Values education is a term used to name several things, and there is much academic controversy surrounding it. Some regard it as all aspects of the process by which teachers (and other adults) transmit values to pupils. Others see it as an activity that can take place in any organisation during which people are assisted by others, who may be older, in a position of authority or are more experienced, to make explicit those values underlying their own behaviour, to assess the effectiveness of these values and associated behaviour for their own and others' long term well-being and to reflect on and acquire other values and behaviour which they recognise as being more effective for long term well-being of self and others.
This means that values education can take place at home, as well as in schools, colleges, universities, offenders institutions and voluntary youth organisations. There are two main approaches to values education. Some see it as inculcating or transmitting a set of values which often come from societal or religious rules or cultural ethics . Others see it as a type of Socratic dialogue where people are gradually brought to their own realisation of what is good behaviour for themselves and their community.
Definitions
There has been very little reliable research on the results of values education classes, but there are some encouraging preliminary results.
This means that there are many definitions. One definition refers to it as the process that gives young people an initiation into values, giving knowledge of the rules needed to function in this mode of relating to other people, and to seek the development in the student a grasp of certain underlying principles, together with the ability to apply these rules intelligently, and to have the settled disposition to do so Some researchers use the concept values education as an umbrella of concepts that includes moral education and citizenship education Themes that values education can address to varying degrees are character, moral development, Religious Education, Spiritual development, citizenship education, personal development, social development and cultural development.
There is a further distinction between explicit values education and implicit values education where:
- explicit values education is associated with those different pedagogies, methods or programmes that teachers or educators use in order to create learning experiences for students when it comes to value questions.
- Implicit values education on the other hand covers those aspects of the educational experience resulting in value influence or learning, which can be related to the concept of hidden curriculum.
This discussion on implicit and explicit raises the philosophical problem of whether or not an unintentional action can be called education. Similarly one should clarify the distinction between a teacher and an educator.
Commonality in Many "Educations"
Morals as socio-legal-religious norms are supposed to help people behave responsibly. However not all morals lead to responsible behaviour. Values education can show which morals are "bad" morals and which are "good". The change in behaviour comes from wrestling with questions about right and wrong.
American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg who specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, and was best known for his theory of stages of moral development, believed children needed to be in an environment that allowed for open and public discussion of day-to-day conflicts and problems to develop their moral reasoning ability. Kohlberg also sometimes speaks of change occurring through role-taking opportunities, opportunities to consider others' viewpoints. As children interact with others, they learn how viewpoints differ and how to coordinate them in cooperative activities. As they discuss their problems and work out their differences, they develop their conceptions of what is fair and just. Whatever the interactions are specifically like, they work best, Kohlberg used to say, when they are open and democratic. The less children feel pressured simply to conform to authority, the freer they are to settle their own differences and formulate their own ideas.
Cross has made a start at documenting some teacher training attempts.
Multinational School-based Values Education Schemes
Living Values Education Programme (LVEP)
This project of worldwide proportions inspired by the new religious movement called the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University incorporates twelve values ( unity, peace, happiness, hope, humility, simplicity, World Peace Ethics Contest (World-PEC)
This project based in Buddhist values and supported by the Dhammakaya Foundation started in 1982 in Thailand as an annual values quiz contest. The aim of the project is to bring children’s ethical development to higher levels resulting in positive behavioral changes in a way that is relevant to those of all nationalities, races and religions. The 'Path of Progress' is based on a textbook of the thirty-eight values of Mangala Sutta.
Character Education
Main article: Character educationCharacter education is an umbrella term generally used to describe the teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop as personal and social beings. However, this definition requires research to explain what is meant by "personal and social being". Concepts that fall under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning/cognitive development, life skills education, health education; violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation. Lickona (1996) mentions eleven principles of successful character education. It seems to have been applied in the UK and the United States
Examples of Values Education from around the world
Taylorgives a thorough overview of values education in 26 European countries.
Australia
The Australian Government currently funds Values education in its schools, with its own publications and funding of school forums on values education at all levels of education. A conference on "Moral Education and Australian Values" was held in 2007 at Monash University.
Japan
Promotion of moral education by a large number of teachers in Japanese primary and junior high schools was reported in 1988 to be cautious because of fears of relapsing into pre-war style moral education the subject remaining a controversial matter.
Singapore
Teacher training institutions in Singapore all have curricula for learning to teach moral and civics education programmes - but students do not take these as seriously as they should due to lack of assessment. The reason has been said to be the lack of innovative teaching approaches such as the discourse pedagogy.
Thailand
In Thailand, values have traditionally been taught within the context of Buddhist religious education. Since 1982 there has been a revival of applied values as an extracurricular activity suitable for Buddhist, Moslem and Christian students alike to prepare Thai students for the effects of globalization.
United Kingdom
Since 1988 the British government, although not recognising or calling it values education, has promoted and inspected values in the guise of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSCD) leaving the initiative to individual schools to decide how values education standards should be met. It is not clear whether there are standards of values education. It should be noted that the Government and state school systems have never called it "values education". Values education courses in Britain may be implemented in the form of government supported campaigns such as Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) but are more often provided by local experts in the form of LVEP, SSEHV, Penn Resiliency or Character education.
References
- ^ Powney, J., Cullen, M-A., Schlapp, U., Johnstone, M. & Munn, P. (1995). Understanding values education in the primary school. York: Reports Express. p.vii
- ^ Minnis, F (1991) Socrates for six-year-olds. Booklet accompanying the BBC programme of the same title. BBC, London.
- ^ Saterlie, M E (Chair) (1988) 1984 and beyond: a reaffirmation of values. A report of the task force on values education and ethical behavior of the Baltimore County Public Schools. Board of Education of Baltimore County, Towson, Maryland.
- ^ David Aspin (2000) However, the meaning of "initiation into values", "mode of relating to other people", "apply intelligently" and a "settled disposition" needs to be clarified. It is also useful to point out that values education can be conducted with people of any age. A clarification of some key terms in values discussions, in M. Leicester, C. Modgil & S. Modgil (Eds.), Moral education and pluralism: Education, culture and values (Vol. 4, p.171-180). London: Farmer Press.
- ^ Cheng, R. H. M., Lee, J. C. K. & Lo, L. N. K. (2006). Values education for citizens in the new century: meaning, desirability and practice. In R. H. M. Cheng, J. C. K. Lee & L. N. K. Lo (Eds.), Values education for citizens in the new century (pp.1-35). Sha Tin: The Chinese
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