, it was found that subjects in geography lesson increased anxiety level due to units' characteristics

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