Educational Values in Turkish and English Proverbs

The aim of this study is to investigate Turkish and English proverbs comparatively in terms of their educational values. The study has been conducted through document analysis which is one of the qualitative research patterns. Dictionaries of Turkish and English proverbs have been examined to collect data. Initially, the proverbs conveying educational messages have been determined. Afterwards, educational messages in related proverbs have been coded with regard to educational subjects. Thus themes have been created by choosing identified codes that were relevant to each other. Given to investigated Turkish and English Proverbs Dictionaries within the scope of this study, it has been observed that proverbs have common educational messages such as: The importance of education in childhood, the importance of wisdom and its relationship with education, the effects of motivation on learning, learning by practising and living, cooperation, the significance of the interaction and model learning throughout the education process, reward and punishment in education. On the other hand, while lifelong learning has been mentioned in English proverbs, this theme hasn’t been observed in Turkish proverbs. As a consequence, it is seen that there is a considerable amount of similarity between both nations’ proverbs with regard to the reflection of today’s sense of education.