Thanks to its easily accessible nature, television is an important means of mass communication which enters the life of children at very early periods as it does not require any special skill for watching. Therefore, TV contents play active role in children development processes. This necessitates the investigation of the interaction between children and TV. When the relevant literature is examined, we can find many studies on this topic. While a significant part of the study focused on the negative effects of television, some studies emphasize the educational role television plays. Therefore, determination the kind of contents that are primarily followed by TV channels is important in determining whether television has positive or negative effect on children.

This study attempts to determine what kind of positive/negative effects the contents children consume have on their cognitive development and whether they have any contribution to their educational lives. In this study, the effect of television on education especially on history education has been discussed. To reveal this effect more clearly, children aged 7 to 8 who had not received history education and whose historical consciousness had not yet developed fully were included in the study. Face to face interviews were used to collect data for the study. Based on the consideration that pictures are the best way for children to express themselves, the children in this study were asked to draw pictures of what the word “Ottoman” reminds them. Later on, the children were asked questions based on the Ottoman representations they drew. In this way, data related to the content of television program children watch (cartoons, soap opera, TV program etc.) and to the ways they use these content in practice were collected.

Based on the data obtained, the positive and negative effects of television content on education is spatially on history education were presented and some suggestions with regard to the ways children at developmental ages can benefit from TV contents were made in the discussion section of the study.