ACTION PLAN - University of Ulster

their word choice, asking non-threatening questions about the reading, using class time as
a reading period, preparing exam questions on readings for which the class was
unprepared to discuss, and giving written assignments to those students who have not
done assigned readings.
Values Clarification Exercises:
What are we doing?
The CASS counselors have several values clarification exercises available to them. They
include Simon, Howe, and Kirshenbaum=s Values Clarification, the Value Wheel, and the
values assessment in DISCOVER.
Current Research/Information:
At Wheaton College in Norton, MA, on course is the Resident Hall Staff selection
process in Development Issues for College Students. Three main issues addressed in the
course are leadership style, values clarification and interpersonal skills.
Charles Lauter in Values as Verbs, originally published in the Fall 2000 issue of
Lawrence Today, and available at www.lawrence.edu/news/pubs/values , discusses
values education. He feels he is often more comfortable with values education than other
educators is because he sees it as a process not a product. This fits with the saying
AEducation is a journey, not a destination.@ Values education is not about indoctrinating
people with isms, but rather Ahelping them learn the process of valuing, a way to arrive at
and enact values, rather then the content of those vales.@ Values clarification is one
educational process in dealing with values. Everyone comes to a university setting with
values. Students are not blank slates and have had to choose from alternatives to reach a
particular belief or value. The process of values education typically will include learning
the following:
!To choose from alternative - educate self about the myriad of alternatives.
!To choose wisely - must know and understand consequences.
!To understand - must inquire, analyze and criticize then recognize that the belief is a
choice (to be embraced, prized and cherished).
!To be effective - must put values into action.
Kirshenbaum, Howard, 1992, A Comprehensive Model for Values Education and Moral
Education, Phi Delta Kappan: v73 n10, outlines the history of values education from the
1950s until the early 1990s. The 50s values education is characterized as inculcating and
modeling with a consensus about parents, religions, and society regarding values, and
morality. During the turbulent 1960s and 1970s new attitudes about human sexuality,
religion, career options, lifestyles, and personal values were common and APower to the
People@ was a popular slogan. Educators were now encouraged to help students Aclarify
their own values, learn higher levels of moral reasoning, and learn the skills of value
analysis.@ In the 1980s, views were Amore politically conservative, economically fearful,
and socially disintegrating@ The yuppies= generation of the 80s might be characterized as
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