Values education in the context of specific days and weeks: Social studies example

The aim of this research is to reveal the importance of certain days and weeks for the social studies course, to reveal the feelings and thoughts of secondary school social studies teachers, their problems and how they use this process to evaluate teachers' opinions on this subject, and to reveal the importance of certain days and weeks in social studies courses. The aim is to design a teaching environment focused on values education within the framework of activities focusing on the week and to show the applicability of this approach. It is a fact that certain days and weeks provide meaningful learning environments for students in terms of social studies course. For this reason, it was tried to determine how teachers use certain day and week activities in the process, the difficulties they encounter in this regard, and how the use of certain days and weeks in the social studies course will contribute to students' values education. The study is a qualitative study conducted with 10 social studies teachers working in 5 different secondary schools in the Gaziosmanpaşa district of Istanbul and a 7th grade study group consisting of 19 students in a secondary school in the same district. In this study, easily accessible sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the study group. By applying semi-structured interview technique to the teacher participants, the situation was determined by collecting data for certain days and weeks (29 October Republic Day, 10 November Atatürk Commemoration Day and Atatürk Week, 12 March Adoption of the National Anthem and M. Akif Ersoy Commemoration Day, 18 March Çanakkale Victory and Martyrs' Commemoration Day), and with the student study group, a teaching environment focused on values education was designed within the framework of in-class and out-of-class activities focusing on certain days and weeks in social studies lessons. Data regarding their perceptions were collected and all data was recorded. The data obtained was analyzed and examined in depth using the content analysis method. As a result of the study, the implementation of certain days and weeks with in-class and out-of-school activities focused on values education within the scope of the social studies course is significantly effective in gaining the positive behaviors expected from students, and social studies teachers focus on certain days and weeks in their courses. It has been concluded that it will be easier for students to achieve the values they want to acquire if they include activities related to values education.