The Effects of Activities Integrated with the Science Subject 'Human and Environment Unit' On Secondary School Students' Acquisition of Mercy Value*4

Fen Bilimleri Dersi "İnsan ve Çevre" Ünitesiyle Bütünleştirilmiş Etkinliklerin Ortaokul Öğrencilerinin Merhamet Değerini Kazanmalarına Etkisi

Abstract

In the scope of values education, mercy value is one of the values that exists in the curriculum and which applied in schools. In literature, there are many studies showing that values education programs and activities to make students' acquisition of values like tolerance, democracy culture, solidarity, self-confidence and determination, honesty, justice, democracy, friendship, responsibility, respect, being peaceful, awareness, freedom, universality, benevolence, love and kindness result in effective outcomes. However, there was no study in the literature aiming to analyze the acquisition of mercy value in Science Classes. Considering this extent, the purpose of study is to examine the effects of activities integrated with The Science Subject 'Human and Environment Unit' on the acquisition of mercy value of 7th grade students. Quasi Experimental method was used with pretest-posttest control group in this study. In addition to curriculum, a content aiming at the acquisition of mercy value was used, thus an experimental and prosperous learning environment was created in the study. In that way, activities were prepared according to 5E Instructional Model, a model of Constructivist Learning Theory. Lessons were taught to control group as prescribed in curriculum. In the process of research lasting 5 weeks, many activities were carried out to experimental group aside from curriculum. Considering the extend of our study, activities like 8 video, 5 working sheets, 1 station activity, 2 completing story, 2 posters , 1 feeding a turtle, 1 creative drama, 1 planting and caring, 1 making a model of ecosystem, 1 writing letter, 1 writing composition were applied to experimental group. Dilemma forms concerning mercy value was applied to experimental and control group before and after application. Study Group Research was carried out with 34 7th grade students in a secondary school in Giresun in 2012-2013 education year. Experimental group consists of 17 students, 12 girls and 5 boys while control group consists of 17 students, 11 girls and 6 boys. Data Collection Tools and Data Analysis Twelve-items Dilemma form was prepared within the scope of research to specify the level of acquisition of mercy value through activities integrated with 'Human and Environment Unit'. Getting remarks from 1 language expert and 2 experts from field of science, various cases related to mercy value were given to students and questions like 'How would you feel?' 'what would you do?' and 'why?' were asked to students. To find what mercy means to students, the question 'do you think what mercy is?' was asked to students. Data obtained from Dilemma form related to mercy value were analysed according to content analysis. In that way, the mercy value was determined as the theme and concepts such as compassion, feeling sadness, helping, exhibiting love, showing tenderness, being awareness, protecting, moral feeling, being favourable and being kind were considered as code in content analysis. Findings, Result And Discussion As a result of study, it came out that activities integrated with Science Subject 'Human and Environment Unit' have positive effects on acquisition of mercy value of 7th grade students. When experimental group students' answers on Dilemma forms were examined, students mentioned 393 concepts related to mercy value in pre-test but the number of concepts mentioned increase to 540 in protest and the rise of this is %38 in experimental group. However, a significant increase wasn't detected in control group when comparing pretest-posttest in Dilemma forms students' answer. These findings revealed that activities have positive effects on students' acquisition of mercy value. On the other hand, it seemed that students in experimental group mentioned 7 concepts in pretest and 9 concepts in protest in Dilemma forms. It was detected that in the sequences of highest increases are compassion %92, protecting %66, moral feeling with %33 and helping with %31 when we compare concepts mentioned by experimental group students in pretest and posttest. As a result of study it was detected that, experimental group students mentioned 8 different concepts related to their perception on what mercy means to them, but control group students mentioned only 5 concepts. When students' answer on what mercy means to them were examined, experimental group students mentioned 57 concepts related to mercy concept in pretest; but the number of concept in posttest rose to 91 and the increase in experimental group is about %60. The reason of this rise is thought to be derived from providing various experiences to students with prosperous content related to mercy value.

Özet

Bu çalışmanın amacı Fen Bilimleri dersi "İnsan ve Çevre" ünitesiyle bütünleşti- rilmiş etkinliklerin yedinci sınıf öğrencilerinin merhamet değerini kazanmalarına etkisi- ni incelemektir. Araştırmada ön test-son test kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel yöntem kulla- nılmıştır. Araştırma 2012-2013 eğitim-öğretim yılında bir ortaokulun yedinci sınıfında öğrenim gören toplam 34 öğrenci ile yürütülmüştür. Kontrol grubunda öğretim progra- mının öngördüğü şekilde dersler işlenmiştir. Deney grubunda ise öğretim programına ek olarak araştırmacı tarafından merhamet değerinin kazandırılmasına yönelik zengin- leştirilmiş bir içerik ve etkinlik programı uygulanmıştır. 5 hafta süren araştırmanın veri- leri araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen merhamet değerine ilişkin ikilem durumları anket formu ile elde edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucunda deney grubu ile yapılan etkinliklerin öğrencilerin merhamet değerini olumlu yönde geliştirdiği görülmüştür.