Investigation of life skills in children's books in context of character features and content

In this study, we examine the basic life skills in children's books in terms of character traits and content. The examined skills are "interpersonal relations, empathy, decision making, problem solving, creative thinking, self-awareness, coping with stress, coping with emotions, communication and critical thinking", which are determined by the World Health Organization. Within the scope of our research, we use 100 narrative-type children's books published by TUBITAK for children of age 3-10. The goal of our study is to determine whether there are life skills in those books; and if any, to determine in what context they are treated and to reveal with which character traits the content is presented. The research design used in this study is phenomenology. Trying to understand the meaning attributed by the author to a concept from the texts she wrote and examining the context in textuality indicate that the adapted research design is phenomenology. The data collection method used in this study is document analysis. As a result of our research, the most prevalent skills in the books are found to be "interpersonal relations, communication, decision making, problem solving and critical thinking". In those books, various characters such as "children, adults, plants, animals and inanimate beings" are used, and these characters are largely "curious, rational, investigative, exploratory, sensitive, and knowledgeable". We found that the reflection of life skills in the books to the reader overlaps with the theoretical knowledge and definitions in the literature about those skills. When the plots in the books are considered, interpersonal relationship skills are presented in the context of family and peer relationships; communication skills in the context of expressing oneself verbally; decision-making skills in the context of wants and needs; problem-solving skills in the context of effective method setting; and critical thinking skills in the context of scientific curiosity. It is seen that the ability to cope with stress is handled in the context of the desire to succeed; the ability to cope with emotions in the context of being resolute; self-awareness skills in the context of talents and interests, strengths and weaknesses; creative thinking skills in the context of new ideas; and empathy skills in the context of awareness. Based on the results of our study, we recommend making more use of children's books that include life skills in school or out-of-school environments.