Korea is aging the fastest in the world, causing structural changes across society. As the proportion of the elderly population increases rapidly, complex social tasks such as conflicts over the sharing of social responsibility for caring for the elde...
Korea is aging the fastest in the world, causing structural changes across society. As the proportion of the elderly population increases rapidly, complex social tasks such as conflicts over the sharing of social responsibility for caring for the elderly, employment conflicts between generations in the labor market, and social security conflicts are emerging simultaneously.
These changes inevitably have a direct impact on the youth generation who will lead the society in the future. Nevertheless, in the educational field, there is not enough teaching and learning system that actively reflects demographic and social transformation in the educational content or supports students to think independently. Most of the contents related to aging remain at the level of superficial information, and opportunities for adolescents to explore and reflect on the conflict issues in aging society from various angles in the actual social context are very limited. Students tend to perceive the aging problem as a 'work of another generation' unrelated to them, which may lead to a lack of social empathy and immaturity of a sense of civic responsibility. In the long run, there is also a concern that the foundation of trust between generations will weaken due to the disconnection of this perception.
Starting with this awareness of the problem, this study attempted to develop and apply an educational program that enhances awareness of the aged society within the middle school curriculum and allows individual learners to make value judgments on related social phenomena. Classes were organized in a direction that could cultivate learners' ability to judge their value.
The concept of 'value' defined in this study is defined as virtues such as consideration, respect, and respect necessary for solving problems in an aged society. These values are internalized to learners through selection, respect, and practice, which are the three major steps of the value clarification teaching and learning model, and lead to specific action plans in real life. The value set in this study is operatively defined as a concept that collectively refers to cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes in which learners recognize problems in an aged society and form a willingness to solve problems. Therefore, the value concept of this study emphasizes empathy, choice, and behavior, which are the basic principles of the theory of value clarification of individuals, and aims to form a sense of responsibility and action to solve problems in an aged society.
To this end, based on Kirschenbaum's value clarification teaching and learning model, a teaching system that promotes students' value internalization process and behavioral practice was devised. The educational content was organized around key areas of conflict that are socially controversial in relation to an aging society. Specifically, the issue of free rides, responsibility for caring for the elderly, conflicts of interest between generations over the wage peak system, and communication disconnection between generations were selected as key topics. All of these topics may seem somewhat distant from the lives of students, but in reality, they are directly connected to future youth, employment in old age, caring responsibility, economic burden, and communication problems.
The educational program was developed by analyzing the achievement standards and content system of the 2015 revised technology, family, and curriculum, and the contents of previous studies and textbooks related to the aged society at home and abroad were comprehensively reviewed to secure academic validity and educational practicality. Based on the population education content system proposed by Yoon In-kyung and Lee Soo-jung (2017a), real social issues were educationally reorganized to suit the learner's level of development, and finally, the fourth program was designed in a form that allows middle school students to immerse themselves in actual classes. The teaching and learning strategy of the program was centered on student-led activities such as discussing in small groups and writing value papers. It is designed so that the class can be a place for activity-oriented value search and expression.
The completed program was applied to a total of 91 students from four classes in the third grade of A middle school located in Seoul from April to May 2025 during regular home class hours. In order to analyze the effectiveness of education, students' level of awareness of aging society, degree of interest in related problems, and change in terms of problem-solving competency (knowledge and attitude) were measured through pre- and post-test tools. The survey tool consisted of three sub-areas, and statistical analysis was conducted in a corresponding sample t-test method using the SPSS 29.0 program.
The analysis results showed statistically significant improvements in all three sub-areas. The change in perception of social issues related to the 'wage peak system' was the largest. This class can be interpreted as an educational outcome that provided students with specific information and opportunities for value judgment on social topics that were relatively unfamiliar to them to form personal values necessary for problem solving.
These findings suggest the necessity of converting the aged society class to a class aimed at presenting the problem situation of actual value conflict and cultivating learners' ability to clearly recognize and search for values. In addition, it was confirmed that the teaching and learning model, which is constructed based on a value clarification strategy on the subject of various things that occur in an aging society, can help students cultivate the value of solving the aged society problem through the process of organizing their own positions and coordinating with others' positions while increasing students' interest and participation.
First, the significance of this paper was shown to have a positive impact on adolescents' perception of social problems and values by reorganizing educational content related to aging society in consideration of middle school students' developmental characteristics and social context, and applying classes using value clarification teaching and learning strategies to actual educational sites.
Second, it has educational implications in that it presents the possibility of converting content related to population and aging society, which was simply focused on providing information about aging society within home and education, to education that solves problems that arise in real social phenomena centered on resolving social conflicts and value judgment. In the future, there is a need for expanded application research that reflects various grades and types of teaching and learning.
It is expected that this study can be used as basic data to suggest the direction of problem-solving, communication, and value education necessary for demographic changes and response to an aging society in home and education.