Prabhu, Narayan Krishna

Value Education

Doctoral Workshop

Prabhu, Narayan Krishna

Two attachments from reference point of view - Survey Form & Tests used so far (see end)

Introduction

The study is conducted on expat students enrolled during the academic year 2010, pursuing their graduate degree and post graduate degree courses in the Kingdom of Bahrain. To cater to the educational needs of the expats the teachers have been providing them knowledge, skills and competence. Whilst providing them inputs in the respective functional streams, a study is being conducted to assess whether it contains aspects of Value Education. The study focuses on prevalence of human values, or otherwise.

Values: An Orientation

Values are defining characteristic of social institution (Rokeach, 1979); cognitive representative of man’s needs … a specific mode of conduct is personally or socially preferred to an opposite mode (Rokeach, 1973). Super (1980, p.130) defined a value as “an objective, either a psychological state, a relationship, or material condition, that one seeks to attain”. Another example is Hofstede (1980, p. 18) who defined values as “a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others”. A more elaborate definition was from Schwartz and Bilsky (1987), who defined values as “(a) concepts or beliefs, (b) about desirable end states or behaviors, (c) that transcend specific situations, (d) guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events, and (e) are ordered by relative importance” (p. 551) on the basis of broad overview of the value literature.Values are "… the principles and fundamental convictionswhich act as general guides to behavior, the standards by which particular actions arejudged as good or desirable" (Halstead, Taylor, & Taylor, 2000).Again, values are not invented; they are discovered. Furthermore, it is assumed that is important for individuals to be conscious of the values they possess [González, 1992]. It’s a process that gives young people an initiation into values, giving knowledge of the rules needed to function in this mode of relating to other people, and to seek the development in the student a grasp of certain underlying principles, together with the ability to apply these rules intelligently, and to have the settled disposition to do so [1]. Some researchers use the concept values education as an umbrella of concepts that includes moral education and citizenship education (Cheng et al., 2006; Mei-linNg, 2006; Taylor, 2006). Themes that values education can address to varying degrees are character, moral development, Religious Education, Spiritual development, citizenship education, personal development, social development and cultural development.

Values – Educational perspective

Educational theorists agree that values are at the foundation of education philosophy and curriculum theory (Dewey, 1943, 1946; Kneller, 1967); curriculum decisions are based on value choices (Solitis, 1981). Dewey (1932) and Tyler (1949) identified existential values for educational philosophy and curriculum development. Diverse theorists like Benett (1986), Wyne (1985, 1988) and Apple (1979) have opined that values are needed both as philosophical foundation and curriculum as well as moral values reinforcement; they do disagree as to the means (Beane, 1990). Through Value education seniors are able to transmit values to pupils (Powney et al.,1995); to assess the effectiveness and reflection of those values on long-term well being or to see it as a type of Socratic dialogue (Minnis, 1991). From a socio-educational perspective, values are regarded as referents (standards) leading human behavior towards self-realization; they are guidelines that give a particular direction to the life and conduct of each individual and every social group. Education in values constitutes one of the essential pillars of teaching practice, along with the transmission of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Values are a fundamental part of the professional competences that university graduates must possess at the end of the teaching-learning process. Values will aid them in their professional lives as much and perhaps more so than knowledge and skills. Despite all this, values rarely tend to be considered or evaluated in courses (Sánchezet al., 2005). There are many reasons that can be stated and debated over this phenomena but one cannot deny the fact that, the system of education plays an integral part in creating human capital in the right character and conduct (Kaliannan, and Chandran, 2010).

Value Education

The main emphasis in education today lies in acquiring large amounts of information, passing examinations and securing qualifications for future employment (Burrows, 1997). Education is the single most important tool that can be used in the transformation of humanity. The way to control a population is to control a populations' mind; and the best way to do that is to begin with the young (Walsch, 2004, p.303). It is with much trepidation that educators have to undertake this mammoth task of educating and leading the young.Responsibility is on the educators who can make a positive impact on learners. Teachers that have inculcated sound human values within themselves and are successful in teaching these human values to their learners can effect a major change in the minds of children. In an inspiring address to teachers Bhagavan Baba stated that, "children absorb from teachers and elders their habits and manners, behavior and beliefs" and "that good teachers plus good students equals a good nation"(Saraf,1993, p.85). The Brahma Kumari's, the Sathya Sai' s Education in Human Values Program, the interfaith Council on Ethics Education for children, The Yoko Civilization Research Institute, The UNESCO - sponsored Living Values in Education Program and so on are international organizations, are the forerunners in introducing value based education that will contribute towards a peaceful and happy society. The Sathya Sai Organization (2003), the Yoko Civilization Research Institute (1996), and Walsch (2004), author of the famous Conversations with God series, all agree that education has to take on a new form or dimension. Ideas such as Re Creation education, Holistic Education, Whole Person Education, Spirit Centered Education, etc are being introduced.

The Study – Emerging Result

A Questionnaire prepared to elicit responses on four basic human values (Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, and Love) was administered on sixty undergraduate and sixty graduate students. The results were studied based on demographic and other classifications.

The study reaffirms the importance of value education.

NOTES:

[1] David Aspin (2000) However, the meaning of "initiation into values", "mode of relating to other people", "apply intelligently" and a "settled disposition" needs to be clarified. It is also useful to point out that values education can be conducted with people of any age. A clarification of some key terms in values discussions, in M. Leicester, C. Modgil & S. Modgil (Eds.), Moral education and pluralism: Education, culture and values (Vol. 4, p.171-180). London: Farmer Press.

Non - Parametric Tests

The majority of the hypothesis tests discussed so far have made inferences about population parameters, such as the mean and the proportion. These parametric tests have used the parametric statistics of samples that came from the population being tested. To formulate these tests, we made restrictive assumptions about the populations from which we drew our samples. Also we assume that our samples either were large or came from normally distributed populations. But the populations are not always normal.

The hypothesis of a non-parametric test is concerned with something or other than the value of a population parameter. These types of tests do not require any assumption regarding the shape of population distribution.

Mann-Whitney U Test

A rank sum test, often called the Mann-Whitney U-test, which can used to determine whether two independent samples have been drawn from the same population.

H0: There is no difference between the mean ranks of Gender on human values.

H1: There is a difference between the mean ranks of Gender on human values.

The test is given in the following table:
Table 1 - Ranks
Gender / N / Mean Rank / Sum of Ranks
Curiosity / Male / 23 / 29.13 / 670.00
Female / 37 / 31.35 / 1160.00
Total / 60
Honesty / Male / 23 / 32.52 / 748.00
Female / 37 / 29.24 / 1082.00
Total / 60
Dedication / Male / 23 / 29.46 / 677.50
Female / 37 / 31.15 / 1152.50
Total / 60
Affection / Male / 23 / 36.52 / 840.00
Female / 37 / 26.76 / 990.00
Total / 60
Courtesy / Male / 23 / 28.96 / 666.00
Female / 37 / 31.46 / 1164.00
Total / 60
Obedience / Male / 23 / 32.61 / 750.00
Female / 37 / 29.19 / 1080.00
Total / 60
Helpfulness / Male / 23 / 31.87 / 733.00
Female / 37 / 29.65 / 1097.00
Total / 60
Gratefulness / Male / 23 / 30.41 / 699.50
Female / 37 / 30.55 / 1130.50
Total / 60
Truthfulness / Male / 23 / 31.52 / 725.00
Female / 37 / 29.86 / 1105.00
Total / 60
Table 2 - Test Statisticsa
Curiosity / Honesty / Dedication / Affection / Courtesy / Obedience / Helpfulness / Gratefulness / Truthfulness
Mann-Whitney U / 394.000 / 379.000 / 401.500 / 287.000 / 390.000 / 377.000 / 394.000 / 423.500 / 402.000
Wilcoxon W / 670.000 / 1082.000 / 677.500 / 990.000 / 666.000 / 1080.000 / 1097.000 / 699.500 / 1105.000
Z / -0.509 / -0.760 / -0.388 / -2.200 / -0.565 / -0.767 / -0.498 / -0.032 / -0.397
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) / 0.611 / 0.448 / 0.698 / 0.028 / 0.572 / 0.443 / 0.619 / 0.974 / 0.691
a. Grouping Variable: Gender

From the above table1 it is clear that the mean ranks of females is greater than that of the males of Courtesy, Dedication and Curiosity where as in the case of Honesy,Affection,Obedience,Helpfulness,Greatfulness,Truthfulness, the mean ranks is more in males.

Z – test

The level of significance for testing these hypotheses is p = 0.05, since this is a two-tailed test (p value - 0.025), we can compare the different values of Z-test with respect to the Human values.

From this data it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the mean ranks of gender and human values. It can be further concluded that there is an effect of human values on Gender.(Table 2)

Value Education Survey

Human beings learn from others; it could be parents, elders, teachers, and others in the organizations. They also get value orientation as they pick-up learning. Human Values like Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, and Love are a part of Value Education. In this survey you are requested to provide answers to certain aspects of human values. Your answers will be used purely for academic research and your identity would be kept confidential. Please complete the survey and return the form to Dr. Prabhu.

PART A

NAME [Optional]

1. Age (years……)
2. Gender[Male/ Female]
3. Nationality [Bahrain/ Pakistan/ India/ Sri Lanka/ Bangladesh/ Nepal /Others – Please state………]
4. How long you have been staying in Bahrain [No. of years, months …………………………..]
5. Are you studying for any course? B Com/ BBA/ BSc/ MBA/ O level/ AS level/ Any other……………]
6. Your qualifications {Please state………………………………………………………………………………………………….}
7. Are you working? [Yes/ No]
8. In case the answer to Serial 7 is Yes, Total work Experience [No. of years, months……………………..]
9. Languages you can speak [Please state the languages: ……………………………………………………………….]

PART B

There are human values about which you may have received some guidelines from parents, elders, teachers, seniors or others in the organization or even from a third party. In this survey your response is requested for each of those values; you have to tick √ either for Always, Mostly, Sometimes, Rarely OR Never. Do not leave any entry blank.

For Example: Truth Always√ Mostly Sometimes Rarely Never

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