Injecting Values Education into the

English Curriculum of Young Learners

Anatolia Elementary School

 I believe that every human mind
feels pleasure in doing good to
another.
Thomas Jefferson No act of kindness,
however small, is ever
I wish to do something Great and wasted.
Wonderful, but I must start by doing Aesop
the little things like they were Great
and Wonderful.
Albert Einstein When I do good, I feel
Do your little bit of good where you good. When I do bad, I
are; it is those little bits of good put all feel bad. That’s my
together that overwhelm the world. religion.
Desmond Tutu Abraham Lincoln
 What is values education?
Values education is a process of teaching and learning about the
ideals that a society deems important

(Department of Education (Australia), Science and Training 2005;

Lovat & Toomey 2007; Robb 2008).Jan 31, 2014

Values Education involves different levels of awareness

 Classroom behavior
 Character education
 Citizenship
 Community Level
Activities in the
community
Interaction with other
School Level
communities
Organizational
culture Classroom Level
Religious education Curriculum
School philosophy Pedagogy

DeNobil, J & Hogan,E, 2014, Values Education: what, how, why and next?
Curriculum and Leadership Journal, Volume 12, Issue
 Difficulties in teaching values

 Teaching values has a subjective hue

 “Values cannot be transferred in a
mechanical way”
Research for CULT (European Commission of Culture and Education)
-European Union 2017

 Where and when to teach?

 Requires a dialogical methodology
 What the research says
 The teaching of values should be incorporated within
the school in different ways such as whole school and
interdisciplinary (Eurydice 2016)

 Students within a school can form strong experiences of

democracy and tolerance in what has been coined as the
“hidden curriculum” (Giroux, 1985)

 Students need to be engaged and interactive in their

learning of values. They need to be inquisitive on their
values and evaluate them (Research for CULT)
 Values in Education
 Values have always been part of education either explicitly or
implicitly
 There has been a growing trend to teach values more
systematically in some schools/areas. Some interventions:

1. India has dealt with values/morals even in its ESL curriculum

2. The European Union has dealt with it with the

research organization, CULT

3. Australia and New Zealand have teacher guidelines

Why is there a renewed interest in values?
 “A most important reason for reorienting education
for values is the fact that the current model of
education contributes to the lopsided development
of students. This model of education puts exclusive
focus on cognitive to the total neglect of the
affective domain and presents an alienation
between head and heart. Students are nurtured in a
spirit of excessive competition and are trained right
from the beginning to relate to aggressive
competition and facts detached from contexts”
NCERT-India
Why is there a renewed interest in values?
“Teaching character education in schools is actually
unavoidable … [E]verything the school chooses to do
or not do in terms of curriculum choices influences
the culture of a school and the character of its
students”

Steve Ellenwood, director of Boston University’s

 Center for Character and Social Responsibility
 (CCSR)-USA
 What is happening around the world?

 Japan is starting a moral education class “dotoku” after

cases of bullying

 Thirty-six US states have mandated for character education,

but narrow curriculum pressures and testing have set it
aside despite discipline issues in schools which cause loss of
learning time

 Europe is promoting good citizenship and tolerance

education (in response to globalization)
What values are encouraged around the
world?

 Citizenship-Tolerance (Europe)

 Character-tolerance etc. (extensive)-Japan

 Character-tolerance etc. (extensive)-India

 No Bullying/No Drugs-Substances-USA

 Nine values (2005-guidelines) including integrity, respect,

compassion, fairness- Australia
 Why teach values?

 Classroom behavior

 Classroom expectations

 Interpersonal skills

 Learning respect and appreciation of others

Teaching values to elementary students
Thoughts…

 Students need to be taught values in a way that is conducive

to their age

 They need to be taught values that can be communicated in

an ESL environment according to their language ability

 Students need to be motivated

 What values can we teach?

 Respect of the classroom environment

 Cooperating with each other

 Respecting family members, and people in the

community

 Taking care of the environment

 Working hard
 How did we organize our teaching?

1. Allocated values according to grade level

2. Asked for student input based on their experiences

3. Augmented teachers’ understanding and practice

4. Prepared student projects

5. Encouraged positive behavior continuously

 First Grade

Value: Working Hard

Working Language: use of can, write, clean, read, etc.

1. Elicit Examples: teacher gives an example first

2. Provide Examples: working hard and not working

3. Question Students: students share their ideas in class, why is

the particular value important?
4. Student Examples: how do they work hard?
Note: You need to give them an example or even a basic
sentence structure
Ex. I can wash my plate.

5. Group Work: Students work together in groups writing

about one of the examples of how they work hard
6. Constant Prodding: Teacher reminds students of working
hard throughout the year

7. Creating Subtle Teaching References: There are

opportunities within other content areas, to remind students
of values. Teachers should be more conscious in preparing
material to allow for these instances, to allow for discussions
on values.
Images provide tangible
examples and help
students speak about
values in class
Creating subtle reminders

This is a picture used in a

lesson asking for
“What are they doing?”
Students were asked what
the children were doing
and how they were feeling

This opened up again a

discussion on bullying and
inclusion
Students write
about how they
work hard:

• I erase the board

• I speak English in
class
• I put the chair
under the table
• I work in a group
 Second Grade

Value: Kindness
Working Language: family members, use of present
simple, daily vocabulary

Who do we show kindness to?

Grandparents, family, friends…

How do we show kindness?

Helping, doing things together, showing our affection
Examples of Student Input

Students draw and

write about being
kind to elders.
Individual responses
were later put
together in order to
make a mural for the
newspaper

Student posters were

also displayed in the
room and hallway
Display of work in the
hallway
What values did we teach more actively?

Pre-K: Being Considerate/Fairness

Kindergarten: Responsibility/Knowledge

First Grade: Working hard/accomplishment,

Cooperation, Caring

Second Grade: Neatness, Kindness

Third Grade: Compassion and Friendship, Protecting
the Natural Environment

Fourth Grade: Appreciation for the past, Role

Models/Individuality

Fifth Grade: Respect for Wildlife, volunteering

Sixth Grade: Perseverance, Life-long learning

Students exhibit how they care about
their family
Work from the
students was
collected and a
mural was created
from each class
Value of cleanliness and respecting your
space
Students
interviewed
grandparents for
this assignment
They not only
learned about the
past, but gained a
respect for the
continuity of the
past with the
present and for
their
grandparents
Appreciation for
people who help
refugees, for people
who clean the
environment, and
people that help
others in need within
the community
 Teacher Observations/Comments

1. Established classroom routines, and students showed

respect for their classroom

2. Awareness of hurtful behaviors (telling secrets or not

allowing classmates to participate in games outside)
Students showed signs of empathy toward each

3. Transformation is a long process. Students became

ambassadors of positive behaviors
 Teacher Observations/Comments

4. Teachers encouraged students to apply some

behaviors at home and commended efforts

5. Values must be age-appropriate. Students were

able to comprehend what was being taught, and
were able to participate

6. Concerns that if values are not encouraged at home,

students might not apply them into their own
personal lives
 Reflection
 Allocating more time on values education
 Holistic approach - Encouraging further parental
participation
 Creating more interdisciplinary engaging activities
 Constant exposure is recommended
 Values can be taught using English
 Values education is crucial in the development of
open minded, well balanced young learners
 Acknowledgements

 This project was a success due to the cooperation and

support of the following teachers:

 Abatzidou Eleni, Cheltsi Joanna, Coules Georgia,

Fourkioti Katerina, Gegiou Sophia, Gregoriadou Liza,
Iskos, Jeanie, Papakiriakou Jenny, Paschou Anastasia,
Proestopoulou Maria, Zikou Anna