Implementing and Assessing the Ethics Standards
Post submitted by Paula Mirk, M.Ed. Mirk has worked at whole child partner the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) since 1996 and currently oversees the IGE education department’s many initiatives, including the Ethical Literacy expanding community of schools.
Ethics is a great opportunity to explore learning without the burden of standardized tests, since (so far) the topic is considered a difficult one to measure in discrete bubbles on an answer sheet. So, this dimension of our schools and curriculum is relatively safe from the assessment wag-or-dog controversy other subjects present. Take advantage of this opportunity! In any class, in any subject, teachers can feel free to explore their students’ values-based reasoning skills without worrying about “covering the material.” The more they do so, the more they will find that such exploration deepens understanding and contributes to content, rather than slowing things down or feeling like an indulgent “add on.”
Use these basics to examine any topic in your curriculum: honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, and
