Values education with educational games in social studies course: An action research

The aim of this study was to design educational activities to teach the values of respect, responsibility and freedom values of the 7th grade social studies course under the heading Individual and Society through educational games and to implement these activities and to reveal the efficiency of these educational game activities in teaching-learning processes in terms of gaining value. In this respect, the views of social studies teachers and students on the process of teaching values intensified by educational games were also examined. Action research, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. Thus, it was studied in the area of teaching and being more effective in solving the problem, and taking a participatory role in the learning process. The study group consisted of 9 male, 17 female, 26 students studying in 7th grade in Şırnak, a social studies teacher and a researcher teacher. The current state of the students related to the two hours of observation before the action research, interviews with the teacher, playing the game of value pot and the values aimed to be improved through a pre-test. Educational games and activities were selected and implemented according to the current state of the students. Students created product files as an out-of-school activity supporting educational games and they filled them regularly. The social studies course plans, which were intensified with educational games, were implemented in 9 course hours. In order to evaluate the implementation process, pre-test and post-test questionnaires, observations in the learning process, documents and interviews with the participants were used. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive analysis techniques. On the quantitative data collected through pre-test and post-test questionnaires, Wilcoxon-signed sequences were tested. The resulting descriptive statistics were analyzed and graded with graded scoring key. To develop their expressions in terms of quantity and varieties for the sub-dimensions of values and to demonstrate them in the daily life which is the basic criterion in the evaluations are among the targeted outcomes. At the end of the research, it was observed that the teaching intensified with educational games and supported with the product file had a positive effect on the learning and teaching process. It can be said that the social studies courses carried out within this framework contributed to issues such as respect for differences, development of values of freedom and responsibility, prolonging the duration of recalling information, and creating positive attitudes towards the course. Keywords: Values Education, Action Research, Educational Games, Responsibility, Freedom, Respectfor Differences