Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Introduction
Values/Moral Education:
Current Conceptions and
Practices in Philippines
Schools
Michael Arthus G. Muega
- Some organizations believe it should focus on teaching how to think, choose, and value.
- The term includes both moral valuing and non-moral choice making.
- Despite differences, institutions agree it's a necessary element of education for individuals and
citizens.
- Values organizations often turn to moral aspects when they perceive a societal moral crisis.
- In the Philippines, opinion makers agree that the country is afflicted with social diseases affecting
the moral fabric of society.
- Values/Moral Education is perceived as an impotent remedy against social and moral ailments.
- Observers believe Values/Moral Education has failed in its goal to produce moral individuals and
productive citizens.
- Values/Moral Education, in this context, focuses on critical thinking regarding evaluative, especially
moral, issues like abortion, death penalty, cloning, animal rights, and divorce.
- Students should learn to question positions, theories, convictions, views, attitudes, or beliefs
grounded in faulty or cogent reasoning.
- Teaching materials should introduce principles of logic and rules of good reasoning for practical
issue resolution.
- This approach shifts Values/Moral Education from a simple instrument of values transmission to a
more nuanced form focused on critical thinking.
- Doctrinal values may seem subjected to rigorous examination but could be an introductory
endorsement disguised as analysis.
- Student rejection of endorsed values, even based on reasoned conviction, is often not viewed as
an acceptable option.
- Lipman's advice is cited, emphasizing that it's wrong to tell children what is right and wrong; free,
independent, and cooperative thinking is crucial for development.
- The focus is on questioning not only values but also the reasons supporting them.
- Values/Moral Education acknowledges the notions of right and wrong but encourages students to
question and reason.
- Good or bad may express personal taste, but there are situations where evaluative concepts are
grounded in reasoned thinking and warranted by good reasoning.
- Some situations allow definite determination of desirability, such as cheating during an exam being
unequivocally considered bad, not dependent on the viewer's perspective.
- initiated the Moral Recovery Program (MRP) in 1987 as a values training project.
- The MRP aimed to cure what was perceived as a socially ill Philippine society.
- Shahani later admitted that the MRP failed in its mission to change Philippine society.
- In her work, "A Values Handbook Of The Moral Recovery Program," Shahani urged teachers of
Values/Moral Education to emphasize harmony and social change.
- The goal was to address enduring social problems like government corruption and colonial
mentality.
- Shahani sought heightened self-awareness among different classes, starting with enumerating
perceived strengths and weaknesses of Filipinos.
- Filipino assets included family orientation, hard work, industry, faith, and religiosity.
- Factors explaining strengths and weaknesses included home environment, history, religion, and
mass media.
- Shahani emphasized valuing the country, collective interest, moral uprightness, and discipline.
- She suggested the ideal Filipino should be "maka-Diyos, makabansa, maka-kalikasan, at makatao"
(godly, patriotic, pro-environment, and humanistic).
- Shahani recommended the experiential approach to learning values, aiming to endorse specific
values for students to behave according to the program's demands.
- Cruz emphasizes that mastering Filipino, English, Mathematics, and Science alone is insufficient to
be considered an educated person.
- The expression "Values Across the Curriculum" in the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) suggests
the inclusion of Values/Moral Education in teaching tool subjects.
- The question arises: "What values should students be learning?" Cruz states that it's the same
values they are already learning, with a foregrounded emphasis on patriotism.
- The specific values taught in Values Education according to Cruz are "makabayan, makatao,
makakalikasan, at maka-Diyos."
-focus on teaching certain values through methods like inculcation and conditioning.
- The discussion on Filipino spirituality and religiosity is primarily inspired by Christian faith, with
limited space for other religions' contributions to values or moral education.
- While reflective thinking is deemed honorable, the latter part of the work suggests that
Values/Moral Education is also a case of values transmission/inculcation.
- The study focuses on the relationship between the values of first and fourth-year high school
students in selected Christian schools in the Philippines and the values of family, school, and society.
- De Leon included teachers, school administrators, parents, and other members of society in the
survey.
- Significant differences in values were found among respondents in seven areas: unity and order,
knowledge and truth, sense of others/fellowship, justice, art and beauty, freedom, and sense of God.
- De Leon observed that family, school, and societal values have separate influences on student
values.
- The research suggests that educational endeavors should aim to attain and cultivate universal
values, though defending their universality in certain real-life situations is challenging.
- De Leon recommended the integration of the seven values into academic situations, emphasizing
systematic teaching and inclusion in the hidden curriculum.
- Recommendations include guidance for academic school personnel to be value inculcators, active
modeling of good values by school administrators, active parental participation in character
development policies, and fine-tuning the function of Theology for positive value judgments on faith.