The effectiveness of activity based values training program on social skills of 5-6 year old children

ABSTRACT Examination of the Effect of Activity-Based Values Education Program on Social Skills of 5-6 Year-Old Children Objective: It is aimed to examine the effect of the Activity-Based Values Education Program (ABVEP) on social skills of 5-6 year-old children who attended the pre-school education institution. Material and Method: The sample group of the study consisted of a total of 40 students including 20 students in experimental group and 20 students in control group in the age group of 5-6 years, who were attending a kindergarten affiliated with Malatya Directorate of National Education. The ABVEP was prepared by the researcher and applied by the researcher in the experimental group for three days a week and 30 sessions. The control group continued the daily flow of education. The dependent variable of the study was "social skills" of children in age group of five-six years, who were attending the preschool education institution and the independent variable was "The Activity-Based Values Education Program". Experimental design with pretest-posttest-retention test control group was used in the study. "General Information Form" and the "Social Skills Evaluation Scale for 4-6 Years (SSES)" were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data, SPSS 22 was used and the level of significance was accepted as p <0.05. Results: When examining pretest and posttest scores obtained by the children in the experimental group from SSES, it was found that there was a significant difference in favor of posttest (p<0.05). When examining posttest scores obtained by the children in the experimental and control groups from SSES, a statistically significant difference was determined (p<0.05). When examining pretest scores obtained by the children in the experimental and control groups from SSES, no statistically significant difference was observed between scores of all of the other subscales of the scale except for "Skills of Controlling Anger Behaviors and Adapting to Changes" (p>0.05). No statistically significant difference was observed between pretest-posttest scores of the children in the control group for SSES and between posttest- retention test scores of the children in the experimental group for SSES (p>0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that the "The Activity-Based Values Education Program" developed social skills of the children and its effect was permanent. Keywords: Value, Values Education, The Activity-Based Values Education Program, Preschool Education, Social Skill