Values in a School Curriculum: Helpful Behavior

This essay I’m writing is about values, values-infused curriculum, values education programme and ways in which values can be infused in a school curriculum. Values are our beliefs, the way we act, the way we think, our authority, how we feel towards situations, our families, our friends and ourselves. Values help us to live better with people. Values help us make lifelong decisions, it helps us reflect on our past behaviours and make us change our ways to have a superior future. Values help us with our communication skills, it helps us to be self-motivated and be great leaders of tomorrow. Values help us to figure out how to work under pressure. Values help at home, we can be in total agreement with our families. We can be respectful towards our parents and be careful how we treat our families. We may take on responsibilities in our home by washing the wares, taking care of our younger siblings, cleaning our bedrooms and cleaning the yard when it is dirty. We must not fight with our siblings but teach them right from wrong. Values help at school a lot especially with our peers in partnership to do group works and help them when they don’t understand the school work. When we listen to their situations and try to help them. When we come first in test and get things from the teachers and we don’t show off we are showing values there. When we are determined to pass our test and help other students also. When we control ourselves by respecting the teacher and being polite.

Values help in our community we demonstrate a helpful behaviour when we help an elderly cross the streets. Picking up garbage by the roadway and by recycling we show gratitude for our community. Being a committed individual and showing accountability in youth groups, community sports day. When we honour, respect and help our neighbours. My top three values are determination, respect and co-operation I am determined to reach my goal in life and even though there are many failures and setbacks I would continue pushing for success. I have respect for my family, my friends, strangers and myself. By treating others fairly and showing love I feel a sense of happiness. I am good at helping others with work and sharing ideas. These values make me feel good about myself and I am confident and happy that I have those values.

Values are the way we act, how we take authority and it helps us develop a good future. Infused means to put in. Curriculum is the subjects in a school needed to help children learn. So, I think that values-infused curriculum is a way to help children develop themselves in the education curriculum so they can later solve life problems, have a better relationship with people in the community and when they go out into the workplace, they would have the basic needs. “Values Education” (2019) Value education is the process by which people give moral values to each other. It can be an activity that can take place in any human organisation during which people are assisted by others, who may be older, in a condition experienced to make explicit our ethics in order to assess the effectiveness of these values and associated behaviour for their own and others' long term well-being, and to reflect on and acquire other values and behaviour which they recognise as being more effective for long term well-being of self and others. The purpose of the values education programme is to help students to develop their senses so they can make proper observations for example if they see someone steal something and they know that it is wrong they would not do that. It will help students’ performances in the classroom. In the classroom where they spend most of their life’s values education programme will help them to think more about situations for example if they were given a simple mathematics question on the board to solve, they can come up with different strategies to work it out. It will help them to express themselves freely and not be peer pressure into the wrong things.

Values education will make the teachers and students have more communication skills. It will help their behaviour to be better at school and at home and sometimes adults can learn from children so let’s say they learnt about values education in school and they tell their parents about it, it might inspire their parents. Values education programme would help the students to be creative in their work and thoughts for example, a drama play they can give the teachers ideas. It helps them to have a positive attitude no matter what goes on at home. The children abilities would enhance, and they may take on more responsibilities. Values education programme wants children to know the meaning of value, find out what their values are, discover other people values around them, it will make them develop skills, reflect on situations and make them be responsible future adults.

Teaching values in school helps students learn and practice healthy attitudes and behaviour, such as respect, honesty and kindness. Teachers reinforce these attitudes by modelling them for their students and encouraging students to behave in the same way. Even though students still make their own choices, teaching values encourages them to not cheat, lie or steal but, rather, to treat others as they want to be treated. Values can be infused in the school curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago in art and craft classes they can express themselves in a painting, they can be very creative in art designs, they can make collages, they get to learn about their culture and see paintings of long ago. They can craft jewellery’s that they like and imitate and make things of pictures they see. Art and craft will help them brainstorm more ideas and gain plenty of knowledge.

Values can be infused in Science when students experiment, do research’s, they discuss with teachers and other children, they ask questions, they reflect on all that they have learnt. They use personal experiences and they critically think for example if they get a question wrong, they may come up with more answers. The values that will be displayed in science are collaboration and communication skills. Values can be infused in the curriculum by teachers being taught how to teach values and the teachers can teach it by testing their problem-solving skills, Debates, role plays and discussion the teacher would control the classroom, transfer knowledge and shape their minds. When children learn about new things, they take it in and then ask questions. Values can be infused in the school curriculum at activities like projects, creative writing and games. Children get a chance to discover new things with the help of the teacher, when children behave good you can give them a reward that way, they will always want to do good. They can develop their passions and goals for the future. Lastly, infusion of values into the school curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago can be used into drama classes. Plays, poems and short stories help by facing challenges, working together to complete a good play, it shows fairness, a sense of happiness, it makes them feel like they belong, they feel love and compassionate. They learn to manage time wisely and take responsibilities. They even get a memorable experience they develop different communication (verbal and non verbal). It helps them to keep their focus and they also develop values on their own. Values, values-infused curriculum, values education and ways in which values can be infused in the curriculum have been discussed in this essay. Values can really have an impact on our lives in the future when we learn it at school, home and community. Values education helps children a lot to develop their mindset.

References

1. Values education. (2019, September 21). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Values_education.
2. Tucker, K. (2019, January 10). Pros & Cons of Teaching Values in Schools. Retrieved from https://www.theclassroom.com/pros-cons-teaching-values-schools-7435175.html..