Life sciences curriculum in Turkey and the evaluation of values education in textbooks

Abstract

In primary schools in Turkey, life sciences is one of the lessons which take the responsibility ofpreparing students to the social life and help students gain intended values. In the vision of Life Sciencescurriculum the aim is to raise individuals who are compatible with themselves, their society and nature, whoknow and protect themselves, their nation, their homeland and nature and also develops them. From this pointof view, the role of life sciences lesson in having students gain values is clearly seen. In this research, lifesciences curriculum, text books, workbooks based on this program are evaluated by taking the “scanningmodel” as a basis. During the research, life sciences textbooks and workbooks published by Turkish Ministryof National Education for the first, second and third grades were examined. The results of the research showedthat in life sciences curriculum the biggest emphasis was put on patriotism, in textbooks it was on the value ofaffection and the workbooks mostly included activities related to the value of affection. It was recommendedthat gains including all the values stated in life sciences curriculum should be included and they should betaken into consideration while preparing textbooks and workbooks.