Die waarde-oriëntering van leerders in sekondêre skole

Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.This study focuses on the identification of didactic guidelines for presenting values education in secondary schools. The studied literature sends a clear message that values education is of cardinal importance in education, teaching and training. In 2000 the National Department of Education of South Africa assembled a task team to identify a set of values in particular relevant to education and training. In the report Manifesto on Values Education and Democracy (DOE, 2001) six core values are singled out as of primary importance to the new dispensation in South Africa: equality, equal rights, tolerance, multilingualism, transparency, accountability, and social responsibility. The Report focuses only on national, political and social values, however. From research performed by Rens (2005), Hattingh (1999) en Bagarette (1995), it is clear that an individual needs to be educated as a holistic being and all life values thus need to be addressed integratively . A literature study was undertaken to clarify the concepts values, value orientation and values education, and also to determine how adolescents experience values education. Consequently, different values education programmes currently implemented in foreign countries were analysed . It was found that the 'Cornerstone-waardes" programme of John Heenan, applied in New Zealand, could reasonably easily be adapted for the South African context. From the discussion of the curriculating process as applicable to values education, didactic guidelines could be formulated for values education in South African schools. To identify the current orientation to values as manifested by learners, teachers and school principals in South Africa, the values questionnaire compiled by Vreken and Rens (2001) for research on the values orientation of university learners, was adapted and completed by the population involved in this study. Principals were subjected to partly-structured interviews to gain their opinions on values education in schools. Interviews on possible guidelines for values education in South Africa were also conducted by e-mail with international experts. Since the primary aim of the study was to determine the values orientation of secondary school learners and to recommend didactic guidelines for values education, the aim was mainly attained by means of the empirical study. Noteworthy is, however, that there is no symmetry between learners' views on important values and those that the Department of Education finds it necessary to be promoted.Doctora