Enrique Gervilla Castillo´s study, of the Department of Pedagogy of the UGR, shows the strength of schoolteachers´ affective, moral and ecological values Instrumental, religious and intellectual values have been relegated to the last position in young people’s chart, according to the test passed to the students of Pedagogy and Education between the years 2000 and 2003.
Last year there were 25% men and 75% women. The economical level is medium-high. Most of them do not have imitation models, they are indifferent to politics and those who are interested on it are on the left or on the centre left. Another outstanding feature of the characteristics of this population is that they do not need high marks to enter the Faculty f Education Sciences (57 % between 5 and 6). If they do not study what they want to, according to Gervilla, “they will not be very interested in such an important profession as educator”.
To carry out the study, ten groups of types of values (affective, intellectual, religious…) were formed. Students were offered 25 words to value them. “In all the cases, it has been observed a contempt to institutional values”, the author points out. This is, they want love but not marriage, religion but not the church. As for aesthetic values, they say they like dancing and music, but they show less sympathy for words such as painting or architecture.
That related to intellectual values is especially significant, as they concern educators so much. They do appreciate knowledge but they show indifference or contempt to words such as science, library, notes, lecture or assessment. “They want to know more but they do not like the way we teach. Thay are losing the taste of knowledge”, the teacher of the Faculty of Education Sciences says. This centre do not changes students´ values, according to subjects´ evolution, who were passed the same test three years in a row.
The idea of teaching in values is on the rise, according to Gervilla, but it has to be put into practice. “Companies are more and more searching valuable persons instead of professionals”. After carrying out this study in faculties for future schoolteachers, they intend to extend it this year to other centres of the UGR, such as Law and Sciences, and the University of Jaén.
b>Reference: Prof. Enrique Gervilla Castillo.
Phone number: 958 253496 – 958 243758.
E-mail: egervilla@supercable.es
