Effectiveness of Values Education Curriculum for Fourth Grades

Abstract

This study aims to identify the effects of a values education curriculum designed to make fourth grades children acquire the values of “universality” and “benevolence” on pupils’ values-related cognitive behaviors, affective characteristics and performance. The study made use of “mixed methods”. As its experimental design, it employed the “pretest-posttest control model”. The study was conducted in 2005- 2006 academic year in a public school in Ankara, where two classes were found to be equal. Randomly, class 4-A was assigned as the experimental group and 4-B as the control group. In the experimental group the values-related cognitive behavior acquisition level of pupils were found to be meaningfully higher than those in the control group. The experimental group pupils used more expressions reflecting values than the control pupils in the interviews during and after the implementation of the program. The control pupils used more expressions contrary to the values when compared to experimental pupils (At the end of the study in the experimental group, the number of statements congruent with the values treated was 85 and the number of those that were not congruent was 7; at the end of the study in the control group, the number of statements not congruent with the values treated was 19). Additionally, experimental pupils displayed a larger number of positive value-related behaviors during the study than the control pupils (Number of positive behaviors in the experimental group: 725; in the control group: 8).