Needs Analysis on Values Education Programme for Preschool Students

Abstract

In recent years, there is a big debate among researchers, teachers and decision makers about what to include in early childhood values education in preschools in Turkey. The aim of the current study is to make a need analysis for values education programme for preschoolers. This study was conducted with 200 preschool teachers in one of urban cities of Turkey –Kahramanmaraş- during 2016-2017 Spring semester. A values checklist is created for the current study by making use of Turkish Ministry of Education’s ‘Values Education Prescript’. The values checklist is a 5-Likert type scale coded as: Not important, Slightly important, Moderately important, Important, Very important. The teachers participated in this study were asked to rank values according to their self regard on importance of them. Findings of this study are analyzed by SPSS 22.0 Programme. According to the findings of the need analysis, top ten values which are chosen by teachers as essential to be implemented in preschools as part of the values education programme for preschoolers are as follows: Honesty, patriotism, responsibility, respect, respect to the elders, respect to environment, love, being fair, respect to others’ rights and being modest. Also, least five values which were ranked by teachers are social responsibility, generosity, collaboration, forehandedness and courage.