It all depends on the values

In huge letters on the wall it says: «I take care of myself. I take care of you. I take care of my surroundings. We travel together ... and tackle challenges together.» This is the code of the Wetzikon-Robenhausen primary school in the canton of Zurich, which replaces the previous school rules.

«We do away with many rules and the associated sanctions and focus on values such as mindfulness, cooperation, relationships and appreciation, which are important to us as a school community,» says primary school teacher Bettina Abt. In everyday life, this means, for example, that children resolve a conflict in a dialogue as independently as possible instead of being punished.

It is very important to parents in Germany that children learn values at school, as these influence social relationships, daily behaviour, our well-being and social cohesion. The values of tolerance and respect are at the top of parents' wish list - and are seen as even more important than learning the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. At least that is what the majority of the 7,700 respondents who took part in the study «Which school does Switzerland want?» conducted by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland said.

The ten basic human values

Thomas Oeschger is not surprised by this result. «Until children start primary school, it is primarily the family environment that shapes values education. When children start school, the school is increasingly tasked with teaching values that are considered important in society - and parents and guardians obviously see it that way too.» Oeschger is working at the Institute of Educational Sciences at the University of Basel on a long-term study on the development of values and value formation in schools. The aim is to find out which key factors influence the formation of values in the school environment over time and how children's values develop in the process.

At school, the values that characterise life together become more important for children.

Thomas Oeschger, education researcher

In a first step, the approximately 1,200 primary school children surveyed were presented with various picture cards. They show, for example, a king on his throne, which symbolises the value of «power». Or a child who has had an accident on their bike and is helped back on their feet by another child - symbolising the value of «benevolence».

«We have derived these situations from a value model that applies worldwide,» says Thomas Oeschger. He is referring to the model of the Israeli values researcher Shalom H. Schwartz, which contains the following ten basic human values: Universalism (understanding, tolerance), benevolence, tradition, conformity, security, power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation and self-determination.

What values do children have?

The majority of children aged between five and seven opted for goodwill as the most important value for them, i.e. that people close to them should be well. «It was also important to them that they felt safe in their environment,» says Thomas Oeschger. The teachers surveyed also stated that goodwill was at the top of their personal, value-based educational goals. And according to Oeschger, the curriculum for Swiss schools - and therefore what society expects - is also largely in line with the survey results of the children and teachers.

«These similarities mean that the values that the children bring with them from their families are further consolidated at school,» says Thomas Oeschger. After one school year, the research team from Basel surveyed the primary school children again. This showed that values such as benevolence and security gained in importance, while values such as power or achievement, which had already been at the bottom of the list when values were first prioritised, continued to lose importance. «Children from all socio-economic backgrounds come together at school, including single children. For all of them, values that characterise life together are becoming more important,» says Oeschger.

Leading by example and being a role model

The question remains as to how schools actually proceed when teaching values. At Wetzikon-Robenhausen primary school, it was the teaching staff who determined the most important values for the school. This was followed by a parents' evening to inform the guardians and two school days on which the children were shown what the values mean.

«We did it in a very playful way. For example, when it came to appreciation, the children wrote down things they appreciated about each other and then played snap-snap with them,» says Bettina Abt. In future, the focus will be on one value in each school year, which will then be taken up in various subjects.

Children must first learn to recognise their feelings so that they can implement values at all.

Matthias Rüst, pedagogical director Momento Swiss

«In addition to this explicit communication in the classroom, teachers also convey values primarily through their implicit attitude, i.e. by leading by example and being a role model,» says Thomas Oeschger. This leading by example is particularly important because «values» is a very theoretical and ambiguous term.

«I lived in Colombia for a few years, where there was a Day of Tolerance, for example. Pupils then painted posters and wrote poems. But I doubt that they became more tolerant as a result,» says Matthias Rüst. He is the managing director and educational director of Momento Swiss. The non-profit organisation offers mindfulness programmes for socio-emotional learning and relationship building for teachers and schoolchildren.

Perceive and express emotions better

«It's about strengthening key skills such as self-awareness, self-control, relationship skills and responsible decision-making,» says Matthias Rüst. He is convinced of this: Only if students have these life skills will they be able to put values into practice.

«In theory, the schoolchildren know exactly what the applicable values and rules of behaviour at school are. They know that you shouldn't disrupt lessons, for example. But the question is why they do it anyway,» says Matthias Rüst. The Momento programme aims to enable pupils to better perceive and express their own emotions. According to Rüst, teachers in turn have the task of taking these emotions seriously and showing them ways to express them.

He gives the following example: «If a child starts teasing their classmates after two hours of maths, it's not necessarily a sign of disrespect. The child probably just doesn't want to sit still any more. If their self-awareness is trained, they may be able to recognise this urge to move themselves and then communicate it in a different way than by disturbing them. And ideally, agreed strategies such as movement breaks or short games are then available. Respectful behaviour is thus maintained.»