Values Education in the Two-Year Colleges. ERIC Digest.

Overview & Synopsis

Many college mission statements convey the importance of citizenship education to prepare future leaders. However, values education often remains, at best, peripheral to the community college curriculum. This digest provides an examination of the classical and current approaches to community college values education. According to the digest, classical approaches to values education encompass techniques from the Values Clarification Approach to Kohlberg's stages of moral development. The digest also cites Bok, who suggests that instructors should take greater care to direct classroom discussion that will engage students in confronting and resolving ethical dilemmas. Current examples include models of values education delivered by three community colleges in different parts of the country. For example, in Broome Community College (NY), new requirements for the associate's degree include courses in Communicating Effectively, Acting Civically, Thinking Globally and Cross-Culturally, Thinking Critically, and Reasoning Ethically. At St. Vincent's College (CT), a task force was convened to assure that competency-based learning experiences related to ethical and critical thinking and decision making were provided across the curriculum. (AF)