Examination of preschool teachers' opinions on values education and in-class activities

Values education starts in the family and continues at school. Children receive values education for the first time in pre-school institutions and pre-school teachers have important duties. The purpose of this study is to interpret the opinions of preschool teachers regarding values education practices in education by measuring them with qualitative data. Preschool teachers view on values education, the methods and activities they applied for values education, the conveniences and difficulties experienced during teaching, the role of the family, and in-class practices were determined. In required values and on values education in-class practices that pre-school teachers apply, The Ministry of National Education defines the ten root values (justice, honesty, self-control, love, respect, patience, in addition to values such as help fulness, responsibility, friendship, patriotism), values of honesty, tolerance, diligence and frugality were also taken into consideration. In this study, a case study was conducted from the qualitative research methods. The teacher opinions form on values education prepared by the researcher was applied to 31 pre-school teachers working in various institutions in Sultangazi district of Istanbul. The collected data were analysed using the descriptive analysis technique. As a result, preschool teachers stated that they mostly use the values of love, respect, and tolerance in their education. In the classroom activities for values education, drama was mostly included. In line with this, it has been seen that drama is used in the methods and techniques used. The tools used were projectors and books. They stated that in values education, they experienced ease when teachers concretized the values and explained/showed/put them into practice, but that children had difficulty due to their inability to cognitively perceive abstract concepts. It has been determined that preschool teachers generally do not engage in family participation while providing values education. The suggestion made by pre-school teachers was that values should be made permanent through experiences.