Acquisition of the original values through educational games in social studies course: An action research

Every society has some values that are specific, and reflect the societyitself. Acquisition of these values by individuals is of great importance in terms of the socialisation of the individuals and maintenance of their identity. Family, school and Social environment have influence on getting individuals to have values. In addition, the schools where education and training are systematically carried out and the teachers who act as an implementer during the process have a special place in acquisition of the values. Teachers do their best to get students to acquire the values through various methods. In this research, it is aimed to get original values acquired through educational games in Social Sciences Courses. The research is conducted on secondary school 7 th graders during Fall Semester in 2020-2021 Academic Year. The action research, which is one of the qualitative research methods, is used in the research. Data are acquired from observation, video recordings, teacher diaries, student diaries, focus group discussions, and pre- and post-perception texts. The acquired data are analyzed by using content analysis. With the help of a series of educational activities (games) applied for the research, it is stated that the 7th graders are familiar with the original values except for the self-control value to a certain extent. At the end of the process, it is seen that the students can define the original values and develop a positive behaviour. Besides, it is clear that the female students attach more importance to Original love and friendship values, and are more sensitive than the male students when the values turn into behaviours. In the research, it is seen that educational games in Social Sciences courses have positive impacts on acquisition of the original values. It is observed that the students can understand the original values beter with the help of the educational games, and that their perception of the original values improve. Based on the positive results acquired from the research, we can advise teachers to benefit from the educational games during acquisition of the values in the learning process.