Values in education: A challenge for teacher educators

Abstract

The (growing) political, social and scientific attention to the moral aspects of teaching also concerns teacher education.This article reports an exploratory study into the preparation of student teachers for moral education. The designing of goals, program parts and teaching and learning methods for a part of the first year curriculum of a teacher education institute for primary education is described. Next the teacher educators who carried out the curriculum and the student teachers who participated in it, were asked whether they recognized the moral aspects of the curriculum as designed. Finally, we tested the effects of the curriculum on the learning of the student teachers, using a pre- and post- test. The results of the study evoke, among others, the conclusion that more attention is needed to the implicit and unplanned aspects of preparing students teachers for moral education. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.