Teaching Values

One of the greatest gifts you can give your children is a strong sense of personal values. Helping your children develop values such as honesty, self-reliance, and dependability is as important a part of their education as teaching them to read or how to cross the street safely. The values you teach your children are their best protection from the influences of peer pressure and the temptations of consumer culture. With their own values clearly defined, your children can make their own decisions -- rather than imitate their friends or the latest fashions. In Teaching Your Children Values Linda and Richard Eyre present a practical, proven, month-by-month program of games, family ctivities, and value-building ecercises for kids of all ages.

Values in education, in terms of both how they are taught and of the ethics of teaching itself, are an area of lively debate. This text provides a resource of ideas, issues and practice for all those with an interest in this area of education.

In Teaching Values, Ron Scapp wrests the discussion of values and values-based education away from traditionalists who have long dominated educational debates. While challenging the Right's domination of the discussion of values education, Scapp examines some issues not typically raised by educators and critics on the Left, including the positive role of citizenship and national identity in U.S. education and culture.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Some revision of public schooling history is necessary to challenge the dominant mythology that public schools were established on the grounds of values-neutrality. In fact, those responsible for the foundations of public education in Australia were sufficiently pragmatic to know that its success relied on its charter being in accord with public sentiment. Part of the pragmatism was in convincing those whose main experience of education had been through some form of church-based education that state-based education was capable of meeting the same ends. Hence, the documents of the 1870s and 1880s that contained the charters of the various state and territory systems witness to a breadth of vision about the scope of education. Beyond the standard goals of literacy and numeracy, education was said to be capable of assuring personal morality for each individual and a suitable citizenry for the soon-to-be new nation. As an instance, the NSW Public Instr- tion Act of 1880 (cf. NSW, 1912), under the rubric of “religious teaching”, stressed the need for students to be inculcated into the values of their society, including understanding the role that religious values had played in forming that society’s legal codes and social ethics. The notion, therefore, that public education is part of a deep and ancient heritage around values neutrality is mistaken and in need of se- ous revision. The evidence suggests that public education’s initial conception was of being the complete educator, not only of young people’s minds but of their inner character as well.

Values in Higher Education Teaching explores the way in which teaching, research, learning and higher education are a values enterprise and that an exploration of values is necessary to work out the full purposes of a higher education to guide practices and help academics understand academic work. Values inform thinking and actions and although this is well recognized, values are seldom brought to the forefront of inquiries as practices in higher education are developed. This book argues that by putting values firmly on the agenda of those who teach, work and learn in higher education the academic profession can open up new spaces for value conversations and potentially transform the way in which they practice. Values in Higher Education Teaching is key reading for university lecturers, those with responsibility for leadership and management of higher education and postgraduates studying for higher degrees in higher education. There are few books that directly address the broad and complex question of values in teaching in higher education yet at the same time values are widely recognised as permeating all our practices. In this sense an accepted part of academic life remains in the realm of ‘taken for granted’ rather than being consciously and explicitly explored and practiced. The book deals with the idea of values in both a philosophical and practical manner. It is based on original research and uses both empirical data and theory to address teaching values in higher education and the current values of the higher education system. It explores what academics have valued historically in teaching and also addresses the major reforms of the last 20 years. Reforms have essentially changed the nature of western higher education but have made little real difference to the outcomes for student learning and society whereas teaching with values in all subjects has the potential to radically alter student experiences.

This book offers a new perspective on language teaching by placing moral issues--that is, questions of values--at the core of what it is to be a teacher. The teacher-student relation is central to this view, rather than the concept of language teaching as merely a technical matter of managing students' acquisition of language. The message is that all language teaching involves an interplay of deeply held values, but in each teaching situation these values are played out in different ways. Johnston does not tell readers what to think, but only suggests what to think about. Values in English Language Teaching explores the complex and often contradictory moral landscape of the language classroom, gradually revealing how teaching is not a matter of clear-cut choices but of wrestling with dilemmas and making difficult decisions in situations often riven with conflict. It examines the underlying values that teachers hold as individuals and as members of their profession, and demonstrates how those values are played out in the real world of language classrooms. Matters addressed include connections between the moral and political dimensions in English language teaching, and between values and religious beliefs; relationship(s) between teacher identity and values; the meaning of professionalism and how it is associated with morality and values; the ways in which teacher development is a moral issue; and the marginality of English language teaching. All the examples are taken from real-life teaching situations--the complexity and messiness of these situations is always acknowledged, including both individual influences and broader social, cultural, and political forces at play in English language classrooms. By using actual situations as the starting point for analysis, Johnston offers a philosophy based in practice, and recognizes the primacy of lived experience as a basis for moral analysis. Examples come from teaching contexts around the world, including Brazil, Thailand, Poland, Japan, Central African Republic, Turkey, and Taiwan, as well as various settings in the United States. This book will change the way teachers see language classrooms--their own or those of others. It is a valuable resource for teachers of ESL and EFL and all those who work with them, especially teacher educators, researchers, and administrators.

This book provides an opportunity to teach the exquisiteness of being human to our children. Teaching Values of Being Human is a curriculum filled with conversations, lessons and activities that link education, the mind and the heart. It is packed with ideas to empower student agency and voice. Paving the way for practitioners to develop an emotionally responsive environment where young human beings can grow, this practical book encourages children to look inside themselves, discover their identity, find happiness and equip them with skills they can use effectively in the future. The book covers topics such as: Emotional capacities, self-awareness and self-identity. Relationships and healthy communication. Emotional intelligence, resilience and perseverance. The importance of human connection and its benefits. Ideal for teachers in all education settings, along with support staff, psychologists, counsellors and allied health professionals, who wish to aid the emotional development and well-being of children under their care.