Personal Values and Views... How Do We Teach Students to Establish Their Own?

As a teacher, I am responsible for teaching curriculum provided by the school. Although these academic skills are extremely important, we must not forget there are important social and emotional skills we are able to expose our students to such as responsible and ethical decision-making. In my classroom, I want students to feel safe enough to express and navigate their own personal values and views. I believe it is my job to guide and support students through this process while excluding my own personal bias and opinions. These important social and emotional skills help students to make sense of the world around them. As human beings, we have an emotional brain and we must take care of it.

At the beginning of the school year, we are able to engage our students in ethical thinking by creating a ‘Classroom Constitution’ or ‘Classroom Non-Negotiables.’ In creating one of these as a class, it allows students to think about the classroom climate and the kind of environment they want to be a part of. Students may express their personal opinions as to how they believe they should act in class and towards others. This activity will engage students and allow them to start thinking about their personal values and views.

As the year moves forward, it is important to continue exposing our students to deeper scenarios in order for them to develop responsible and ethical decision-making skills. Without even knowing, many teachers have a ‘hidden curriculum,’ as mentioned in ‘The Flexible SEL’ by Amber Chandler. A ‘hidden curriculum’ is described as the things we teach outside of direct instruction… which mostly includes social and emotional skills. We can do this as teachers by promoting these skills within content areas. For example, during Social Studies let’s say you are teaching about slavery and the American Revolution… before diving deep into content, ask students, what are your personal views/beliefs? In doing this, students will establish their values, views and opinions. Once they have established these, expose them to an ethical dilemma regarding slavery and the American Revolution. Why is this wrong? How does this make you feel? How do you think these people felt during this time period? Allowing our students to explore and practice using their personal values, views and opinions to reflect will help them to do it appropriately and effectively in authentic situations. Exposing students to ethical dilemmas within content areas is one way of establishing responsible and ethical decision-making, but we may also ask students to authentically apply these skills. Is there a school-wide issue students may be able to discuss? Are students able to go home and apply these skills?

We must not forget that with discussing personal values and views also comes disagreements. As students develop responsible and ethical decision-making skills, we must not forget to remind them of respect and acceptance for others who may have differing values and views. As teachers, it is important to model how to respect another’s values and views so students are able to appropriately respond to those they do not agree with.

Overall, the social and emotional needs of our students have the ability to be met through the curriculum provided, but with careful planning and implementation of scenarios that allow for social/emotional skills/concepts to be practiced. Following the curriculum, we are still able to provide other opportunities for authentic exposure to support every students' social and emotional needs. As a teacher, I believe it is important to create an environment in which students are able to explore and establish their values and views... What do you think?