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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.898176 Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 A REVIEW ON READING-SUPPORTED VALUES EDUCATION OF 7TH GRADE STUDENTS (CASE OF KARS PROVINCE, TURKEY)i Berna Ürün Karahanii, Tazegül Demir Atalay Turkish Education Department, Kafkas Üniversity, Kars, Turkey Abstract: As is known, reading is a skill the individual faces throughout his/her life. Reading, which is also one of the four basic language skills, allows an individual to establish a connection with life. So that, self-improvement of the individual, the process of understanding and interpreting what is happening around him/her, expressing himself/herself and communicating with others, achieving success in education process, and living-conveying the culture earn success with correct acquisition and continuity of this skill. Individuals, who read and define themselves and their environment correctly, succeed also in understanding and transferring process of cultural structures. Each individual adopts the culture and value structure of the society where he/she lives. For this reason, it is important for individuals to understand some local and universal values correctly and to exhibit correct behaviors in this process. To do this, education about some value concepts are given to the secondary school students by the National Education. The population of the study consisted of 7th-grade students studying in two secondary schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. While one group was the experimental group, the other one was the control group. While a values education supported with reading materials was given in one of these schools, a values education without any intervention of the teacher in the process was given at the other school. At the end of the specified period, the students in both groups were asked to write a story containing the values they learned. The first three successful students were rewarded. The data were assessed by making document analysis. Students’ skills to apply story-writing rules correctly and express the values they learn as well as their i This article was made by evaluating the results of the BAP project titled "Tell Me a Story." Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 34 Berna Ürün Karahan, Tazegül Demir Atalay A REVIEW ON READING-SUPPORTED VALUES EDUCATION OF 7TH GRADE STUDENTS (CASE OF KARS PROVINCE, TURKEY) skills to understand and interpret correctly were examined here. As a result of the study, it was observed that the students who were given the values education wrote more successful stories than the other group. Keywords: reading, value education, skills, understanding 1. Introduction Value is the body of rules that individuals in the society believe and accept in every field. For this reason, these rules, which can be gathered under more than one titlenational, religious, moral, philosophical, social - determine and shape the lives of the individuals and their perspective on life. According to its most general definition, values are our judgments about what is good or what is bad. It is more or less precise and systematic ideas that enable the individual to interact with the environment rather than being the things that we prefer according to our likes (Veugelers & Vedder, 2003, cited by ”alcı and Yelken, 2010; 82). “ccording to another definition, Value is defined as the tendency to prefer one particular situation to another. Values are understandings that are source for the behaviors and good for judging them. The values also indicate the wishes, preferences, and desired and undesired situations by defining what the individuals see as important Erden, . Based on this definition, it can be asserted that values are the inexplicit rules that society creates in human relations and social life. Meng(şoğlu expresses the properties of values as follows:   They are phenomena containing beliefs and thus carrying habits.  They are the things that are generally interested and desired.  Even if they have different sources and contents, they are social in a way.  They allow individuals to rationalize and internalize what they do.  They are related to every field, but the fields have their specific values. Values have the function to determine human events (cited by Demir, 2012: 1065). Values allowing the societies to recognize themselves and the culture should be learned and transferred by individuals. The formation of social culture and the individuals’ acquiring common national identity depend on the correct acquisition of values Yazıcı, . Transferring values and common basic behavioral patterns of the society to individuals make a person to socialize and become a part of that society. A bridge is established between the past and the future, by adding new ones into the values and cultural heritage of the past. The European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 35 Berna Ürün Karahan, Tazegül Demir Atalay A REVIEW ON READING-SUPPORTED VALUES EDUCATION OF 7TH GRADE STUDENTS (CASE OF KARS PROVINCE, TURKEY) future life of the society and nation is directly related to the stability and continuity of this bridge. Future of a society and nation that are disconnected from their past cannot be mentioned” Kolaç, p. . The values system constituting the backbone of the culture provides communication between people and also protects them from arbitrary practices and behaviors. It also assures the historical consciousness of people living and producing together. From this point of view, it can be said that the institution being common ground of the education and values and meeting the transfer process is schools (Cihan, 2014; s.432). The above-mentioned expressions indicate the place of value concept in the society. Value teaching starts in family and socializes in society. When the Elementary curriculum of Turkish lesson (2006) is examined, it is observed that it is aimed to train individuals who know the importance of the language along with the general purposes of Turkish lesson, recognize and adopt national and universal values via Turkish and world’s cultural and art works, are tolerant, respectful to human rights, sensitive to the national and world’s problems, and attach importance to national, spiritual, and moral values as a result of Turkish language education ME”, , p. . Value teaching starting from the family continues formally through education period. Therefore, it is required to conduct studies on teaching universal values in the school and encourage the students. Turkish lessons are among lessons that can be quite efficient in this sense. In Turkey, values education is given as a hidden curriculum in Turkish lessons. Value components which are wanted to be given to the student in the texts created in some contexts are transferred through words. Turkish lesson is one of the basic lessons in which value transfer is made in the best way (Demir, 2012; 1065). Schools are one of the important steps of value education. The values of love, respect, responsibility, justice, charity, truth, honesty, trust, self-confidence, tolerance, modesty, empathy, austerity, diligence and patience determined by the Ministry of National Education are transferred in the schools within the scope of Social Studies lesson. The effort to transfer these to students attracts attention. This is because the school takes an important place in the life of an individual both in terms of time and of acquiring skills. One of the aims of education and school is to train moral people. The aim of moral education is to train people who are freed from external factors and judge and act in their conscience Kaya, , cited by Kulaksızoğlu and Dilmaç, 2000, p.199) The individual is expected to do the desired behavior during the education process. All kinds of knowledge and experience gained in this process differentiate the individual's character. Individuals who develop at a certain level contribute to the development of the society. However, it is possible to achieve this by primarily making the individuals to acquire the values Yazıcı, . ”ecause, the learning process in the school which has a significant effect on the continuity of society is guaranteeing the European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 36 Berna Ürün Karahan, Tazegül Demir Atalay A REVIEW ON READING-SUPPORTED VALUES EDUCATION OF 7TH GRADE STUDENTS (CASE OF KARS PROVINCE, TURKEY) future of society by making individuals to acquire knowledge and skills as well as moral values (Cihan, 2014) School is legislation and learning field built on values. As in all other areas, values have an important place in the field of education management. Since the values are determinant in human behaviors and preferences, examining the values has an important place in human sciences Turan and “ktan, , p. -231). Especially, reading and understanding education also draws attention in the value education process. Reading is influenced by surrounding situations as a process. Particularly, the structure and culture of the society where the child is raising affect the language development of the child and naturally his/her reading skill (Ürün Karahan, 2016, p. 787). When taking these statements into consideration, it is seen that the value education and the related activities in schools are very important. Especially education, culture and value concepts should be examined and applications should be made to students with different approaches. For downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1047 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 37