The Practice of Values-Education in General Secondary Schools (The Case of One Selected General Secondary School in Amhara Reg)
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate and understand the status of valueseducation
by considering one high school in Amhara Regional State. An integrated
approach to values-education stresses that values are available every where in the school
both explicitly and implicitly and can be taught through various ways. From this
perspective the provision of the special course in ethics, pedagogical strategies in
teaching any subject, the co-curricular activity program, the management of students
discipline and some other opportunities for students to imitate and practice ethical
behavior were considered and assessed. To this end qualitative case study design was
employed and data were collected through semi-structured and unstructured interview,
participant-observation, and document reading. Participants were purposely selected
from the teachers, principals, and students. Finally, the raw data were presented and
analyzed qualitatively, in narrative and vignette forms based on the participants' views
and my personal interpretations. The result shows that there was less opportunity for
students to develop pro-social thoughts and pro-character when we compare with the
effort being made on reducing the incidence of bad conducts: The teaching of Civic and
Ethical Education was more of cognitive; academic subject teachers were interested
more with the cognitive than with the affective; co-curricular activities were generally
weak; the discipline method was more of curing than prevention, more of punishment
than psychological persuasion; and teachers were not strongly committed to the
realization of moral virtues. Accordingly, it is implicated that building an ethical school
where caring and justice are modeled by the staff and practiced by the school community
in general is necessary. In order to address the affective component of human behavior,
curriculum developers need to devise strategies with regard to the teaching of the
separate subject and other subjects, and more collaborative effort among all stakeholders
is demanded than ever done before
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Education