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Chapter 3

Integrating Human Values in Water Education

A. The Context

Why is there a concern for values in Philippine Society? There are three main issues that need to be addressed in our context: (1) acting only for the good of oneself or one’s family; (2) poorly maintained public utilities, (3) people throwing wastes on waterways; and an over-arching fourth issue is the timidity and indifference of people with regard to participation in public issues.

These social issues have implications in moving the people to action – to do something with the knowledge, skills and orientations they acquire in school.  How to transform these into practical behavior is inevitably the concern of education.

In the Philippines, the concern for values is one of the key attributes of the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC). As the BEC Primer articulates:

Values development is integral to all the learning areas from the elementary to the secondary level.
However, a change in the curriculum in terms of a separate subject for Human Values in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (HVWSHE) is not probable in the near future, given the already “overcrowded curriculum”.  The most feasible way to address this concern is through integration – imparting the essentialsofHVWSHEwithin the existing curriculum.

This section attempts to provide a springboard for planning lessons and introducing materials on HVWSHE.  It will specifically address the philosophy and pedagogy of values integration.  The discussion will cover the following:

A sample lesson plan in Integrated Science and a module on sustainable development for teacher training will be shown.

B. Assumptions

Any discussions on values need to be anchored on a common understanding of the goals of education and the nature of values.  The following will guide our exploration:

1.   The critical goals of education are:
a.   To assist the student in:

b.   To develop the student’s potentials to the fullest in order to assist him/her to evolve in to a fully human person

2.   We need to develop, among the students, knowledge and interest in the disciplines for their survival and growth into useful members of society. Thereby they will attain integration of personhood.

3.   Values are the bases of judging what attitudes and behavior are correct and desirable and what are not (DECS Values Education Program, 1997). They are the overriding principles (standards, decisions, ideals) which govern and ought to govern people’s behavior. They are the universal truths which man considers to be good and important; they are the ethical principles which a person struggles to realize and live (Esteban, 1990).

      Obviously, when we speak of universal truths, we deal with moral values, the natural law written in the heart of each person. Simply put, this law states “Do good and avoid evil.” Thus, to indoctrinate, proselytize or promote a religion or certain spiritual belief systems unobtrusively in the guise of a values-based intervention is not being faithful to the natural law.

4.   Clearly defined values give meaning to human activity.

5.   As the key task of education, the systematic development of values requires methodological support which cannot be neutral.  Education in values demands discussion, processing, reflection, and action. While the adage ‘values are caught and not taught’ still prevails, the communication of values cannot be left to chance. The primary socializing agencies, the family and communities, have been perceived as ineffective (Punsalan, 2006).

6.   In a values-based approach to teaching and learning, the following need to be considered:
a.   What are the attributes of a person who is ‘educated in values’?
What does a properly ‘values educated person’ have that other people would not?
What types of concepts, understandings, reasons, and motives does he need?
b.   How should teachers facilitate the teaching-learning transaction in order to address the above-cited questions?
c.   How do we assess whether (to what extent, in respect of what items) a student is ‘values educated’?

C. The Concept of Values Integration

Values Integration is a channel of values development through the teaching-learning activities in the different subject areas. The starting point for Values Integration is the nature of these learning areas and their unique contribution as bodies of knowledge.

Teachers first identify the concept to be developed in the lesson along with the values inherent in the subject as basis for the planning and delivery of lessons. For example, learning science concepts and acquiring scientific skills should lead to the development of intellectual honesty, respect for the emergence of new knowledge and discipline in the performance of one’s work.

The experience of the decision-making process in the social sciences should develop objectivity, empathy and enable a learner to gain perspective.  Health and physical education should bring about respect for life and the human body.

Values Integration does not mean quoting a value and discussing it. It is leading the students to see a personal meaning in what the teachers teach in the classroom.  This is the dimension that is often neglected in the learning process. Only the teaching of facts, concepts, and skills is addressed. How to make all these relevant to the students and to their lives is overlooked.

D. The Five Basic Human Values

The Department of Education introduced the Values Education Program in 1988.  There was a need to rebuild the nation and transform Philippine Society after the historic People Power revolt in 1986.  These would be realized through the inner transformation of the Filipino – a change in his values and behavior. Seven core values were identified based on the framework on the dimensions of the human person.  These values corresponding to the seven dimensions of man are the following (Values Education for the Filipino, 1988):

For the purposes of this Project, the Five Basic Human Values and their related Values were identified and adopted (UN Centre for Human Settlements, 2001, p. 23):

E.   The Potential Learning Areas for integrating Human Values in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (HVWSHE)

The learning areas that are potential entry points of VBWE and the values inherent in each area are identified in Table 3.1 below:

Table 3.1.  Learning Areas for HVWSHE

E.1.  Mathematics

E.2.  Science

E.3.  English

E.4.  Social Studies

E.5.  Home Economics

How can teachers naturally use the content of their subject areas to address HVWSHE? Questions that build on facts, establish connections to come up with concepts and enable the student to find meaning in the topic have potential in this regard.  These questions and other strategies to this effect should be used to achieve integration in the personhood of the student.  The teacher who has achieved proficiency in the use of these questions and strategies responds to the three levels of teaching.

F.   The Context and Process of Values Integration

1.   The Classroom Environment. The physical environment of the classroom communicates certain values that may facilitate or hinder the development of values intended by the teacher. The arrangement of desks or chairs facilitate or encourage particular modes of interaction for certain topics in the lesson.  Given an ample space and a small class size, the circular or oval arrangement of chairs encourages active student engagement (Vosniadou, 2004).

2.   The Teaching-Learning Process. All educational transactions inevitably communicate values, whether the intention to do so is explicitly stated or not. That is why an intervention may not necessarily carry the label ‘values-based’ given the intrinsically ‘values-laden’ nature of education.

      But in labeling our current concern ‘values-based’, we emphasize the how serious and dedicated the cooperative project is in promoting development of a sustainable water-use ethic. There are many ways by which values development or formation can be facilitated in the classroom. Two categories may be dealt with in detail:

      The most common expressions used by teachers, as reported in Punsalan’s (2006) study were “remember, be honest” made during the assessment part of the lesson (eg., paper-and-pencil test), “Please speak louder”. “Listen, sit properly” when calling inattentive students, and “Magaling (Very Good)!” as positive reinforcements.

Table 3.2.  Matrix for Values-based Lesson

      It is critical for the teacher to be clear on the concept to be developed in the lesson and what the students would need to infer from the discussions (or the generalization or abstraction part of the lesson).

      The values to be communicated should be anchored to the points for discussion and the views/responses elicited from the students for the values integration to be ‘purposeful’. Formulating values-based objectives and pursuing the attainment of these through the strategies or activities and vicarious or authentic assessment modes indicate the significance given to the intervention

G. The Levels of Teaching

There are three levels of teaching that need to be addressed in the classroom: the facts level, the concepts level, and the valuing level.

Teaching at the level of imparting facts involves only the transfer of information.  Teaching at the concepts level dwells on the understanding and analysis of the information as ideas.  It is at the valuing level, however, when the data and ideas learned in the two preceding levels gain personal meaning to the student.  Learning inevitably involves all three levels.  No matter how intellectually stimulating a concept is, if the teacher fails to connect it to the student’s experiences or real world through questions that establish such connections and through hands-on or vicarious activities, its integration and internalization in the student cannot be guaranteed (Vosniadou, 2004). “For a concept to be turned into action, it must first find its way into our value system.” (Quisumbing, 2003).

A study affirmed the importance of the valuing level when it found that teachers’ questions dwelt on understanding the value concept only.  The valuing level which should focus on the affective, personal experiences, attitudes, and feelings of the students was not pursued.  This is the level where meaningful resolutions for a change in attitude or behavior of the students should have been made by the students (Punsalan, 2006).

Conceptual level

Figure 3.1.  Cycle of Levels in the Teaching and Learning

H. Levels of Teaching Applied

To concretize the use of the levels of teaching in the teaching-learning process, some examples follow:

LC V-3.3.1:  Apply Newton’s Laws of Motion to land transportation

Fact          :  Awareness of the 3 Laws of Motion (Laws of Inertia, Acceleration and Action-Reaction)

Concept   :   Test the students’ understanding through applications and/or designing experiments.

Valuing    :   Internalize the need for seatbelts, sitting tightly when one is in a moving vehicle, using other safety gadgets when one is in a moving vehicle particularly in fast moving cars.

I.    Conclusion

The content of the curriculum, the subject matter of our programs, the teaching-learning strategies used and the assessment used by teachers depend integrally on the objectives they set.  If teachers place importance on values development, they need to reflect it in their lesson’s objectives.  Otherwise, this will be left to be determined by routine and this is never purposeful.

Education, to be effective, must heighten students’ moral and social consciousness.  If teachers pose questions that bring students to these levels within the parameters of their subject areas, they are truly faithful to values integration or systematic values teaching.