Effect of Value Education Program Applied in Life Studies Lesson on Self-Esteem, Social Problem-Solving Skills and Empathy Levels of Students

The aim of this research was to examine the effects of value education program, which was based on respect and responsibility, on self-esteem levels, social problem-solving skills and empathy levels of primary school 3rd grade students. "Pretest-posttest design with nonequivalent control groups" from quasi experimental designs was used for this purpose. Participants were 34 students for experimental group and 33 students for control group with total of 67 students. "The school short-form Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory" developed by Coopersmith (1967) and adopted into Turkish by Pi kin (1997); "Social Problem Solving Skills Scale" prepared by the researcher; and "KA-SI Empathic Tendency Scale for Children" developed by Kaya and Siyez (2010) were used for collecting data. Data analysis was performed by using two-factor ANOVA test with repeated measures. Results showed that value education program did not have a significant effect on increasing self-esteem levels of students. On the other hand, it was found to have a positive effect on social problem solving skills and empathy levels.