Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education The Final Report of ...

the Cluster Coordinator to keep all participants
informed about the work, to share outcomes,
and to provide all participants with ongoing
support and key research documents. This
communication protocol kept the project ‘alive’
for all and maintained the impetus for ongoing
professional learning. Emphasis was placed on
the development of a common language and
understanding of values education, as well as
on teachers modelling strategies to one another
in classrooms.
‘Circle time’, a group activity in which the class
sits down together with the purpose of furthering
understanding of themselves and one another,
was used across the cluster to foster values-based
discussions between students and teachers. The
activity increased trust among students, and
between students and teachers. Importantly, the
circle time process respected each individual as
they made a contribution to the group without
being interrupted by anyone. Parents (or carers),
teachers and students in the Melbourne Eastern
Region Values Cluster commented on the success
of circle time in creating a more respectful,
positive and inclusive classroom culture. Students
seemed to value the power of a safe place
outside the classroom as well. While on a school
excursion, a teacher observed the following event:
All of a sudden they just…formed a circle by
themselves…we were watching them, ‘cause we
didn’t know what they were doing…then they
started playing ‘duck duck goose’. And the whole
class, everyone, was involved. There wasn’t one
person left out…and they all just had fun. There
was no arguing, no nothing. And when we called
them up, they were really disappointed because
they…didn’t have time to finish their game. So
for me, that was my most significant change.
The whole class getting along and organising
themselves…It was just fantastic for me to see,
and also for the parent [attending the excursion].
She was pretty blown away by what she saw.
As teachers across the cluster observed the power
of circle time to create a more engaged and
happier class environment, they began to use the
tool at different times of the day in a more flexible
and creative way. Rather than use circle time only
at the end of the day, or to deal with a particular
issue, one teacher now uses it at the beginning of
the day, noting, ‘I had no idea it was going to be
such a great settling tool, it really sets the climate
for the day’.
One of the interesting outcomes of teachers
looking closely at their practice through a values
lens was the genuine sense of transformation
many reported. This often related to taking risks
in their practice. For example, one teacher in the
cluster commented on a colleague’s decision to
talk about his own feelings and insecurities as a
way of creating a safe and trusting environment
for students to talk about their feelings:
The way he chooses to do it is to either tell a story
at the beginning…or use a book that’s highlighting
feelings, and then he starts with how he is feeling…
[and] the sharing has been so much deeper. For
example, the teacher saying, ‘I’ve felt disappointed
when I used to be always chosen last for the
sporting team’…you could see the kids just look and
think, ‘Wow! That’s something he’s sharing that we
didn’t know and wouldn’t have thought he would
have’. So the teachers themselves…in sharing more
deeply [have] made a great impact on the kids
sharing deeply too.
Students also spoke about circle time in a very
positive manner. The circle time process has
clearly allowed students to take control of
classroom issues such as bullying and discuss
them in a solution-oriented way. This increased
student agency was an impact reported across
the clusters. As one student put it:
Well, at my school, since we pretty much did the
circle time, social circles, more often, the teachers
have known their students better. Like there was
this incident where we were having social circle
and some girls came up to us and said that they
had been bullied by one boy constantly. So we
decided that the social circle would just be about
102 Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The Final Report of the Values in Action Schools Project