By Dr Neil Hawkes

When I was interviewed by national ABC in Australia, you will hear that I mentioned the excellent values research conducted at Newcastle University.  Often, I am asked if there is any research evidence to support the claims of Living Values Education. I am delighted to inform you that there is a growing body of research evidence that supports our positive claims.  In Australia, a number of studies have been conducted that show the positive effects of values education on school relationships, ambience, student wellbeing and improved academic diligence.  Living Values Education is acknowledged as being one of the inspirational forces behind these studies. (Lovat et al., 2009, p. 18)"

Professor Terry Lovat and his colleagues at Newcastle University, in Australia, have been monitoring and researching the effects of the Australian Government’s Values Education Initiative.    This year the University published its final report for the Australian Government, which looks at the evidence concerning the impact of introducing and developing Values Education in schools (Lovat, 2009). 

The research describes how values-based schools give increasing curriculum and teaching emphasis to Values Education.  As a consequence students become more academically diligent, the school assumes a calmer, more peaceful ambience, better student-teacher relationships are forged, student and teacher wellbeing improves and parents are more engaged with the school – all claims made by Living Values too!

Explicit teaching of values provides a common ethical language for talking about interpersonal behaviour. It also provides a mechanism for self-regulated behaviour. An important outcome is a more settled school which enhances quality teaching and enables teachers to raise expectations for student performance.

The effective implementation of Values Education was characterized by a number of common elements.

• Values Education was regarded as a school’s “core business”, given equal status with
  other areas and embedded in policies and student welfare practices;
• A ‘common language’ was developed among staff, students and families to describe values and the school’s expectations of student behaviour;
• Staff endeavoured to ‘model’ and demonstrate the values in everyday interactions with
  students;
• Values were scaffolded by supportive school-wide practices including teacher
  facilitation of student reflection and self-regulation of behaviour;
• Values were taught in an explicit way in and out of the classroom and through other media (e.g. assemblies, sport and cooperative games, drama, songs etc.);
• Values education was allied to ‘real world learning’ involving deep personal learning
  and imbued both planned and unplanned learning opportunities;
• Values education was reinforced through positive visual media as well as consistent,
  verbal encouragement and acknowledgement;
• Values education was allied to expressed high standards for overall participation,
  performance and achievement; and
• Values education was optimally introduced under the guidance of the principal and/or a
  team of committed staff.
• The research also revealed that Values Education had an impact in the following areas:

a. Student academic diligence was enhanced.  Students:

• showed increased attentiveness in class and a greater capacity to work
  independently;
• assumed more responsibility for their own learning;
• asked questions and worked together more cooperatively;
• took greater care and effort in their schoolwork;
• took more pride in their efforts.

b. The improvements in School ambience included:

• conflict among students decreased or was managed more constructively;
• students demonstrated greater empathy, honesty and integrity;
• more tolerant and cooperative student interactions;
• safer and more harmonious classrooms and playgrounds;
• greater kindness and tolerance among students;
• students actively seeking to include peers without friends;
• students taking greater responsibility with school equipment and routine tasks;
• students treating the school buildings and grounds ‘with respect’.

c) The impact on student-teacher relationships was evidenced by:

• “more trusting” relationships between staff and students;
• the establishment of more ‘democratic’ classrooms;
• teachers giving students more ‘power’ by allowing them choices in learning
•  activities;
• teachers being more conscious of scaffolding students to manage their own
• behaviour or resolve conflict with others;
• teachers seeking opportunities to acknowledge and reinforce appropriate
•  behaviour;
• teachers ‘listening’ to students and responding to their concerns and opinions;
• students perceiving that teachers treat them fairly;
• students behaving “more respectfully” towards teachers;
• students showing greater politeness and courtesy to teachers.

d) The positive impacts on student and teacher wellbeing included:

• students feeling a greater sense of connectedness and belonging;
• students gaining a greater capacity for self-reflection and self-appraisal;
• students developing a greater capacity for regulating their own and their peers’ behaviour;
• teachers receiving collegial support and strong leadership;
• teachers obtaining confidence and knowledge through opportunities for
• professional development and through staff collaboration;
• teachers re-examining their practices and role;
• the fostering of relational trust among staff and between teachers and families.

Other research evidence: 

When Values Education was explicit, a common language was established among students, staff and families. This not only led to greater understanding of the targeted values but also provided a positive focus for redirecting children’s inappropriate behaviour. Teachers perceived that explicitly teaching values and developing empathy in students resulted in more responsible, focused and cooperative classrooms and equipped students to strive for better learning and social outcomes. When values are explicitly endorsed, acknowledged and ‘valued’ within a school culture, it becomes incumbent on schools to ensure that staff, as well as students are both benefactors and recipients in respectful and caring interactions. The common focus draws teachers together to create a collaborative and cohesive school community which supports teachers to do their job more effectively. This has important ramifications for students’ academic progress and wellbeing.

Many thanks to Newcastle University’s research program which has produced such excellent evidence on the impact of Values Education.  I invite you to share it with others so that we can further encourage the development of Living Values Education.

Dr Neil Hawkes
Oxford, UK. 2009

Reference

Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Dally, K. & Clement, N. (2009). Project to test and measure the impact of values education on student effects and school ambience. Final Report for the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) by The University of Newcastle. Canberra: DEEWR. Available at:

http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Project_to_Test_and_Measure_the_Impact _of_Values_Education.pdf

In Paraguay there was an LVE implementation study with 685 high-risk youth in 2010. A 90% reduction in violence and other very positive results were measured after the young people completed LVE’s program for street children. Details from Miriam Ginzo: “In November 2010, we finished evaluating the effects of implementing the Living Values Activities for Street Children (LVASC) program with 685 high-risk young people between the ages of 10 and 15 in 14 facilities in eight different towns. The objectives were to: initiate a process of healing from childhood trauma; develop self-esteem; learn and practice human values; create emotional and social skills as well as protective social skills; increase cohesion within the group; and give correct information about HIV/AIDS, drugs, abuse and sexual trafficking.

The LVASC resources take up the themes of fears when adults argue, the effect of drugs, avoiding unsafe adults and drug dealers, the risk of rapid death due to diarrhea, poverty, cycles of violence and non-violence, the importance of education, rights of children, etc.

The results:

• Yelled less: 90%
• Would speak of their feelings: 80%
• Controlled aggressiveness; Hit less: 90%
• Communicated more with their peers: 70%
• Did their school work: 85%
• Improved personal hygiene: 90%
• Wanted to return to school (those who were not in school): 80%
• Would dialogue with an adult: 80%
• Recovered confidence in safe adults: 100%

The results of applying the LVE program with the educators were: The educators felt more balanced, reported an increase in tolerance and patience with the students and greater inner peace, had better communication with their colleagues, greater comprehension of the process of healing with children at risk, more personal commitment to improve the self and more hope and belief in the process of recovery for this group of high-risk young people.

The experience was monitored by technicians with the At Risk Administration under the Ministry of Education and sponsored by the LVE Association in Paraguay and Dirección General de Educación Inclusiva Ministerio de Educación y Cultura del Paraguay. The technicians and the director said: ‘Finally we have found the tool we needed to reach these children.’”

In Venezuela, four high school students from Monsenor Chacon School, in La Azulita, Merida, collaborated on a study of the effectiveness of Living Values Education in high school in the State of Merida, Living Values: a Tool for Adolescent Development (Arias M, Julio; Gomez F, Daniela; Lobo M, Silvina; and Maggiolo R, Ana, under the technical direction of Lic. Maria Carolina D'Enjoy and Lic. Eduardo Gaviria, 2007). This study was a quasi-experimental design study of adolescent character development in two schools in Venezuela. Using a stratified random sample of 30 students (ages 15-18) from two schools in Venezuela enrolling 500 students in total, the investigators administered a pre/post role-playing situation which asked the students to act out a mini-drama. Scenes in the drama involved aggression, violence, frustration and other anti-social behavior. The treatment group was exposed to ten weeks of weekly, one-hour LVEP lessons. The control group did not have LVEP instruction. At the conclusion, students participated in a post-test role play, and in all cases with the LVE group, new behavior was demonstrated. A final survey was also administered to the LVE group, which asked them about their favorite values, what they learned from the course and responses to a series of statements such as "I feel I can contribute to a better world". The authors concluded that LVE had a positive effect on the development of conflict resolution skills and increased students' personal identification with values, as well as their ability to use those values in daily life."

In Lebanon, Rula Kahil, examined the effect of LVEP on behavior and attitudes related to intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence in elementary school students in a private school in Lebanon. A sample of 76 second- and third-grade students at Beirut’s American Community School were randomly selected and assigned to groups. A pre-post experimental design was used. For a whole school year, students in the treatment group received Living Values Activities lessons on peace, respect and love in addition to the normal school curriculum. The control group continued with the curriculum without the additional value lessons. Both groups were pre- and post-tested using Harter’s Perceived Competence Scales, Teachers’ Rating Scale and the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory. An analysis of the data showed significant treatment effects. The treatment group’s post-test results found significant positive effects on students’ self perceptions in scholastic, cognitive and social domains when compared to the control group. The treatment group also showed significant improvements in the Teachers’ Rating Scale. Mrs. Kahil concluded that it is crucial for schools to implement values and social skills programmes in order to enhance students’ social, emotional and intellectual development.

LVE Results in Thailand Show Improvement in Academics, Attendance and School Climate

For two years in Thailand, the schools winning the country’s award for the best school in the country, the Royal Reward, were schools implementing LVEP.  The school administrators of Saint Joseph Bang-na School, with 3,310 students, reported that in 22 months of implementing LVEP as a whole school, there was a 20% increase in student attendance, a 10% decrease in student tardiness, a 10% increase in teacher attendance, a 20% improvement in reading scores, a 15% improvement in language scores and a 15% improvement in math scores.  There was also considerable improvement on all measures of school climate.

Students from Pre-School through University Improve in Social Skills and Responsibility in Paraguay

In Paraguay, educators rated 3243 students from 4- to 22-years of age who were engaged in LVE.  Despite being from many different schools with a variance in adherence to the LVEP Model, the educators found that 86% of the students improved in the conflict resolution skills and the ability to concentrate, 87% improved in responsibility, 89% improved in respect shown to peers and honesty, 92% improved in their ability to relate socially in a positive way, 94% showed an improvement in motivation and more interest in school, 95% showed more respect for adults, and 100% had more self-confidence and cooperated more with others.