News  -  February to March 2000

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In this Issue 

Editor's desk  

Worldwide Happenings:

• Australia: Eight schools participate in Newcastle 
• Spain: "Living our values: a sign of hope for the future” 
• Israel: Values come to Ramla kindergarten 
• Holland: Building respect at the design academy of Eindhoven 
• Hungary: Ministry of education gives approval 
• Egypt: Timeless values in a timeless land 
• Greece: Nursing values in Athens 
• Turkey: Training seminars in Ankara and Izmir 
• Hong Kong, China: Values and the school curriculum 
• Malaysia: Mining for real gold! 
• India: Living Values launched in Gujarat school 

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Australia: Eight Schools Participate in Newcastle 

To expand upon the story referred to in our last issue, an LVE training session was held in Newcastle in September 1999, hosted and organized by Ms Sandra Lloyd, District Superintendent for the Department of Training and Education, Lake Macquarie District.  Principals, selected teachers and a parent from eight schools attended the training, as well as representatives from a Catholic School, a long stay day care centre, the local Ethnic Communities Council Multicultural Children's Resource Unit, the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Newcastle and a volunteer refugee worker. Many of the schools said that LVE would compliment existing programmes, particularly on skills streaming or personal development. For example: 

• Northlakes High School will dedicate one double period per week for 200 year seven students and trail a small group of recalcitrant students.
  
  
• Warners Bay High School will implement the programme with their year seven students, integrating it with the personal development programme next year. This year they will trail it with a group of 14-year-old at risk girls.
  
  
• Pelican Primary School and Nords Wharf Primary School will trail the Peace unit this year in Kindy and Year 1 classes.
  
  
• Child Care Workers from the Ethnic Communities Council will trail the Parenting course in conjunction with a Safe Start, Safe Future programme with a play group in Cessnock.
  
  
• Glendale East Primary School will trail the Peace, Respect and Love modules in one class this year and will attempt teacher training during orientation week next year.
  
  
• Northlake Primary School will trail in one class this year and see if they can get staff commitment for the next year.

After trailing the 3-7 Values Activities Peace Unit for just a few weeks with her composite class of Grade Two and Three students, Vicki Tweendale of Glendale East Primary School reported: "The children responded well to the exercises, which included visualizations, painting and the 'Star' story." She had the most fun when listening to the children's conversations about peace whilst they were painting:

"The children are so enthusiastic that they want to set up a special values corner and have started talking about making a friendship quilt."

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Spain: Living Our Values - A Sign of Hope for the Future

This Congress of Parents, Teachers and Children was held in Valencia on 28 and 29 January, 2000, and, as the coordinators' report reveals, was a great success:

"The idea to organize an encounter of teachers, parents and children had come up in one of the monthly teachers’ meetings held by Living Values in Valencia. One of the teachers suggested providing some space and time in which teachers could share the experience they had already acquired working with values in class, with the aim of also encouraging other educators to try out methods new to them. The participation of parents would be essential, as communication between families and schools is one of the foundations of any values project. Naturally the children, aged around 10-12 years old, would also play a vital part.

So the Living Values group in Valencia organized an encounter of the “educational community”. A draft programme was presented to the person in the Ministry of Education in charge of teachers' training in of the area of Valencia. A good rapport with the Ministry had already been established and the idea was accepted immediately. The Congress was hosted by two teachers’ training centres (government institutions reporting to the Ministry of Education), together with Living Values, and so educators were also able to gain official “credits”.

The Congress, which included a Friday evening workshop before a full-day on Saturday, attracted about 60 educators and 30 parents. The general atmosphere was enthusiastic, harmonious and peaceful, full of love for the task, eagerness to learn, to share and to participate. In their final evaluation participants stressed the speciality of uniting teachers and parents for a common purpose, which was felt to be quite unique.

As a special contribution, the pupils of one school in Valencia had prepared more than 100 peace doves made of coloured paper with a value on them. Each participant received a dove with his or her congress documents. Special doves had been prepared for the children.

A great highlight was the cultural programme on Saturday afternoon which played to a hall packed with 300 children, parents, grandparents and teachers. The performances were very well prepared and of high quality: poems, songs, dances with special costumes, a musical and a values quiz with the audience's participation. A group of mothers who are members of a “values school” at their children's school also presented a poem and a Values Declaration.

Many participants said that a similar event should be held again soon!"

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Israel: Values Come to Ramla Kindergarten

Esther Khavous, Israel's Living Values Education Coordinator, reports as follows: "All the public kindergarten classes in the city of Ramla will be taking part in Living Values Educational Programme activities. This will involve a total of 2,000 children - both Jews and Arabs. One hundred kindergarten teachers will be involved in a training on February. An initial training was conducted from 26th to 29th November by Pilar Quera from Spain. Early childhood education is one of our priorities in Israel and we have started the programme with a team of early childhood educators that include all the staff, leader representatives of the 0-6 educators, and caregivers - a nurse, social workers, a psychologist, inspectors of the Ministry of Education, the Director of the Early Childhood Centre, the director of Early Childhood in the Education Department in the municipality, the director of the renewal project and parent representative. We received the approval of the Ministry of Education to do this as a Pilot Project for Israel with the Pre-school Division."

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Holland: Building Respect at the Design Academy of Eindhoven 

In Holland, Nannet van der Kleijn was quick off the mark in initiating Living Values activities several years ago at Eindhoven's Design Academy.

Then, in September 1999, the new head of the Academy introduced, as compulsory for all 180 first year students, a new Living Values-based programme of classes she called 'Respect', because she saw that through these classes an attitude of respect is developed, both on a personal and a group level. The 12 classes per term are divided into 3 blocks of 4 classes with a focus on:

1. Respect for the students individually, enabling each one to develop his or herself as a unique personality;

2. Respect for the environment, making the students aware of what is happening around them and letting them be aware of their personal contributions based on a personal set of values; and

3. Respect for others and the world, which allows them to see the big picture and develop a broad vision connecting them to all levels of life and society.

The 12 classes start with the 12 LVE values to add content to the value of respect and to enable the students to familiarise themselves with their own intrinsic qualities, so that they can then be used as design tools. 

All of this sets the tone for the designer of the future: a conscious, respectful, loving person, giving to the world.

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Hungary: Ministry of Education Gives Approval 

Sue Emery, Living Values Education Coordinator for Greece, reported as follows on the wonderful developments that have been taking place in Hungary: 

"In Hungary, all teachers are obliged to complete 120 hours of further training by way of refresher courses every seven years. Each year, the Ministry of Education publishes a list of approved courses from which teachers can select according to their interests. The list is circulated to all state schools in Hungary.  Living Values has been accepted and approved by the Ministry of Education as one of these courses and teachers who take the course will receive full accreditation for the time spent on the course - in other words, the LVE training they receive will count as a valid part of the obligation they are expected to fulfil.

We have proposed a course of 30 hours which will take place over a period of 5 days. Permission to offer the LVE course has been given for 5 years, although we have to request inclusion on the list circulated to schools on an annual basis. Although I helped from an academic point of view with the proposal, it is Sophie Fried, the coordinator of LVE for Hungary, who has spent the time over the last 18 months to see this application through from beginning to end. I will be going to Hungary sometime in April for the first training (details are still being finalised) which will be done in English with Hungarian translation.

Also, 140 teachers heard a presentation on LVE and a talk on 'The Meaning of Learning', given by Anthony Strano, and many are interested to do the Living Values refresher courses for teachers."

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Egypt: Timeless Values in a Timeless Land 

An international six-person LVE team attended the Education for All Conference for the Arab Region from 24th to 27th January in Cairo, Egypt, organised by UNESCO for EFA-participating UN agencies. The Conference attracted hundreds of policy-makers, curriculum-developers and teaching practitioners from throughout the Arab Region and many of them responded warmly to LVE, expressing  both interest in and the need for a programme to teach values.  Discussions were also held with a view to localising and translating the Living Values materials for use within the Arab Region and plans were made for a seminar to be hosted by Living Values and UNESCO, Beirut which, taking place in May 2000, will include a focus on values education for the Region.

Somehow, in between her other activities in Greece and Hungary, Sue Emery also found time to respond to an invitation received by LVE from Egypt, where she found keen interest in values education, as the following report reveals:

"I spent 7 intense, stimulating days 40 kilometres south of Alexandria, on the edge of the desert, in a place called King Maryout. The area was used in the days of old by wealthy Bedouin merchants and now houses several superb mansion-type buildings that provide summer shelter for the wealthy. In the midst of all this is the Jesuit Retreat Centre, a spiritual oasis that provided a calm setting for the two 3-day seminars for educators. Participants came as part of a project for over-populated areas that is being run by the Jesuits in Alexandria and Cairo. The first seminar was carried out in French with Arabic translation and there were 62 participants from Alexandria, Cairo and also from the Jesuit College and St Joseph's Convent in El Minya. All educators were teaching at primary or 8-14 age range. There was a full programme commencing at 9.30 in the morning and finishing at 7.30 pm with a two-hour lunch break and two half-hour tea breaks. Participants were eager to explore their own values and to practise the values activities for children. In addition, they went through the whole process of creating a values-based atmosphere and learnt valuable skills in active listening and conflict resolution. Each day ended with a half hour creative visualisation on one of the values that had been worked on during the day. The second seminar followed the same programme, but this was conducted in English and French (according to the availability of the translators) and translated into Arabic.  Both groups enjoyed the seminars and are eager to receive further materials as soon as they are translated into Arabic.

As a result of the seminars, I have been invited to carry out two further training sessions in El Minya, a city of about one and a quarter million inhabitants, which is situated to the south of Alexandria (about 6 hours by train). I have been asked to train another group of educators as well as to do a seminar for physically handicapped people who do life skills courses. This will take place around the beginning of June."

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Greece: Nursing Values in Athens 

Living Values' Coordinator in Greece, Sue Emery, has been active with LVE since its very early days and has sent this update: 

"From the start, when I accepted the role of Living Values Education Coordinator in Greece, I felt that I had been given a wonderful, unlimited gift. I am happy to report that almost three years after my first look at the kit and starting activities here, my enthusiasm continues to grow as I see the divine magic within this programme.

The Munting Nayon Day Nursery in Athens which is run by the Philippines' Association has adopted the LVE in their curriculum. Values education already has a place in their education system, but the teachers are particularly happy with the activities that we offer and also the way we go deeper into the values for their own self-development. For the last eighteen months I have been giving training on an ad hoc basis to their teachers, but from September 1999 the principal and teachers decided that they would like me to continue values training with the teachers once a month when they have their teachers' meeting. They are very serious and enthusiastic during these sessions and have a genuine interest to go deeper into the values, looking at what they mean personally and how they can really put them into practice in their everyday lives.  There is a refreshing honesty in their desire to learn and to improve. Already we are starting to see changes in the educators themselves and I think this is already visible in the classroom.

TESOL Greece published my full paper in their July-September quarterly journal. The title: "Learning to Be: A Values-based Approach to Language Learning" had been presented at their 21st Annual Convention in March. They included a synopsis of all twelve values. The journal has a circulation of about 2000.

A group of parents from the Montessori School in Kifissias have organised meetings in February and March, and for the forthcoming months, in English and Greek, for parents who wish to learn about the activities they can use with their children for a values-based education. In addition, these activities are linked to parenting skills and to the parents' own personal self development.

Andrew Betsis ELT Publishers and Language School Owners are hosting Living Values Teacher Development Seminars in Piraeus, Athens, Greece. They have kindly offered their beautiful premises for four seminars, the first two of which took place in January and February, with the others scheduled for April and May. [See Forthcoming Events, above.]

The first workshop, on "Eight Steps Towards Creating Good Relationships" took participants through various steps to realise how they can very simply and effectively change their own and their students' attitudes to learning and enhance the learning process in a creative atmosphere (even with pressure of exams, tests, etc.). The second, on "Education Without Fear", showed teachers how they can encourage and empower their students to learn more effectively. The other two workshops will be on "Communication Skills: Active Listening and Conflict Resolution" and "Educator Training in Values-Based Education"."

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Turkey: Training Seminars in Ankara and Izmir 

Sema Oszoy, Living Values Education Coordinator for Turkey, organised two educator training seminars in conjunction with INGED, The Association for English Language Teachers in Turkey, which also helped sponsor the events. Conducted by Sue Emery, the first seminar took place in the University of Gazi in Ankara with 25 university trainers from various universities in the area. The training was met with a lot of enthusiasm and Dr Bena Gul Peker, who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Gazi, is hoping to continue activities in Ankara in the future. 

The second seminar took place at one of the most prestigious private schools in Izmir, with about 25 educators who work at the secondary level. In Ankara, the trainers were very much into the practical classroom activities and how they could teach values to their teachers, whereas participants in Izmir were keen to go deeper into the process of values and what they mean to the individual, how to define them and how to make personal changes. 

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Hong Kong, China: Values and the School Curriculum 

A Workshop was held in January 2000 at the Education Department's Teachers' Centre for an invited group of teachers, student guidance officers and three curriculum experts from the governmental Curriculum Development Institute. Led by Derek Sankey, Senior Lecturer from the Hong Kong Institute of Education and a Living Values committee member, participants were guided into an evaluation of the main practical issues involved in Hong Kong in implementing a locally-sensitive values-based educational programme. Starting with the premise that the problem with most curricula is that they leave values out, small group discussions deliberated on whether values can find a designated slot within the new curriculum currently being developed for Hong Kong in the context of overcrowded classrooms, the pressure of exams, passive students and teacher-directed learning. With Living Values as the focal point for the workshop, the key points that emerged were synthesised by group facilitators as follows:

Group 1

• Students may not be interested in the LV discussions, as they are only interested in film/pop stars. They need to be guided along.
• Localisation is required.
• Local classrooms may not be suitable for some of the activities. Special rooms are needed, or somewhere where they can sit on the floor. Alternative venues could be the canteen or even outdoors, in nature.
• Materials need to be more user-friendly.
• Teachers present were comfortable with the materials.
• It was pointed out that the teachers' desire to run the activities is an important element for success.

Group 2

• Need more guidelines on the use of the Living Values materials.
• Localisation is required.
• Need more flexibility if activities are to be done in classrooms; i.e. different seating arrangements and furniture.
• Once teachers have adopted the values themselves, the LV activities can be carried out with ease.

Group 3

• The LV activities are applicable to local schools/students.
• Classroom set-up needs to be more flexible to run activities.
• Teachers will need more resources.
• The curriculum of most local schools is rigidly planned; even topics for compositions are pre-set and can't be changed; head teachers' attitudes are old fashioned and they frown upon students getting a bit excited or noisy at the joy of making their own discovery; also there are pressures/concerns from parents when teachers try something new and innovative. 
• Teachers are not so comfortable as there is not enough information.
• It was thought that students can put the values into practice by involving themselves in social service. LV activities can be done during extra curricular activities and camps.

In summary, while some teachers have concerns such as classroom seating arrangement, the rigid attitudes of head teachers, school policy and parents' intolerance to new ideas, it is thought that, with sufficient guidance, the LV activities are applicable to local schools. The materials can be adapted to reflect the local culture and customs. Although some teachers feel comfortable carrying out LV activities, others would like more training and support. It was agreed that once teachers have internalised the values themselves, LV can be implemented successfully.

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Malaysia: Mining for Real Gold! 

Shahida Abdul Samad, LVE's coordinator in Malaysia, and herself the mother of a young family, is an inspiration to Living Values Education Coordinators worldwide and has been active throughout the country, as well as nearby Singapore. Her dedication lies behind some tremendous achievements, on some of which she reports as follows:

"On 1st September, 1999 thirty two moral education teachers from 32 secondary schools gathered at Malaysia's oldest mining town in Ipoh, Perak State to attend a one day Living Values Train-the-Educator programme. The success of this programme was the result of the commitment, teamwork and planning of Mrs. Rahima Sura, a teacher, Mr. Hamdan Mohamed , from with the Perak State Department of Education, and the Institut Antarabangsa IQRA’, an institution of higher education. The lead facilitator was Mrs. Rahimah Sura, who had earlier attended the Living Values TTT we had conducted with Diane Tillman which was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education in April 1999.

Initially sceptical about the LVE, Mrs. Rahimah decided to test it out in her classroom. She was so impressed with the positive changes it had on her students, that she convinced the State education department to conduct a training programme for moral education teachers in District of Kinta. The training was conducted in the Malaysian national language and some of the LV activities were translated into Malay for the training programme.

There were 13 criteria by reference to which the training was evaluated. All participants rated the programme very highly and unanimously agreed that it had met their expectations in terms of content and relevancy of the subject to the issues that teachers and students are facing in today's environment. Time was clearly a constraint and most of the comments also indicated that there was room for improvement in the following areas:

• A one day training programme is insufficient;
• More training is needed; and
• Materials to be translated into Malay.

The challenges that some of the teachers faced when implementing LV were:

• Difficulty in expressing their feelings verbally;
• Values were not consistently role modelled by parents and other teachers who weren't exposed to the programme; and
• Emphasis within the schools as a whole was more on the upcoming exams and as the training took place in the midst of the examination period, most teachers felt that they were unable to implement LV immediately in their classrooms as importance had to be given to exams.

After two months, feedback forms were given to all the teachers and 28 of the 32 teachers responded. The 32 teachers in turn had shared the material with other moral education teachers and this multiplied three-fold to 97 teachers. Almost 3,000 students experienced some of the activities from the Living Values programme. The majority of the teachers noticed positive changes in the students and in the classroom atmosphere as a whole. What was once regarded as a dreaded subject was now looked forward to so that they could share their thoughts, feelings and ideas with others. Many teachers reported that students had greater self-confidence, more awareness of the effect of their actions on others, were more respectful of others' feelings and overall happier and more self-assured. Twenty-five teachers (or 78% of them) responded positively. These were some of their remarks: 

• Positive behavioural changes.
• Student/teacher relations improve.
• Students more self-confident, focused.
• More interest shown in moral education class.
• Respect for peers.
• Classroom atmosphere more peaceful. Students cooperative.
• Ability to concentrate increased.
• They love the activities; look forward to more.
• More creative. Have their own ideas. Want to be heard.
• The teacher himself feels more confident of the subject and how to teach it as he himself experiences the value and has a better understanding.
• Students are proactive
• Students are able to relate to a situation, their behaviour and the value.
• They know how to handle difficult situations.

Five teachers (16%) felt that it was too short a time to tell if changes were taking place in the students' behaviour. The remaining two (6%) felt the class size was too big to do the activities and there was no reinforcement of the values from other teachers and parents; they were not effective if done by one teacher alone. (The frequency of classes was once a week, with each session lasting anywhere from 20-40 minutes each. The teacher-to-student ratio, on average, was 1:31)

We also gave a briefing to the National Union of Teachers on 28th January 2000. It went very well. There was lots interest and I will be conducting another TTT for Malay-speaking trainers who in turn will be sent to various parts of Malaysia to conduct more TTEs."

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India: Living Values Launched in Gujarat School 

Living Values E-news has received the following report from Sunita, a Living Values resource person in India's Gujarat State: "Here in Surat, on the Annual Day of Adam's English Medium School, on the 21st February 2000, we were invited as Guest of Honour by the Principal, Mr. Krupal Singh, to launch Living Values as a compulsory subject for the students from Kindergarten class to 10th standard. The parents of all the students (who total about 1,000) had assembled and were joined by educationalists from other schools. The children presented different cultural items or values activities; for example the children of 7th and 8th standard offered a skit on “Tolerance”. Everything went successfully and the programme was video taped for the TV channel too.

Looking ahead, from 5th June to 9th June 2000 there will be training for the teachers and then the school will re-open on 12th June 2000 with its first period of Living Values. As we don't have many resources here, we have requested the Principal to start with only the secondary section first - 5th to 9th standard classes. There will be 35 students in each class and each period will be 35 minutes; they have two sections for each standard. The Principal is requesting at least 2 more English-speaking LV resource persons to assist Avani and myself here in Surat for 15 days in the beginning."

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