VALUES DEVELOPMENT THROUGH GYMNASTIC EDUCATION IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Physical education and sports are at the forefront of many schools of thought when it comes to values education since sport has the power to provide a universal framework for learning values. For this reason, the aim of this study is to examine the development of values in children aged four and five who start their gymnastics education in early childhood. In the experimentally planned study, the children's families filled the values scale as a pre-test and post-test, and the changes were examined. The population of the research group consisted of children aged four to five who attended the gymnastics course opened by a private club in the Akhisar district of Manisa during the summer period. The sample group consisted of 49 children whose consent was obtained after informing their families. The Preschool Values Scale Family Form (PVSFF), developed by Neslitürk and Çeliköz (2015), was used as a measurement tool. Although there was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the Preschool Values Scale Family Form, a significant difference was found only in the responsibility sub-dimension of the scale. Therefore, it is understood that children can gain values, especially responsibility, through lifelong game-based sports. Considering that learning through game is important in early childhood, it is thought that emphasizing the concept of values in the movement or sports education programs to be structured and to inform the teachers, coaches or consultants working in this field is crucial.


INTRODUCTION
Every society wants to transfer its culture, traditions, and customs to the individuals within it, and to pass its values on to the next generations.The best way to do this is by instilling value to children (Sümbüllü & Altınışık, 2016;Koç & Akdoğan, 2018).Values are generally defined as a set of desirable behaviors (Gündoğan, 2019).In other words, values are explained as generalized social behavior principles that are accepted as the most correct, best, and beneficial in society.Since they are an important part of the daily life of individuals, values deeply inflence life (Ceyhan, 2022).Values vary according to what people consider important and the goals they want to pursue (Roccas et al., 2002).
Values are essential and indispensable concepts for nurturing individuals who think, feel, and act in a healthy manner, emphasizing that life itself should be the subject of lessons rather than a lesson (Öztürk et al., 2016;Kaya & Antepli, 2018).Research indicates that children's value systems are similar to those of adults in many ways before school age (Tamm & Tulviste, 2022).Hence, the preschool period is viewed as a crucial time that directly influences children's future personality structures, emotions, and thoughts.Consequently, teaching values in early childhood significantly contributes to a child's social and emotional development.As emotions are present in individuals long before school age, providing a quality education during childhood, when the acquisition of values and character is most rapid and convenient, becomes a cornerstone that people require in life (Bostan, 2014;Koç & Akdoğan, 2018).Activity-based practices implemented during the preschool period enhance a child's ability to feel a sense of belonging to a certain social group, engage in helpful interactions, establish common activities, foster harmonious relations with peers, and interact effectively with those around them (Ivanchuk et al., 2022).Physical education and sports activities designed for this purpose can instill various human values such as courtesy, sportsmanship, cooperation, honesty, endurance, and leadership, thanks to their dynamic nature.Sport, with its capacity to provide a universal framework for learning values, has been recognized as a powerful tool in this regard (UNESCO, 2017).Values that can be imparted to children through physical education and sports include respect, responsibility, helpfulness, social relations, honesty, justice, fair play, citizenship, and more (Gil-Madrona et al., 2016;Rogers, 2020).
According to the innovative physical education curriculum at One World International School (OWIS), children are encouraged to lead a healthy and active lifestyle while instilling important values in them.In the preschool program, children embark on their physical education adventures like throwing balls at each other and playing fun games.It is evident that gymnastics, a discipline that has been recognized as an educational branch for many years, holds a central position in the physical education program (Mauldon, 2014).Gymnastics, known for its emphasis on play activities and peer collaborations, has consistently maintained this crucial role.Within gymnastics, children acquire a range of fundamental movement skills, encompassing displacement movements like running, jumping, and bouncing, as well as balancing skills such as standing on one leg, walking in balance, and turning.These movements are essential for the development of children's motor skills in daily life, providing them with opportunities to practice and enhance these skills through gymnastics practices (Mülazımoğlu Ballı, 2021).Beyond these benefits, gymnastics training contributes to improvements in physical fitness, body awareness, spatial awareness, and balance.Moreover, it fosters creativity, aesthetic appreciation, and collaboration within small groups (Kleinman, 2009).Working with peer groups improves cooperation and sensitivity, making individuals more tolerant and willing to help.This experience helps children learn responsibility and  (Wandzilak, 2012).Moreover, few studies specifically investigate the effects of play and creative drama, with positive outcomes reported in these studies (Kılıç, 2017;Mehmudoğlu & Yüce, 2020;Can & Günaydı, 2019;Doğan, 2021;Gündüz et al., 2017;Özyürek et al., 2018).In this context, there is a noticeable gap in the literature regarding the impact of disciplines such as gymnastics on values.To address this gap, this study aims to examine the development of values through basic gymnastics education during the preschool period.

METHOD
This semi-experimental study was planned to examine the value development of four and five-year-old children.
In this study, 49 preschool children aged four and five, officially enrolled in the gymnastics program at the Akhisargücü Sports Club in the Akhisar district of Manisa, were included.Before the application, the parents of the preschool children planned to participate in the study were informed about the research.Participation was voluntary, and written and verbal consent were obtained from both parents and children.
The research received approval from the Ege University Social and Humanities Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee on 29/06/2022, with the meetings/decision number 06/05 and protocol number 1520.
A personal information form, prepared by the researcher, was completed by the parents, containing various demographic information.Additionally, the parents filled out the Preschool Values Scale Family Form, developed by Neslitürk and Çeliköz (2015).The Preschool Values Scale is a 3point Likert-type scale, assessable by both families and teachers.It comprises six subdimensions and a total of 30 items, covering aspects like friendship, honesty, cooperation, sharing, respect, and responsibility.During the validity studies, factor analysis and subtest correlation coefficients were computed.Items were included in the final scale based on a factor load value of at least .30 in the factor analysis.Significant relationships at the levels of .01 and .001were observed between subtests of the teacher and family forms when examining correlation coefficients.Moreover, the reliability of the forms was established using the internal consistency coefficient, with split-half and Cronbach's alpha reliability formulas.The family form demonstrated a reliability coefficient of .84 based on the split-half method and .89according to the Cronbach's Alpha reliability results.
The research was carried out at the Akhisargücü Sports Club over a period of 10 weeks, including both pre-test and posttest measurement weeks.In the first week, the Preschool Values Scale was completed as the pre-test.Subsequently, an 8-week experimental procedure was implemented.In the 8-week experimental program, with games integrated in the course content to promote the values of responsibility, respect, cooperation, friendship, sharing and honesty, emphasis was placed on the concepts of respect, cooperaton, sharing, and friendship.Additionaly, at the end of each lesson, the movements learned in that lesson were given to the children to study at home as homework.In the following week, the children were always asked whether they did their homework (to promote the values of responsibility and honesty).
The pre-test and post-test data obtained from the experimental and control groups were analyzed using the SPSS Statistics 25.0 package program.Skewness-Kurtosis values and Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used to determine the normality distribution and the analysis methods to be used in the study.Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used for group comparisons, and Wilcoxon-Signed Rank test was used for pre-test-posttest comparisons, since the number of samples (n:49) was small, and the distribution was not normal.

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RESULTS
Table 2 presents participants' sociodemographic data.
When the normality distributions are examined as presented in Table 3, skewness and kurtosis values of some variables appear to deviate from the extreme points.
The total scores of the participants' preschool values scale did not differ according to gender, age, and kindergarten variables in the pre-test.(Table 4).
Table 5 shows the total scores of the participants' preschool values scale didn't differ according to the mother's and father's education level variables in the pre-test.
Table 6 presents there was a significant difference only in the sub-dimension of responsibility in the participants' pre-test and post-test scores as extracted from the preschool values scale family form.
There was no significant gender difference in the scores of the scale total score and sub-dimensions (Table 7).
As displayed in Table 8, age produced a significant difference in the total score of the scale and the difference scores of its sub-dimensions only in the friendship score.
As shown in Table 9, the averages of the friendship sub-dimension are in favor of the post-test in the 4-year-old group.

DISCUSSION
In the study, preschool children who underwent 8 weeks of gymnastics training during the summer showed an increase in total scores on the values scale.However, this difference was not statistically significant, except for the responsibility sub-dimension, where a significant difference was observed.The significance of the responsibility dimension may be attributed to the fact that the movements taught in the course were assigned as homework, requiring children to take ownership of their responsibilities.
There is a lack of literature examining the development of values specifically through sports such as gymnastics.However, existing studies on values in education highlight concepts such as respect, responsibility, love, tolerance, and cooperation as essential for children's development (Akto & Akto, 2017;Arıcı & Bartan, 2019;Ogelman & Sarıkaya, 2015;Yıldız, Elibol & Ada, 2021).These concepts align with the scale and subdimensions used in our study.Notably, Yıldız et al. (2021) (2013) emphasized the integration of values with subjects like physical education, and Öztürk & Can (2020) noted the positive impact of integrating music education with movement on the social values of preschool students.Several studies support the idea that transferring values through physical education and sports is a powerful, enjoyable, and sustainable approach (Öztürk Kuter & Kuter, 2012).The choice of gymnastics in this study, with activities conducted through entertaining games, aligns with the notion that values, being related to various disciplines, can be effectively conveyed through enjoyable physical education and sports activities.
Moreover, studies have indicated the effectiveness of creative drama (Kılıç, 2017;Mehmudoğlu & Yüce, 2020) and games (Can & Günadı, 2019;Doğan, 2021;Gündüz et al., 2017;Özyürek et al., 2018) in values development.The emphasis is on the idea that children learn more permanently when actively participating, doing, and experiencing.The practice content of this study reinforces the recommendations and findings from other literature, showcasing that gymnastics exercises, designed as game-based activities, engage children in the learning process with their peers in a fun and interactive manner.

CONCLUSION
In the study, a significant difference was observed only in the dimension of responsibility in the development of values in preschool children who participated in gymnastics training during the summer period.However, an increase was noted in the scores of all sub-dimensions.This outcome suggests that game-based sportive activities such as gymnastics in preschool children can be effective in transferring the values that families and teachers aim to instill in children.
using a game, repetition of flexibility and balance postures (seated forward fold, standing fold, split, straddle leg sitting, front balance, side balance, vertical split, bridge).The game rules: the teacher calls out a movement, everyone performs it simultaneously.Anyone who makes a mistake is eliminated.This continues until only one person remains.The teacher may intentionally make a wrong to add some excitement.Teaching basic aerobic gymnastics steps (march, jog, skip, knee lift, kick, jumping jack, lunge).

Table 2
Frequency table

Table 4
Results of Mann Whitney-U test for pre-test preschool values scale total scores

Table 6
Pre-test post-test Wilcoxon results in relation to the participants' preschool values scale total score and sub-dimension averages

Table 9
Pre-test post-test averages in the friendship sub-dimension in relation to age