Teaching the values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy in the social studies course in the 4th grade of primary school and the determination of the attitudes of the children

In the research, it was aimed to determine teaching the values of ?love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy? and the attitudes of the children towards these values. Activities that were prepared with the intention of gaining the values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy were carried out, the effect of these activities on the attitudes of the children was determined, and the ideas of the children and the implementation period were evaluated for that purpose.In the study, ?mixed method?, which is formed as a result of using qualitative and quantitative research patterns, was used. Experimental procedure was performed with the purpose of revealing the difference between the attitudes of the students who participated in the sessions of activities that were prepared with the intention of gaining the values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy and those who did not participate in these sessions, and determining the ideas of the students in the experimental group before and after the experimental procedure, according to pre-test and post-test control group testing model.The study group of the research comprises of the 4th grade students of İbrahim Ethem Baysal Primary School and the 4th grade students of Atatürk Primary School in Yeşilova town of Aksaray Central province. The study group consists of 45 students. 22 of these students are included in the experimental group and 23 in the control group.The data of the research was collected developed by the researcher in accordance with qualitative and quantitative research techniques by data collecting tools. In this respect, ?Placement Test? was developed in order to determine the starting level of the students involved in the study groups, ?Personal Information Form? was developed in order to get to know the students, ?Attitude Scale for Love of Nature, Hygiene and Being Healthy? was developed in order to determine the attitudes of the students, ?Interview Form? was developed in order to determine the students? ideas about values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy.In the research, during the analysis of quantitative data in comparisons between groups for the purpose of determining the differences between the attitudes of the experimental group and the control group and in comparisons between female and male subjects depending on gender variable, t-test for unbound samples was used. In comparisons between subjects depending on the variable of income state of the family, single-factor variance analysis was used. Dimensions that were included in the attitude scale in quantitative data analysis were analyzed and compared separately. In the analysis of qualitative data, for the data obtained from the interviews and from the implementation of the activities, descriptive analysis technique was used.As a result of the research: It was observed that there was an increase in the attitude scores for values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy of the students in the experimental group where activities developed according to value education methods were carried out. When the pre-test and post-test results of the students in experimental group and the control group were considered, it was observed that there is not a meaningful difference between attitude scores of experimental group students in the aspects of love of nature and being healthy depending on gender variable, on the other hand, there was a meaningful difference in favor of the female students in the aspect of hygiene. In the control group, it was observed that there was not a meaningful difference between attitude scores of the students in terms of values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy depending on gender. When the pre-test and post-test results of the experimental group and control group depending on the variable of income state of the family were analyzed, it was found out that there was not a meaningful difference between the attitude scores of the students. When the data obtained from the ideas of the experimental group students and the implementation process were analyzed, it is possible to say that value education activities have a positive effect on the acquisition levels and behaviors of the students in terms of values of love of nature and paying attention to hygiene and being healthy.Keywords: Value Education, Love of Nature, Paying Attention to Hygiene and Being Healthy, Attitude, Behavior, Acquisition, Value Education Activities, Social Studies, Primary Education.