Values Education: Why the Teaching of Values in Schools is Necessary,But Not Sufficient

In recent years, a growing demand by educators, governments, and the community for the teaching of values in public schools has led to the implementation of values education. As acknowledged by the 2010 Living Skills Values Education Program, values education is an essential part of schooling. In the public school system, there have been attempts to construct and implement a values-based curriculum that reflects a naturalistic or social morality. Despite prudential credibility to values education, no naturalistic theory has within it a sufficient moral obligation with which to persuade humans from their natural self-interest. As it stands, values education as taught in schools has a grounding problem—it cannot point to a sufficient basis for validation. Values education is too individualistic, relativistic, and ultimately subversive of a serious moral commitment. This article argues that a sufficient case can be made for the explicit teaching of values but only on a theistic foundation. The discussion concludes that ultimately the most defensible grounding for values education is in the narrative given to humans by a transcendent being (in the Christian tradition, God).     

The pedagogical imperative of values education

Recent research has exposed the potential of quality teaching to exercise a positive influence on student achievement. Extending beyond surface and factual learning, quality teaching has posited conceptions of ‘intellectual depth’, ‘communicative competence’ and ‘self‐reflection’ as being central to effective learning. Implicit in these conceptions are values dimensions reflected in notions of positive relationships, the centrality of student welfare, school coherence, ambience and organisation. The influences of these on student learning, welfare and progress have been observed across public, private and religious sectors, thus confirming earlier studies of similar phenomena in religious schools. Evidence from the Australian Government's Values Education Good Practice Schools Project indicates the benefit to all schools of reflecting on, re‐evaluating and rethinking the implications of values education for curricula, classroom management and school ethos in the interests of student wellbeing and progress. This indicates a pedagogical imperative for values education which extends beyond boundaries of personal or systemic interests and ideologies.     

Moral education,ubuntu and ubuntu-inspired communities

While it is generally believed that moral education is important in the development of children, there is disagreement over a range of issues concerning the teaching of values and morals in schools. In the forefront of this debate are issues concerning whether morality or values and morals can be taught in schools, ought to be taught, and how they should be taught. In this paper I want to focus on the last of the issues within the background of ubuntu. My broad interest is to stimulate discussion regarding whether ubuntu, ubuntu-inspired communities, and some of its values can contribute to the issue of the teaching of values and morals. In the process of my engagement with moral education and ubuntu, I can be taken to be offering ubuntu and practices in ubuntu communities as an alternative way of teaching values and morals – values that are important for social and political citizenship.     

A new discourse on spirituality in public education. Confronting the challenges in a post-secular society

Australia is facing a new frontier in the educational discourse of spirituality as we transition into a globalised and post-secular society. Teachers are now faced with the question of how to respond to the intrinsic spiritual awareness of secondary school students and the subsequent inquiry process into matters of personal spirituality, meaning and worldview. In Independent and Catholic schools across Australia, spirituality has a dimension to learning and has a significant place in the curriculum and in the classroom, inculcated through pastoral care programmes and the teaching of religious education. However, in public schools, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This article highlights the importance of inquiry into spirituality in public education, through political discourse, and the potential for resurgence in exploring spiritual lived experience from a phenomenological perspective.     

Teaching research ethics: Can web-based instruction satisfy appropriate pedagogical objectives?

Ethical tasks faced by researchers in science and engineering as they engage in research include recognition of moral problems in their practice, finding solutions to those moral problems, judging moral actions and engaging in preventive ethics. Given these issues, appropriate pedagogical objectives for research ethics education include (1) teaching researchers to recognize moral issues in their research, (2) teaching researchers to solve practical moral problems in their research from the perspective of the moral agent, (3) teaching researchers how to make moral judgments about actions, and (4) learning to engage in preventive ethics. If web-based research ethics education is intended to be adequate and sufficient for research ethics education, then it must meet those objectives. However there are reasons to be skeptical that it can.     

‘The teachers put effort into teaching us about life,and what’s right and what’s wrong’: values and moral education in publicly-managed schools in Ireland

In light of cultural and demographic changes in the Republic of Ireland, there is an important and urgent need for research on the articulation of values education in Irish publicly-managed schools. This article reports the findings from a research project on the moral, religious and spiritual values and traditions of staff and students in publicly-managed schools. Data was collected from 18 second-level schools throughout the country, using a mixed methods approach involving the named values of participants’ school, as well as the policies and practices employed within the schools to support these named values. Findings show that both teachers and students identify positive values such as respect and well-being, equality and inclusion, and describe values education in practice. However, some differences emerging in the findings highlight the vacuum left by the lack of sectoral guidance. The implications of this vacuum are discussed, as it provides an opportunity for dialogue and consensus-building on values, and also for schools to develop their own context-relevant set of values.     

Character Education: Christian Education Perspectives

Character is defined broadly by leading authorities, including concepts such as practicing apt behavior and teaching right from wrong. Virtue and moral undertones tend to pervade most experts' use of character, although in secular settings, the notion of ethics is more prominent. Overall, developing in students a desire for the good is how most authorities understand the construct. Implementing character in the public and Christian schools, apart from a Judeo-Christian view of the construct, leaves schools open to values clarification, situational ethics, and other post-modern foundational options. Character development, at least at the conceptual level, is at the heart of all education—Christian or non-Christian.     

Does change in ethical education influence core moral values? Towards history- and culture-aware morality model with application in automatic moral reasoning

In this study, we focus on ethical education as a means to improve artificial companion’s conceptualization of moral decision-making process in human users. In particular, we focus on automatically determining whether changes in ethical education influenced core moral values in humans throughout the century. We analyze ethics as taught in Japan before WWII and today to verify how much the pre-WWII moral attitudes have in common with those of contemporary Japanese, to what degree what is taught as ethics in school overlaps with the general population’s understanding of ethics, as well as to verify whether a major reform of the guidelines for teaching the school subject of “ethics” at school after 1946 has changed the way common people approach core moral questions (such as those concerning the sacredness of human life). We selected textbooks used in teaching ethics at school from between 1935 and 1937, and those used in junior high schools today (2019) and analyzed what emotional and moral associations such contents generated. The analysis was performed with an automatic moral and emotional reasoning agent and based on the largest available text corpus in Japanese as well as on the resources of a Japanese digital library. As a result, we found out that, despite changes in stereotypical view on Japan’s moral sentiments, especially due to historical events, past and contemporary Japanese share a similar moral evaluation of certain basic moral concepts, although there is a large discrepancy between how they perceive some actions to be beneficial to the society as a whole while at the same time being inconclusive when it comes to assessing the same action’s outcome on the individual performing them and in terms of emotional consequences. Some ethical categories, assessed positively before the war, while being associated with a nationalistic trend in education have also disappeared from the scope of interest of post- war society. The findings of this study support suggestions proposed by others that the development of personal AI systems requires supplementation with moral reasoning. Moreover, the paper builds upon this idea and further suggests that AI systems need to be aware of ethics not as a constant, but as a function with a correction on historical and cultural changes in moral reasoning.     

A proposal for teaching bioethics in high schools using appropriate visual education tools

Teaching bioethics with visual education tools, such as movies and comics, is a unique way of explaining the history and progress of human research and the art and science of medicine to high school students. For more than a decade, bioethical concepts have appeared in movies, and these films are useful for teaching medical and research ethics in high schools. Using visual tools to teach bioethics can have both interpretational and transformational effects on learners that will enhance their overall understanding of complex moral and legal issues in medicine and research.High school students are uniquely suited to learn bioethics because they will soon become legal adults. As adults, they will make moral decisions that may affect their health and wellbeing as well as that of their communities and societies.However, not all visual education tools are appropriate for bioethics pedagogy in high school. Bioethics film and comic producers must consider the specifics of student age, race, gender, belief, level of education, and sexual orientation. Such tools must not be dominated by either dystopic or utopic genres, must aim for objectivity, and must consider the complexity of ethical decision making. It is critical that the teacher, who is the final arbiter regarding the use of visual tools in the classroom, determines that the visual learning tool is acceptable for students in any particular education context. In addition, during the conceptualization and creation of these tools, bioethics film and comic producers must work harder to ensure that these visual tools are devoid of any form of stereotyping.     

Spiritual development: understanding and importance in schools: an analysis based on statements made by school directors from Valparaíso,Chile

Chile’s General Law of Education states that one of the purposes of education is the spiritual development of all its schooled population. Furthermore, guidelines in Chile’s education system place school directors as key players in student’s learning. This article presents the results of a research involving school directors from Valparaíso, Chile. The aim of this research was to identify how directors of secular and religious schools understand their students’ spiritual development. We studied this aspect in particular through semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 participants. Results show that directors understand spirituality as a typically human ability that can be strengthened in schools and, thus, they believe it to be highly important in schools. In addition, they see a strong relation between spiritual development and ethical and moral development. This study also shows differences in how secular and religious schools’ directors understand this relation. This opens the way for more in-depth analysis regarding spiritual development in Chile’s education system, especially considering that directors generally believe it to be a part of a holistic and quality education.     

Selected Factors Influencing School Choice Among the Seventh-day Adventist Population in Southwest Michigan

One of the most significant problems currently facing Adventist schools in North America is declining enrollment in Grades K-12. It was the purpose of this study to determine if a relationship exists between school choice and parental perception of selected factors in Southwest Michigan. The author uses multiple regression analysis to explore which of the select factors influenced parents to make choices on where to enroll their children in school between church schools and public schools. The study found that there was a significant relationship between parental school choice and parents' perception of spiritual value-based education, the cost of education, academic program, who influenced school choice, safety in school, and awareness. There was no significant relationship between parental school choice and parents' perception of social factors and school proximity.     

The sexual attitudes and behavior of private and public school students: a comparative study

This study reports the results of a questionnaire and interview-based study designed to test the often-stated claims of college preparatory schools, i.e., "prep schools" that, along with a high-quality education, they also instill a superior system of values than is possible in a public school. Comparisons are made between "preppies" and college-bound public school students in terms of sexual attitudes and behavior as well as with the earlier studies of Kinsey, Pomeroy et al., Sorensen, and Haas. The results indicate that, even when measured by the standards of the schools themselves, preppies rank lower in many areas, especially attitudinal, than their public school counterparts. Despite the enormous amount of faculty energy expended to prevent it, the sexual activity of the prep school student, both in amount and degree of sophistication, is significantly greater than is found in public school students. Further, in terms of sex-related drug use, exploitiveness, female self-image, homophobia and sexism, preppies do not compare favorably with public school students. Hypotheses are advanced to account for the differences detected and suggestions made for future research. It is also suggested that the research technique used in this study has great potential for future study of adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior that, in the past, have been extremely difficult to perform.     

Political and Nonpolitical Authority in Values Education

This article is an examination of the political (public consensus) and nonpolitical authority as a basis for values education in a democratic society. The author advocates that nonpolitical authority can be a basis for defending the teaching of values in public schools.     

Current teaching practice for religious education in Hong Kong: implications for ‘learning from religion’

The human development (HD) model for religious education (RE) emphasises how students benefit from studying religion. However, detailed teaching practices for ‘learning from religion’ are not fully understood. In this article, lesson observations, school documents and interview data were collected from two Christian primary schools in Hong Kong (HK) . Two lessons were analysed as paradigmatic examples of the teaching for student development in RE lessons. This study found that the teachers helped their students engage in religion by giving them opportunities to associate religion with their lives through religious and moral-related contents. The use of daily life and religious experiences with discussions was the pedagogical approach for moving RE from just ‘the teaching of religion’. Moreover, various opportunities for student reflections to enhance personal and moral development were observed. Future studies should consider examining the theory of the adopted model and its classroom practice, which can aid understanding regarding the role of RE for student development and its global identity.     

高中生价值观对学校投入的影响:未来目标和动机内化程度的中介作用

为了考察价值观是否可以通过未来目标和动机内化程度影响高中生的学校投入，对六个城市七所学校的1022名高一学生的价值观、未来目标、学习动机内化程度及学校投入进行了调查。结果表明：（1）自我超越型价值观和自我完善型价值观能够使青少年发展出内在未来目标以及较为内化的学习动机，进而更加努力学习，而物质主义价值观则会使青少年形成外在未来目标以及较为外化的学习动机，进而更少投入学习；（2）当考虑价值观对未来目标的作用时，内外在未来目标不影响青少年的学习动机，但影响学校投入；（3）当不考虑价值观对未来目标的作用时，内在未来目标能够促进青少年学习动机的内化，进而更多地投入到学习中，而外在未来目标则会阻碍青少年学习动机的内化，进而更少投入学习。研究结果表明青少年的价值观比未来目标对学习有更重要的影响，说明学生发展指导工作中更应该注重价值观教育。     

Reasoning About Single-Sex Schooling for Girls Among Students,Parents, and Teachers

The number of United States public schools offering single-sex education for girls has increased dramatically in the past decade. Rationales for all-girls schools are diverse and grounded in differing gender ideologies. We examined reasoning about all-girls schools among school stakeholders (i.e., individuals affected by single-sex schools, including students, parents, and teachers) in the Southwestern United States. Specifically, middle school students attending all-girls (n?=?398) and coeducational (n?=?191) schools, mothers of middle school students attending all-girls (n?=?217) and coeducational (n?=?64) schools, and teachers employed at all-girls (n?=?18) and coeducational (n?=?97) middle schools rated the veracity of multiple rationales for girls-only schools. Specifically, we examined rationales for single-sex schooling related to gender differences in learning, gender differences in interests, girls’ ingroup preference, and gender discrimination. Endorsement of rationales differed across participant role (student, parent, teacher) and school type (single-sex, coeducational). Overall, stakeholders affiliated with an all-girls school were more supportive of each rationale than stakeholders affiliated with coeducational schools. Teachers affiliated with the single-sex school strongly endorsed gender differences in learning as a rationale for single-sex schooling. Endorsement of rationales did not vary across participant gender. The implications of these findings for educational policy and the interpretation of research on single-sex schooling are discussed.     

Patterns of Religious Education Policy in Switzerland: The Long Arm of Distanced Christians?

In spite of its different cantonal jurisdictions and traditions, the development of religious education in Switzerland over the past decade has taken a common direction: the state has assumed a more active role in the field of religious education in public (state‐run) schools. In this article, we ask the question: How do key social actors interpret these reforms and how do these interpretations relate to the social structure of religion in Switzerland, in particular with respect to the majority category of the so‐called distanced Christians? Drawing on qualitative interviews with members of the schools’ teaching staff, school administrators, and church representatives, the article highlights a dominant interpretative pattern that frames the socially accepted representation of religion in public schools. Thus, rather than addressing the pedagogical dimension of religious education, we discuss the significance of this pattern for the debate on the public presence of religion in Switzerland and Europe.     

Psychological Teaching-Learning Contracts: Academic Integrity and Moral Psychology

The psychological teaching–learning contract model of academic integrity, presented herein, features a social contract-based mechanism for moral judgment that is hypothesized to underlie the “belief–behavior incongruity,” that is, the noted frequency with which students who believe cheating is immoral still cheat. High school students (N = 493) from 11 international schools in 9 countries participated in the study. Results suggest that students often regard the cheating they do within a given context to be justifiable, that is, not immoral, implying that such behavior is not incongruous with their moral beliefs.     

Catholic Head Teachers: The importance of culture building in approaches to spiritual and moral development and the transmission of faith tradition

Voluntary aided Catholic schools form 10% of the state education provision. Within the state system, voluntary aided schools maintain a particular educational philosophy and the head teachers of these schools play an important role in maintaining and developing this philosophy. This paper explores the role of the head teacher of the Catholic school in developing a school culture that seeks to make a positive contribution to children's spiritual and moral development.