Identifying core values within curriculum design

Dr David Baume (education consultant) Some questions about experts

What do you expect from your lawyer? Not necessarily in order of importance, you might expect from them:

• a good and current knowledge of the law on whatever issue you are bringing to them (failing which, the ability to find and make sense of the necessary information);

• the ability to use this legal knowledge, apply it to your situation and get you the best possible result under the circumstances;

• empathy with your particular concerns and aspirations; and • maintenance of strict confidentiality with regard to your

affairs.

What do you expect from your doctor? You might expect:

• a good and current knowledge of whatever medical problem you are bringing to them (failing which, the ability to find and make sense of the necessary information);

• the ability to use this medical knowledge, apply it to your situation and get you the best possible result under the circumstances (which might include referring you to a specialist);

• empathy with your particular medical problem; and • maintenance of strict confidentiality with regard to your

affairs.

You'll see a similarity here. You expect a professional to have relevant knowledge; to have the ability to use that knowledge

appropriately; and to have some other qualities that aren't exactly either knowledge or skills.

Let's stretch this a little. What would you expect from an art historian, or a sociologist, or a theoretical physicist, or a specialist in literature? You might expect from them:

• specialist knowledge from their discipline, together with the ability to find and make sense of additional specialist knowledge from their discipline;

• the ability to use this specialist knowledge to address questions, problems, issues and opportunities within the discipline, and possibly some way beyond the discipline; and • respect for the expertise of others; a critical approach; a

sustained interest in and engagement with the discipline; a commitment to the future of the discipline, through means including but not limited to research and teaching.

To summarise, again we expect the following in an expert: knowledge; the ability to use the knowledge; and some other qualities that aren't exactly either knowledge or skills, but that imply, indeed require, knowledge and skill. Any collective noun for these other qualities brings its difficulties. We could describe them as principles, as virtues, as values or no doubt as many other things. In this article I'll simply call them values.

Values, espoused and enacted

Argyris & Schön (1974) usefully distinguish between our espoused theories (what we say we believe, quite possibly what we think we believe) and our theories in action (the theories that underpin, inform, indeed often explain, what we do).

For example, a strongly expressed belief in the importance of active student learning, accompanied by the giving of many long lectures,

might show a difference between a lecturer’s espoused theories of learning and their theories of learning in action. (The difference between this lecturer’s espoused theory of learning and the theory of learning visible in their actions does not necessarily mean that the lecturer is a bad person. They may only recently have realised the importance of active learning; their teaching timetable may have been decided months ago; they are unlikely to have much input into the design of the teaching room; and so on. At a minimum, however, we may hope that, through their own process of critical reflection on their work, or perhaps through constructive conversations with a staff developer, they are aware of this difference between their espoused theories of learning and their theories of learning in action. Hopefully this dissonance will, over not too long an interval, drive them to change to the maximum extent possible how they teach.)

The same distinction between what is espoused and what is enacted works, alas, also for values. For example, the lecturer may, deep down, feel that they value student collaboration. However, they may provide no opportunity for students to develop the ability to collaborate. Further, through the use of wholly individual final assessment, the lecturer will show the students that the lecturer in fact values only individual work. ‘By their deeds ye shall know their values’, to significantly misquote Matthew 7:16, is a general truth; accepting that deeds are often constrained or shaped by context and by custom, not to say by regulation.

What do we do when our values collide with custom, practice or regulation? A useful first step is to make our values explicit. A second step is to see where and how we might enact our values – all versions of them – within current regulations. A third step is to discuss our values with colleagues, and see how much agreement there is. A fourth step is to seek to change the regulations, remembering that, at a profound and important level, we are the university.

A short story about values

In the late 1980s, my partner Carole Baume and I were invited by the National Children's Play and Recreation Unit in England to develop an occupational standard for play-workers. At that stage, we both believed that an occupational standard should describe a list of competencies or capabilities; a list of things that, in this case, play- workers should be able to do.

We consulted extensively with play-workers, and drafted lots of lists. One element on the list said something like ‘Ensure equality of opportunity in children's play’. The next element on the list said something like ‘Facilitate and support children's play’.

A play-worker with whom we were consulting looked at these two items, and snorted: ‘I see. You give the play-worker their tick for “ensuring equality of opportunity”, and then they earn another tick for facilitating the boys to play football and the girls to play at making tea.’

The play-worker’s point, vividly made, was that ‘ensuring equality of opportunity’ was a very different kind of thing from ‘facilitating play’. Indeed, we realised, ‘ensuring equality of opportunity’ didn't belong on the same list. Everything the play-worker did was in practice informed, indeed driven, by the need to ensure equality of opportunity among the children.

As soon as we realised this, we saw that other items on the list – health and safety, confidentiality, supporting the rights of the child – were also different kinds of things. They required knowledge, but they weren't knowledge. They required abilities, but they weren't just abilities.

Where do values come from?

Values are present in, indeed are essential components of, many professions, and in the practice of many disciplines. Including the subjects taught in higher education. And including the business of teaching in higher education. And also including staff and educational development!

Values arise from several sources. Debate among members of any emergent profession, to see what values they espouse. Analysis of professional practice, to see what values lie there in the practice. Conversations with clients and users of a profession, to see what clients and users want, need and expect from members of the profession. Laws and regulations, describing obligations on members of the profession and enacted by the elected government on behalf of the people.

The values of the discipline, rather than a profession, may not carry the full force of regulation or law. But they still affect practice powerfully. Becoming a member of the discipline involves joining a community. And communities are defined partly by the values that they espouse and enact.

How do students learn values?

Values can be taught. Statements of values can be memorised – but clearly that isn't enough. The values need to live in the teaching of the lecturer. The application of values to particular cases, examples, stories needs to be made explicit. Students need to plan in advance how values will inform their real or simulated professional practice, or their academic work. Students need to evaluate their own work with reference to, among all the other requirements, the extent to which their work embodies the values of the discipline or the profession. And students need to critique and test the values, finding their limits and limitations.

How are values assessed?

It will by now be clear that simply repeating the values of the profession in an exam is utterly insufficient. Students should describe how the values would inform their planning and undertaking of some hypothetical task. But that still isn't enough. Students should describe how values informed their planning and undertaking of professional and disciplinary tasks; analyse the sometimes complex and problematic relations between values and practice; identify how the values can more thoroughly inform their future practice; and, going round the learning cycle again and again, develop an increasingly sophisticated ability and commitment to apply the values, to test their practice against the values, and to identify and (where possible) resolve difficulties in the use of the values. Assessment needs to be as authentic as is possible, however difficult this may be.

This is heavy stuff. But without it, values may remain only espoused.

Conclusion

Values are not wishy-washy, feel-good, optional attributes for a graduate. Values, alongside knowledge and competencies or capabilities, are fundamental to being a member of the professional discipline. The syllabus describes what graduates know. The competencies or capabilities describe what they can do. The values describe how graduates act. You might even feel that the values describe who the graduates are – people who act in particular ways.

Reference

Argyris, C. & Schön, D. (1974). Theory in Practice: Increasing