CIET | Online Survey of Research in Education

Verma, Nidhi. (2010). A study of personal values prevailing among the first year graduate students in selected colleges of Pune city. Unpublished. Major Research Projects, Education

The present research study has been investigated with the following objectives- 1. To investigate the personal value pattern prevailing among the first year graduate students in Pune city. 2. To study and compare the personal values among the male and female students in these selected colleges. 3. To study and compare the existing personal values among the Arts, Science and Commerce students. 4. To examine and compare the personal values of students belonging to different socio-economic status. 5. To asses, whether significant difference exists in personal values among different groups of students with respect to gender, discipline, and socioeconomic status. 6. To examine the extent and nature of the relationship that exists between the socio-economic status and personal values of students.

To attain the above listed objectives, the following hypotheses were formed and tested- 1. There is a significant difference between male and female students with respect to their value patterns. 2. There is a significant difference between Arts and Science students with respect to their value patterns. 3. There is a significant difference between Science and Commerce students with respect to their value patterns. 4. There is a significant difference between Commerce and Arts students with respect to their value patterns. 5. There is no significant difference between upper lower class and middle class students with respect to their value patterns. 6. There is a significant relationship between S.E.S of students and their personal values.

The sample for this study were co-educational colleges affiliated to University of Pune located in Pune city that offers graduation degree in all the three disciplines i.e. Arts, Science and Commerce. Based on the statistics available on the website of University of Pune for the academic year 2008-2009, 24 colleges were identified to provide graduation degree in all the three disciplines i.e. Arts, Science and Commerce. Out of these 24 colleges, 3 colleges were selected as a sample for the study. To get a varied and representative sample, these colleges were selected from different locations of the city One college was taken from the heart of the city and the second one was taken from the outskirts of Pune. Third college was taken intentionally as it was a minority college. Hence the sampling method adopted was purposive. The sample for this study consisted of 255 students, out of which 145 were female students and 110 were male students. Discipline wise distribution of the students was 85-Arts, 90-Science and 80-Commerce students.The following two standardized tools were adopted for data collection 1. Personal Value Questionnaire (PVQ) (Sherry & Verma, 1998) 2. Socio-Economic Status Scale (SESS) (Bhardwaj, 2006)The research method that was used in this study is survey method which attempts to reveal the value perceptions of graduate students from different disciplines. The researcher has collected data from students of Arts, Science and Commerce of selected colleges.The descriptive data was analyzed using frequency and percentages. Further to test the hypotheses statistically, Pearson product moment correlation test and the t- test were adopted. The t-test enabled to find the difference between different groups. Correlation coefficient tests enabled to analyze the relationship between socio economic status and Personal Values.

Total Students (a) First year graduate students of Pune city have shown very high economic and power values and high aesthetic and hedonistic values. (b) These students are average in religious and family prestige values. (c) In democratic, knowledge, and health values all the students have shown low preferences and very low preference on only one value i.e. social value. Male Students (a) Male students have shown very high inclination towards economic, hedonistic, and power values. (b) In religious, aesthetic, and family prestige values males have shown average preferences. (c) Male students have low democratic and health values and very low social and knowledge values. Female Students (a) Female students have shown very high’ preference for economic value and high’ preference for aesthetic, hedonistic, and power values. (b) They have shown average’ value pattern for religious and family prestige values. (c) Female students are low in democratic, knowledge, and health values and very low in social value. Male and Female Students (a) Male and female students have shown similar pattern with respect to six values namely religious, social, democratic, economic, family prestige, and health value. (b) In aesthetic, knowledge, hedonistic, and power values male and female students have shown variations. (c) There is no significant difference between the male and female students with respect to religious, social, democratic, economic, hedonistic, family prestige, and health values. (d) Male and female students differ significantly with respect to aesthetic, knowledge, and power values. Arts Students (a) Arts students have very high economic value and high hedonistic and power values. (b) In religious, aesthetic and family prestige values they have shown average preferences. (c) These students are low in democratic, knowledge, and health value and very low in social value. Science Students (a) Science students have shown very high inclination towards economic and power values and high inclination towards aesthetic and hedonistic values. (b) Science students have shown average religious and family prestige values. (c) In democratic, knowledge, and health values they have shown low preferences and in social value very low’ preference. Commerce Students (a) Commerce students have shown very high economic, hedonistic, family prestige, and health values.

From the findings of the study, the following implications have been denoted. 1. Colleges should promote student’s participation in extra- curricular activities and co-curricular activities like sports and personal games which enhance qualities of courage, hard work, energetic actions, decision making, sportsmanship, and leadership quality. Besides, activities to develop friendliness, self control, acceptance of victory or defeat, team spirit and working for a common goal should be implemented. 2. Activities related to National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Service Scheme (NSS), should be introduced to enable students to develop them physically, mentally and also contribute for the progress of the country by being responsible citizens. 3. As teachers hold the central place in inculcating the social values among the students, they can be encouraged to use cooperative learning strategies, collaborative group exercises, and group work during teaching learning process. 4. Social and democratic values can also be inculcated through the program of social service. For this, the students can visit a nearby locality or village which has under-privileged population and interact with their society by teaching and raising their awareness on social issues like superstition, women education, gender bias and health awareness. 5. Colleges can also organize various college activities like field trip to historical place or monument, to make them aware about our Indian culture and heritage. Events like singing and dance competition, art and craft exhibition, folk dance festivals can be conducted to promote the aesthetic values among the students. 6. Colleges must celebrate festivals of all the religions and conduct events of national importance. 7. Educationist and researchers should evaluate prevailing curriculum regularly to ensure that content required for the development of all the values are taken care of.

Keyword(s): personal values, graduate students