what are the processes of value inculcation?

Answer 1

Following article of NCERT would be of interest to you


Value Inculcation in the Context of Science


Abstract

The advance in science and technology in the last century and the rational inquiry underlying it, has accelerated the processes of social change reducing the world to a global village. On the one hand, science and technology has given rise to genuine optimism and excitement, on the other, it has given rise to anxiety. Science can be considered to be neutral or amoral, but the change in moral domain that technology has brought or could bring about is less obvious. Rather than becoming aware of how to use technology, we tend to become slaves of it. At this juncture a need is felt to humanise science education by cultivating values through a new order based on scientific and technological training. We need to produce students of science with responsibility, who are capable of grappling with the complexities of social issues. We should encourage students to develop a frame of reference for science that has as its central organizing structure those values that give each of us the power to wonder, to explore and to discover. The present paper deals with the need and the strategies for value inculcation in the context of science.

The numerous scientific and technological inventions in the last century and the rational inquiry underlying science and technology, have accelerated the process of social change reducing the world to a global village. Science and technology on the one hand arouse the expectation of a better way of life, give promise of material satisfaction and hold forth great possibilities for the development of human potentialities. They give rise to a genuine optimism and excitement, but they also give rise to anxiety—to a gnawing apprehension of man’s alleged loss of personal freedom, of certitude, of psychological sincerity and of identity. Over the last few decades the distinction between the terms ‘science’ and ‘technology’ has also become clearer. Science tells us how the world works and can be used to predict the physical and biological consequences of human actions. It provides a good guide in answering question of means but by itself cannot answer the question of ends. In short, science connotes power but does not provide direction for the nature of its utilization in toto. Science, therefore, can be considered to be neutral or amoral, while, one can speak meaningfully of better or worse technology, apart from its instrumentality. Though not obvious, technology can affect the domains of intellectual, aesthetic and moral values. New technology in microscopy, holography, carbon dating, transistors, computers and information technology, to name a few, has certainly enlarged the compass of scholarship. New technologies of plastic, lighting, photography have expanded the aesthetic possibility. Least obvious, however, is the change in moral domain that technology has brought or could bring about, as its impact has had many adverse effects. The capacity to discriminate between that which is short-lived and that which is lasting seems to be becoming obscure. Rather than becoming aware of how to use technology as a tool, we tend to become slaves of it. If this trend were not stopped, mankind would be doomed to destroy itself. At this juncture there is a felt need to humanize education by cultivating values through a new order which is based on scientific and technological training, one of the essential components of scientific humanism.

Relating Science and Values

Science is a search for truth. The only constant about science is ‘change’. Emphasis on investigative experiments, scientific reasoning and a reliance on basic scientific knowledge have formed the backbone of many science curricula. Over the past few years, however, important issues have been raised by students in science classrooms which have forced many science teachers to re-examine what is taught in the classroom. Today students are interested in seeking the relevance of the scientific principles and concepts taught to them in the light of the solutions they could provide to the social and other problems in the real world. Science to them appears to be ‘mechanistic’ and ‘dehumanized’ in contrast to their studies in humanities. Science teachers are asked questions that go beyond the academic study of a particular discipline. To locate the source for this unfortunate stereotyping of science as a dehumanized experience, an attempt can be made to reduce the gap between science and humanities, between scientists and humanists, by stressing the humanistic aspects of science.

The demands of both students and faculty for ‘relevance’ of the science curriculum reflects the current view that scientific advances are both the cause of and solution for many social problems. We have avoided dealing with controversial issues like ‘nuclear warfare’, ‘overpopulation’ and stayed clear of raising value issues with the fear of inflicting our values on our students. What we cannot afford is training a generation of students who know the ‘why’ of scientific phenomena but do not have a process of enquiring into the value issues raised by the topics they study. If science is to be relevant to life today and life in future, science teachers have no alternative but to consider the relationship between science and values.

A necessary first step in relating science and values in the classroom is to enable students to learn to regard science as one of the several parallel and equally valid areas of human experience. This will equip them in understanding the interrelationship of human knowledge.

A necessary second step in relating science and values is to encourage students to consider value questions which arise where scientific content of the curriculum has an impact on their immediate experience. Many of the new materials and methods adopted for making science teaching more ‘relevant’ follow this pattern.

Values that characterize the enterprise of science according to the document, Education and the Spirit of Science (Fox, 1996) are:

1. Longing to know and understand

2. Questioning of all things

3. Search for data and their meaning

4. Demand for verification

5. Respect for logic

6. Consideration of premises

7. Consideration of consequences.

Teaching science with a focus on values provides the students with a means for interpreting what they have learned within their own experience. Such learning helps the student to become self adaptive as science-related social conditions change. Student consideration of the relationship of science to personal decisions and major social problems is imperative. They should develop a value sensitivity by examining real life problems in the context of science, techn-ology, society and, therefore, the need to be placed in a framework of a more explicit study of the interaction between science and the value component of the social structure.

Objectives

The interrelationship between human experience and the broad themes of our society is in fact, not learned at all. In order that this be explicitly incorporated into a science course one has to take a look at objectives. Some of the broad objectives could be:

· To see the similarities and differences between the various subjects studied and have an open-minded respect for all of them.

· To be aware of the particular way in which science affects arts.

· To understand that science attempts to make statements about the simplicity and unity of nature.

· To be aware of the moral dilemmas developed due to advances in scientific knowledge, e.g. arms race, overpopulation, environmental pollution, etc.

· To practise honesty in word and deed.

· To develop the spirit of cooperation and team work.

· To recognize ways in which science tends to encourage the acceptance of certain social values such as tolerance.

· To be open to others’ views and opinions.

· To develop patience and perseverance.

· To learn to ‘care for others’.

· To develop willingness to apply scientific methods and information to private and public ethical decisions.

While teaching science with a focus on values, some of the specific objectives identified by Paul Hurd (1975) and listed below can be addressed to :

· To provide opportunities for students to think about and to clarify their own values and compare them with those of others.

· To respect values pluralism in the society and recognize that all people will not respond to problems in the same way but at the same time to recognize the need for enough commonality to preserve society.

· To appreciate that there are aesthetic answers to human problems as well as scientific answers.

· To go beyond the description of facts and consider how they may best serve people.

· To recognize human action as something more than a statistical expectation.

Science provides knowledge, technology provides way of using this knowledge and our value concepts guide what we ought to do with both.

Strategies for Promoting Values

How can we deal with values in our science teaching while taking care to see that we do not indoctrinate students with our own values, or equally bad, unquestioningly inculcate society’s values, many of which we feel are fraudulent? We must consider the values that undergrid the scientific endeavours and attempt to prepare curricula and methods that reflect these values. Some of the values that should be reflected in the content and methodology adopted are: truth, freedom, originality, skpeticism and dissent, order, communication, integrity, open- mindedness, curiosity, objectivity, commitment and persistence, and creativity.

Values can be inculcated either by direct and indirect or curricular and non-curricular approaches. The approach to value development is eclectic, it employs specific strategies under the umbrella of experiential approach such as value inculcation, value clarification, moral development, value analysis, value modification, action learning and value inquiry. These can be distinguished by broadly placing them under three categories: developmentalism, affectivism and cognitivism. Modern moral education comes under the first category. Kohlberg has identified three stages of moral development: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional, where a subject moves from reasoning to maximize his own well being, to reasoning from higher moral principles.

Moral educators introduce moral dilemmas into classroom discussions. Blatt and Kohlberg claim to have raised the level of moral reasoning of students through such a procedure. Many social scientists argue that Kohlberg must validate his argument by demonstrating that ‘higher’ stage individuals produce solutions which are morally superior in some absolute sense.

Value clarification approach began with Louis Raths and has received great interest from teachers and may be the most popular. In this approach the student who is presented with a stimulus, takes a preliminary decision by recognizing and identifying alternatives. He chooses the best alternative after deliberating on the possible consequences of each alternative, defends his choice and conveys a final decision on the issue. All that the teacher does is to simply provide the student an opportunity to clarify his personal stand on an issue. This approach assumes a high level of maturity, knowledge and insight on the part of the student. It is, therefore, not advisable to use this approach alone for value inculcation, but rather it can be used in combination with other techniques. The commonly used strategies in value clarification are: role playing, drama/skit, pictures without captions, opinion poll, value continuum, choosing from alternatives and ranking order. The studies by Simon and de Sherbinin, however, claim that value clarification techniques have led to better self-concept and more favourable attitudes towards learning, more classroom participation and fewer discipline problems.

Value inquiry seems to be the most academic and least popular of the three approaches. Proponents of this approach insist that knowledge, reason and values cannot be separated. Their general approach is to examine all aspects of a particular situation through logical enquiry, arriving at appropriate values for that specific case. The desired outcomes are more like what we might expect in science classes, since they involve learning about knowledge and concepts, as well as values.

Action learning as a strategy is potentially effective in the development of values supportive of environmental preservation and protection because of its built-in opportunities for activities calculated to offset the growing problem of environmental degradation. Here the target values could well be social responsibility and concern for others as well as harmony with nature.

Value development strategies that will yield the best results are those which emphasize the provision of opportunities for learners to act on their values. The assumption here is that value education is not confined to cognitive learning which serves as the basis for development of values. A value is not developed unless it manifests itself. Experiential learning is not confined to the classroom but extends to the home and community. Only then it has great potential for developing values.

Many educators feel that values can be taught by integration with all subjects. Value integration as an approach of communicating values means teaching values in all the subjects as distinguished from the approach of teaching values in a separate class. It is considered as a technique of teaching values. In value integration, student activities are varied and are all related to the lesson. The teacher calls the students’ attention to it and shows the wisdom of possessing it.

Value Integration as an approach to Teaching Values

A teacher planning to use the techniques of value integration should—

1. identify values relevant to the content process/activities involved in the subject

2. develop instructional materials and lesson plans with which values can be taught effectively.

For students of science apart from the classroom, the laboratory has long been central to the teaching of science. The classical experiment is usually simple, sometimes elegant, nearly always works and has a generally accepted result. The experiment engages the student in a linear style of thinking frequently identified as the ‘scientific method’. The present trend is to provide a new kind of laboratory experience, where values both inherent to the descriptive and external (thought to function as corrective and controlling forces for the problems posed by science and technology), can be integrated/infused. Science taught in schools must be looked on at three levels: Facts (Level 1), Concepts (Level 2), Values (Level 3). It would not be out of place to make a reference here to the Gowin’s Vee which is quite useful in the laboratory, for it can help students grasp the meaning of laboratory work. The ‘Vee’ points to the events and objects that are the roots of all knowledge production and it is crucial that learners become aware of the events and objects they are experiencing. They realize that there is an active interplay between the thinking side on the left and doing side on the right, which encourages meaningful learning, as it is believed that students are capable of constructing knowledge for themselves by starting from where they are. Knowledge claims apart from being claims to new knowledge serve a second function as they can suggest new questions and hypotheses to be investigated in future investigations. The knowledge claims are a function of how we interpret the question, how we choose to go about to get data to answer the questions, what kind of conceptual background we bring to the experiment/observations and how we transform the data.

There is always an affective or a feeling component in knowledge. At the end of the investigation, we ask such questions as “Is it any good?”. Towards what end can the new knowledge be used? or “Are there any applications for this new knowledge in our personal lives?, the society as a whole? With this activity we try to make a link between the classroom and everyday life, the classroom and society as a whole. With the elaborations on questions, investigations receive a purpose. And purpose is never value- free, but intricately linked to our ways of thinking, feeling and conceiving of ourselves. As Gowin has pointed out, “Value claims” and “Knowledge claims” ride in the same boat, but they are not the same passengers.

It would be appropriate at this stage to illustrate how subject matter can be elevated beyond facts and concepts to the value level by considering the topic: Simple Machines.

At Level I (Facts)

Students can be divided into groups and asked to

(a) make a list of the machines they have come across;

(b) collect information on these mechanical devices.

In the ensuing discussion some of the mechanical devices that may be consi-dered are wheel and axle, pulley tailoring machine, scissors, bicycle, windmill, crane, pump, electric generator, construction equipment, etc. and students can be made aware of the following.

· Machines are devices that do work.

· Machines are of different types depending on the task they perform.

· Machines are made up of a number of elements which work together in a complex way.

· All machines, however complex, are based on six types of simple machines, the level, the pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge and screw.

· Simple machine is a device used to transmit energy from one point to another.

· Machines are used to transform energy from one form to another.

At Level II (Concepts)

To illustrate the above facts to students and drive home the related concepts, experiences need to be provided to them. students can be asked—

· to cite examples of some of the jobs done in everyday life and in industry, and list the machines employed to do them more easily;

· to describe the laws and principles that are applicable in machines;

· to prepare working models to illustrate the usefulness of some simple machines;

·to give examples of machines to identify the parts and the jobs done by them;

·to identify alternatives to the parts and give reasons for the same.

Students can be taken to places where different machines are used like the textile mills, printing press, garment factory.

Using the examples given by them and demonstrations on inclined plane and pulley the following concepts can be arrived at to enable them to understand how machines work.

·A level is a rigid bar capable of rotating about a stationary point called the fulcrum.

·Levers are of three types: I order, II order and III order.

·A pulley is a wheel with a groove on the rim that turns readily about an axle and changes the direction of the force.

·An inclined plane is a device used to push a heavy load up a gentle slope instead of lifting it vertically.

At Level III (Values)

To take what was taught beyond levels I and II, to illustrate how machines have had a bearing on their lives, the following questions may be addressed to:

· How have machines affected your lives?

· What machines do you use at home?

· List the ways in which you can help people in your community to learn to use some simple machines for earning their livelihood.

· List the advantages of using machines.

· List the precautions that are to be taken while using machines.

· “Standardized parts are to be used in machines”, why?

Values addressed are:

· “Caring for others”, by reducing human labour whenever possible.

· Helpfulness

· Spirit of enquiry

· Sense of discrimination between good and bad.

Implications for the Teacher

Teachers involved in value inculcation through science should possess the following traits:

· Be able to identify values underlying the content they teach.

Act as role models by internalizing values and help students also internalize the same.

· Be able to analyze the needs of children, cultivate interest in science, motivate them and encourage them in the art of self-learning by becoming a partner in the process.

· Have an understanding of the art and science of developing human personality in all its aspects with emphasis on integration, harmony, truth, beauty and excellence.

· Acquire familiarity with new techniques of transacting the changing curriculum and appreciate the educational implications in the teaching-learning strategies.

· Have a cheerful disposition.

· Be willing to establish a close rapport with parents, community and NGOs working on a voluntary basis to promote values.

Teachers can raise whatever questions related to values but must exercise caution. They should be aware that they should not insist on one correct answer while discussing value issues, because then they will not be allowing students to search for their own values. Once students are used to ‘you’ questions and are capable of going beyond levels I and II, they will themselves start raising values questions. A meticulous planning and dexterous weaving of relevant value into the science taught is needed. What is important is that while the teachers make students aware of where they stand on value issues, they should do it in such a manner that it does not demand that every student lines up where he is.

Summary

We have argued for an approach to inculcate values in the context of science. Science is generally considered as a repository of human values fostering among other things commitment to truth, independence in observation and thought, free inquiry, free thought. The laws of science hold true everywhere in the world. The content and processes of science are inseparably linked with the whole gamut of value inculcation and value nurturing. We need to produce students of science with responsibility who are capable of grappling with the complexities of social issues. We do not need students who have a deep awareness of the value issues underlying their abundant knowledge. What we need is a focus on values. An effort should be made to plan curricula, write textbooks, organize co-curricular activities, plan projects, so that science is delivered a package helping one to develop values. Science teaching should be comprehensive. While inculcating values in the context of science, we should take care to see that we do not use science as a deliberate instrument or vehicle for promoting values. What we need to do, therefore, is to teach science properly to realize the value potential of science. We should encourage students to develop a frame of reference for science that has as its central organizing structure those values that give each of us the power to wonder, to explore and to discover.

Answer 2

Whether you are working in a sales organization or a factory or an R&D lab, you are also a part of a larger system of delivering value to customers. This end-to-end system that collaborates (at least in some fashion!) to deliver value to customers is called a Value Delivery System. The problem with such situations is that breakdowns and lack of alignment within the whole system can hinder you from optimizing the value that you create and deliver. The activity of improvement thus focuses on the whole system. In any VDS work, an early stage is in scoping out the system on which you are going to work. It can be soup-to-nuts stuff or can be constrained within a single organization. Questions to ask of anyone in the system include: Who do you deliver value to? How do they evaluate it? What is their current evaluation? Who delivers value to you? How do you evaluate it? What is your current evuation? It thus becomes a game of suppliers and customers, linking people and systems together. A neat trick in asking these questions is that you can match up what the suppliers and customers said: are perceptions the same? Usually not. With a little communication, there is scope for immediate improvements. Customers receive value every time they touch us or our products. This customer lifecycle has been characterized by the following stages, which spell the unforgettable word 'COILUSD': Choosing Ordering Installing Learning Using Supporting Disposing