The effect of civic engagement activities on social sensitivity of 12-14 years old students

One of the most important purposes of education is to raise individuals who appreciate nature and people around them, who have self-confidence as a part of the world and the society they live in and who have the consciousness of contributing to the society. To achieve this goal, the idea of raising `participating citizen? has become more of an issue.A dimension of participating citizenship, civic engagement, is based on serving voluntarily for the society as an independent person and as a member of a group. It can be performed at schools under such names, service-learning and community service. The social participation skill which also takes part in the programme of social studies as one of the skills that will be given directly has importance in improving social sensitivity of students. Especially in social studies or citizenship education that makes students grasp citizenship skills, civic engagement activities can be used effectively to make students be aware of social problems, to make them try to solve these problems, to improve their belief in making the society a better place and to improve their social sensitivity.The purpose of this research is to find out the effects of civic engagement activities on social problem sensitivity of 12- 14 years old students. 160 students who were chosen and who were attending in 2 elementary schools in the centre of Aksaray and Ortaköy form the sample of this study. In the study, pre test ? post test control group design which is among qualitative research methods and semi ? structured method which is among quantitative research methods were used together.In the experimental process of the research, the students in the control group didn?t participate in the activities while the students in experimental group carried out some kinds of civic engagement activities. The Scale for sensitivity to social problems was used as pre test ? post test to measure the improvement of social sensitivity in this process.According to findings of the research, a meaningful difference between the students who participate in the civic engagement activities and who don?t was found with respect to sensitivity to social problems. It was found out that the influence of civic engagement activities on sensitivity has no difference according to students? gender, situations of following the news and being member of civil society institutions. As a result of the interviews with the students, it was concluded that the activities have positive influence on students? personality, social improvement and their social sensitivity.