Editorial note
This new series of artciles by Hall Houston will offer an overview of various alternative trends in education and the readers are encouraged to do their own explorations. Values clarification was covered in a previous issue of HLT, this article adds more depth to our knowledge on the subject.
Off the Beaten Path
Hall Houston
Hall Houston is an English Instructor at City University of Hong Kong, English Language Centre. His first book, The Creative Classroom, will be published soon by Lynx Publishing (www.lynxpublishing.com). His professional interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, creativity and critical thinking.
E-mail: hallhouston@yahoo.com
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Introduction
Values Clarification
References
Introduction
With this issue of HLT, I am beginning a series of articles for language teachers who would like to learn about different areas of humanistic education. In the following months, I will be exploring theories, ideas, and trends in education, training, teaching and learning. I believe that language teachers can benefit from exposure to other areas of education. I will do my best to show their relationship to language teaching in the hope of providing a source of inspiration for teachers.
Values Clarification
Getting students to talk about their thoughts, experiences and values is a useful way of motivating them to practice a foreign language. While students may not mind practicing conversations between characters they've never met or reading texts about situations they know nothing about, they are compelled to speak more when you give them a topic that they can relate to.
Values clarification, the subject of this article, is a movement in education that began in the 1970's. Its focus was on helping young people develop their own value systems. It was intended for American school students, not language students. There are four main elements to its methodology:
1. Emphasizing life - values clarification aims at getting students to think about their values, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.
2. Accepting reality - values clarification stresses being honest and accepting yourself and others
3. Continuing reflection - values clarification encourages one to think about one's values, and examine how they influence behavior
4. Developing personal powers - values clarification intends to help students become more reflective and more self-directed in the future
The following are some typical exercises in values clarification. Some of these exercises have been used before in language teacher resource books.
Some Typical Exercises
Ranking exercises - Rank people, places, activities, or values in order of importance
Public interview - A student chooses a topic (related to values), then sits in front of the class and answers questions based on the topic
Five-minute quote without comment - A student stands before the class and talks about a topic for five minutes without any interruption by the teacher or class.
Zigzag lesson - A teacher asks mundane questions related to everyday life, then gradually leads the questioning to a more serious social issue.
Value sheet - A handout which contains a provocative quote or news article, followed by a series of personal questions.
What's in your wallet - Students take 3 things out of their wallet, and explain how each item reflects their own values.
Two ideal days - Students write in great detail about how they would ideally spend two days.
I urge telegrams - Students write a telegram (15 words or less) to a real person, that contains an important message reflecting their own values.
Three characters - Students make a list of 3 characters from real life, fiction, television, movies or any other source. The first is someone that they wish they could be, the second is someone they would least like to be, and the third is someone that they are the most like. They discuss their choices in groups.
Interview whip and interview chain - In teacher whip, the teacher moves around the classroom asking questions related to values. In interview chain, the teacher asks the first question, then that student asks another student, etc.
(The first five activities are taken from Raths, Harmin and Simon (1978) and the last five are from Simon, Howe, and Kirschenbaum (1978).)
As you can see in these activities, there is a lot of emphasis on real communication. Values clarification encourages interaction and self-expression. If you feel your class has spent too much time on a boring coursebook, you can try some of the activities listed above, and observe how students respond to them.
Values clarification has been criticized as "brainwashing" by some conservatives, who don't feel students should choose their own values. (For some strong criticism of values clarification, see Contini 2000.) However, if you are concerned about this, you can choose less controversial issues to discuss.
References
Contini, Lisa Marie. 2000. "Values Clarification Destroys Conscience". Homiletic and Pastoral Review. Ignatius Press.
Kirschenbaum, Howard. 1977. Advanced Value Clarification. La Jolla, CA: University Associates.
Raths, Louis E., Merrill Harmin, and Sidney B. Simon. 1978. Values and Teaching: Working with Values in the Classroom. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.
Simon, Sidney B., Leland W. Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum. 1978. Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students. Sunderland: Values Press.
Values Clarification Exercises. 2000. Humanising Language Teaching web-zine.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Humanising Large Classes course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
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