Educators believe value-based education can provide young people with a moral compass as they navigate difficult social issues. Values-based instruction helps develop character traits like empathy and compassion while encouraging them to make positive contributions to society.
Teachers who employ Values-Based Education report that it improves pupils’ inner world, enabling them to express themselves more openly and regulate their behaviors more successfully. Furthermore, Values-Based Education gives children resilience against life’s challenges.
1. Empathy and Compassion
Empathy is a basic human trait that allows us to feel other’s distress and respond accordingly. Through empathy we recognize another’s perspective and take steps to assist them.
Compassion is a deeper level of empathy that includes the intention to bring change. Teachers can foster it in classrooms by encouraging open communication and respectful dialogue about lived experiences, conflict resolution techniques and ethical quandaries (Yilmaz 2007). Such discussions give students an opportunity to develop empathy imagination as well as spur them into action (Yilmaz 2007).
Encourage your students to recognize people in need in their community and school – including those who may be different or ignored – who need assistance, as well as opportunities for them to practice imagining what others might be thinking through role playing or “what would you do” style vignettes. Discuss barriers that prevent students from acting with empathy such as stereotypes, stress or fear of social consequences associated with helping an unpopular peer.
2. Self-Discipline
Self-discipline refers to your ability to regulate both emotions and behaviors even when they don’t come naturally, making the foundation for successful habits such as dieting, exercising, studying and goal setting.
If you are having difficulty with self-discipline, it’s essential that you identify what motivates you even if it is playing online poker on sites mentioned on https://centiment.io. For instance, if the reward of becoming healthier doesn’t seem enough to keep you on track, think about what the consequences of failing could be – be that health issues or effects on relationships.
Self-discipline becomes easier the more often you practice it. But setting realistic goals that challenge you is key. Reviewing your progress periodically provides a chance to celebrate successes as well as understand where improvements should be made and create plans to do so.
3. Responsibility
Responsibility is the ability to take personal ownership for one’s actions and behaviors, making it an integral component of value-based education that fosters social awareness while encouraging civic participation by teaching children how to care for and respect their communities.
Emotional development to learn self-regulatory and de-stress skills is also integral to this value, helping students form strong connections within the school community and beyond. Participation in community development activities, volunteering opportunities or fundraising drives all foster this sense of community spirit.
Philosophers have taken little interest in discussing responsibility as an essential factor of learning and responsible citizenship in future generations. A value-centric approach revolutionises education experience by shifting it beyond textbooks and classrooms toward creating an atmosphere of caring learners who collaborate together on learning activities. It offers children an effective tool for shaping their future lives positively while developing characterful values-driven individuals who will go on to become successful adults with strong values and character.
4. Self-Awareness
Self-awareness involves being aware of one’s beliefs, values and feelings. This form of awareness is central to mindfulness practices like meditation, priming and yoga; furthermore it’s also key in identifying goals and needs – for instance being able to recognize when you’re experiencing negative emotions like anger or hatred can help change behavior accordingly and reduce negative emotions such as stress or sadness.
Participants categorized these impacts into four categories: insight and effect on myself, self-development and progress, interactions with and acceptance by others, and work-based outcomes. Further research examining these themes and different conceptualizations of self-awareness are necessary.
Some individuals believe that being self-aware means becoming aware of how others perceive them; other people believe it means being conscious of your own thoughts and emotions – this difference between situational self-awareness and dispositional self-awareness can be found within many research studies (Trapnell & Campbell 1999). Furthermore, certain researchers use reflective vs nonreflective terminology.
5. Integrity
Studies have demonstrated the value of Values Education in helping students become more conscious of moral issues, gain an understanding of values involved, and develop interpersonal skills to reduce bullying and violence within schools. Furthermore, Values Education can increase students’ awareness of moral dilemmas while creating more tolerant, polite, forgiving people in school communities.
Calhoun defined integrity as standing up unashamedly for one’s judgments while respecting those of others, yet it remains unclear how one could interpret integrity as including any obligation to tolerate different views in any meaningful sense.
Bernard Williams advocates a different understanding of integrity: its upholding as the firm maintenance of identity-conferring commitments or ground projects. While similar to Calhoun’s take, Williams emphasizes student character development for a healthier work ecosystem while encouraging them to embrace challenges as gateways towards success and view failures as steps along their journey to success.
6. Respect
Value-based education fosters healthy connections that create an harmonious atmosphere in homes, schools and communities. Furthermore, it inculcates personal responsibility and civic engagement which facilitates healthy individuals.
Respect is typically understood to be an intrinsically motivated attitude towards an object or person, similar to admiration, veneration and reverence, love and honor. It stands in stark contrast with contempt or disdain; similarly it can relate to other attitudes, actions, values, duties and emotions such as empathy compassion altruism.
There is much debate regarding who and under what conditions deserves respect, with some contending that even torturers and rapists deserve some form of reverence due to their humanity; others maintain they forfeit this claim by engaging in illegal or immoral conduct; still others assert respect is owed regardless of a person’s moral status or lack thereof.
7. Compassion
Compassionate educators foster safe spaces where their students can explore risks, be creative and feel connected with their communities – essential ingredients of resilience building, classroom culture improvement and student wellbeing (Kirby2020).
Compassion can be defined in three steps: ‘noticing’ (recognizing someone else’s suffering or experiencing an unconscious physical or emotional reaction), ‘feeling’ (empathic concern and identification with their situation), and responding (being motivated to help alleviate their suffering). This distinction distinguishes compassion from empathy, which requires acknowledging others’ distress but doesn’t always entail motivation to take actions to alleviate it.
As currently exists, there is no consensus on what defines compassion and only limited self/observer rated measures are available to us. Of these self/observer-rated measures, Martins et al’s CS-M scale is one that has shown content validity (i.e. it covers an expanse of compassion), although psychometrically testing needs to occur for it as it remains an incomplete measure. New measures should ideally be evaluated both by members of target populations as well as experts to ensure they fit with this construct.
8. Humility
Humility is a virtue defined by a lack of arrogance and self-importance. Individuals who possess humility acknowledge their accomplishments while at the same time admitting weaknesses or gaps in knowledge they might possess. Humility allows people to accept critical feedback without becoming rigid in their thinking or turn down new evidence that contradicts previous assertions. Furthermore, humility strengthens relationships by cultivating resilience and growth mindset against vulnerability.
People who practice humility are better able to recognize and appreciate different cultures and beliefs, leading them to be more accepting of working with culturally diverse clients as well as being less defensive when forgiving mistakes committed by others. Studies have also linked humility with higher levels of gratitude, forgiveness, and spirituality.
9. Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is essential in building good habits and realizing success. It can help reduce procrastination, enhance productivity and boost mental health as well as overall wellness. Self-discipline fosters resilience and determination allowing us to push through challenging times, further strengthening emotional and mental wellness.
Implementing self-discipline can be as easy as exercising consistently and setting short-term goals to meet long-term ambitions. For example, if your long-term ambition is weight loss, set short-term goals that are measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Not to say that people with strong discipline don’t ever slip up, eating all the doughnuts in the kitchen and spending 45 minutes browsing social media, but they are usually able to pick themselves back up the following morning and restart again. Self-discipline should never be seen as rigidity but rather learning from our mistakes and persevering despite them.