The use of biography for values education in social studies course

Abstract

Biographies, which are accepted as teaching materials in social studies education, have additionally the characteristics of a means to acquire values in primary school educational setting. The use of biographies for values education in social studies courses was investigated in this study. In this study, qualitative document analysis was used and two values, self-confidence and diligence, were chosen randomly among 26 values. The life stories of İbn-i Sina and Fatih Terim, which are among the characters which students mostly prefer to read about (Er, 2010), were decided to be formalized in one-page-long biographies, in which the values aforementioned were specifically highlighted. Students are asked five questions in order to gather their views on the biographies and to raise awareness on the issues. Biographies were implemented during two weeks for a total number of 64 students in Özkent Akbilek Secondary School, Keçiören, Ankara, as an hour subject per week both in a selected class of 6th and 8th grades. Finally, it was determined that biographies were effective in the value preferences of students and there were differences in value tendencies in terms of grades. © 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.