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

Palmerston Values Cluster
Northern Territory
Living and Growing Our Values
Participating schools
• Durack Primary School
• Gray Primary School
• Moulden Park Primary
• Bakewell Primary School
Cluster Coordinator: Ms Sue Beynon, Gray Primary School, Darwin
Deputy Coordinator: Ms Jo Wynn, Durack Primary School, Darwin
University Advisor: Ms Ruth Wallace, Charles Darwin University
The project
The Palmerston Values Cluster includes four
diverse primary schools in Palmerston City,
twenty kilometres south of Darwin. The schools
comprise significant populations of Indigenous
students, students from non-English speaking
backgrounds and children of Defence and
other service personnel. All schools identified
values education as a priority in their school
improvement plans, and there are a range of
programs in use in schools such as Restorative
Justice, Friendly Schools and Families, You Can Do
It, and the Families and Schools Together program.
The cluster sought to establish a professional
learning community of teachers to implement
and explicitly embed values into literacy
curriculum, with a specific emphasis on
narrative storytelling. Sixteen teachers attended
a values education professional learning day to
inform their teaching practices. Dr Grace Sarra
(Queensland University of Technology) delivered
the session, which focused on seven techniques
for teaching human values. These techniques
included the use of quotes, mindmaps, story,
music, activities that reinforced values learning
using games, creative visualisation and silent
sitting. Dr Sarra continued to provide support to
the cluster throughout the life of the project.
Dr Sarra also worked with the Far North
Queensland Cluster.
The Palmerston Values Cluster decided to focus
on the values of respect and responsibility,
and to build values-rich pedagogies using the
seven teaching techniques. Students undertook
interschool and intraschool experiences and
activities designed to develop their understanding
of these values and how to enact them in their
lives. Their understanding was strengthened
and extended through class-based projects with
real outcomes within the school community.
The activities involved members of the wider
community through storytelling and other
activities. Parents were invited into the schools
more often and more purposefully as a result
of the values project. Indigenous perspectives
became a focus through storytelling by
Indigenous parents.
Teachers across the cluster observed a range of
positive impacts from the explicit teaching of
values. Once students had a deeper understanding
of the chosen values, they began to self-manage,
self-monitor and self-modify their behaviours
over time. Teachers felt that the sustained and
consistent use of the seven teaching techniques
allowed students vital reflection time. They
needed this time to see the connections between
their new understanding of values concepts and
how to connect that new knowledge to their
104 Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The Final Report of the Values in Action Schools Project