Model Of Professional Ethics Development In Education For Pre-Service Teachers At Vnu University Of...

MODEL OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION FOR PRE SERVICE TEACHERS AT VNU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION Vu Phuong Lien, Do Thuy Linh (VNU University of Education) Abstract This study aims to get insights into development of professional ethics for pre service teachers at VNU University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam A survey was conducted on 270 students in the first and the second year to evaluate the reliability and correlation among 18 designed KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in each di[.]

FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS AT VNU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

Vu Phuong Lien, Do Thuy Linh

(VNU University of Education)

Abstract: This study aims to get insights into development of professional ethics for pre-service teachers at

VNU University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam A survey was conducted on 270 students in the first and the second year to evaluate the reliability and correlation among 18 designed KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in each different groups These KPIs were arranged to four groups of ethical training for individual teacher: political awareness, life style, professional expertise, and relationship with other objects We also referred Battistoni’s model of civically-oriented service learning program that include three essential components as intellectual understanding, civic skills and attitudes, and direct actions in schools and communities The results find that KPIs

in the same group have a good correlation coefficient and measuring the same content, and the arrangement of KPIs to different groups satisfied the reliability requirements 72.6% investigated students agreed to implement the subject of Professional Ethics for Educators during the students’ 04 academic years (08 semesters) and are organized in the form of blended learning with the flipped classroom model These results provide valuable information for efficient development of professional ethics for educators.

Keywords: professional ethics, pre-service teachers, key performance indicator.

1 INTRODUCTION

Education, both historically and contemporarily, is believed to be the key to improve the lives and success of people Every student deserves to have a quality education and excellent teachers in their classroom An essential component that constructs an admirable teacher is professional ethics Every profession needs to exist with a professional ethics to orientate the conduct of its members Professional ethics refers to the ethical standards that apply to members of a certain profession, such as doctors, nurses, attorneys, teachers, and social workers The important thing to remember is that these professions have their own set of service ideals and scientific training (Airaksinen, 2012)

Teaching is a unique among professions because of its moral nature Values are implied in the curriculum, the school environment, the educational activities and the teachers’ action These values may be displayed consciously or unintentionally when teachers do their educational practices, and have profound impact on the development of students’ identity (Sanger & Osguthorpe, 2013; Veugelers, 2010) Moral education plays a critical role in developing students’ virtues and personal worldviews and makes them contributive and responsible citizens in a modern complicated society Moral education is implemented within or outside the classroom explicitly or implicitly (Lien, 2021) Therefore, teaching and training for pre-service teachers is decisively important to develop their own and their future students’ strong moral character However, professional ethics courses are notably lacking from teacher education curricula, requiring them to go for research in other fields to help them with this aspect of teacher education practice (Warnick & Silverman, 2011)

There are a lot of controversies about how to perform ethics education for teachers, especially for pre-service teachers Pre-service teachers can receive moral education by stand-alone courses dedicated specifically to professional ethics for teachers focusing on discussion-based of real-world cases (Warnick

& Silverman, 2011) Discussion might be took place based on hypothetical moral dilemmas (Rest, 1992)

or realistic ethical dilemmas (K.A Strike, 1993) To discuss the importance of ethical dilemmas, Soltis (1986) stated:

Realistic vignettes depicting classroom situations in which ethical dilemmas arise can be used to sensitize future teachers to ethical issues found in the class regarding such concepts and principles as fairness, respect for persons, intellectual freedom, the rights of individuals, due process, and punishment (Soltis, 1986), p 3.

Others have argued that ethics education should involve formal professional codes of ethics, such

as the one established by the National Education Association (NEA) (Campbell, 2000; NEA, 2020; Rich, 1984)

The educator recognizes the magnitude of the responsibility inherent in the teaching process The desire for the respect and confidence of one’s colleagues, of students, of parents, and of the members

of the community provides the incentive to attain and maintain the highest possible degree of ethical conduct The Code of Ethics of the Education Profession indicates the aspiration of all educators and provides standards by which to judge conduct (NEA, 2020).

On the other hand, professional ethics education may also be viewed as an opportunity to learn about philosophical conceptions of ethics, which is a popular viewpoint among traditional philosophers The students are taught one or more ethical theories, and then taught to apply these theories to enlighten and resolve ethical dilemmas (Soltis, 1986)

Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages When facing the real situations, students need to include components of “moral dilemma discussion, case studies, personal reflection, or analytic journals in professional training program” (Schrader & practice, 1993) This mixed approach

is also supported by Strike and Soltis to combine flexibly ethical theory, case analysis, and the code

of ethics to build an ethical foundation, deliberative abilities, and analytic skills to make qualified and ethically decision (K Strike & Soltis, 2015) In this article, we used the combined approach to develop professional ethics of educators comprehensively for our pre-service teachers Furthermore, we used the terms of “ethics” and “moral” interchangeably as ethics refer to the codes of ethics and other rules/ regulation provided by an external source while morals refer to an individual’s own cognitive thinking, principles regarding right or wrong, and values

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a measuring tool that helps an organization establish and track progress toward its goals and objectives (Kamarudin & Sarkawi, 2019) KPI have been using

to a great extent in order to investigate domains of the excellent teachers (Amzat, 2017) or set up a preliminary framework in basic education (Wu & Chen, 2012) KPIs should be related to the University’s core values, reasonable, and consistent It should be based on a broad strategic value that includes both tangible and intangible components, and it should be in harmony with the code of ethics (Kamarudin & Sarkawi, 2019) In this research, we use KPI to investigate students’ activities according the standards

of knowledge, skills, and attitudes

2 METHODS

The content in the Professional Ethics in Education

The content and scope are included in the Professional Ethics in Education so that they can be applied to not only teachers but also individuals working in the field of educaton, our research has studied, systematized and compared the contents given in the Teachers’ Code of Ethics (Moet,2008);

in the Teachers’ Code of Ethics and Practice (Ministry of Education and Employment, Malta 2012), in the Ethical standards for teacher (Van Buren School District, USA) and in the Ethical standards for the teaching profession (Ontario of College of Teachers, Canada)

VNU University of Education is the first university in Vietnam that has been implementing a separate subject of Professional Ethics in Education for pre-service teachers The academic year of 2020 – 2021 is also the first year of students learning about a whole new approach In this subject, the output standards are concretized into 18 KPIs and are categorized into 04 groups of ethical training field for each individual educator:

(1) Group of senses of compliance with rules, regulations, and participate in socio-political activities and union activities: KPI 1, 2, 3, 4

KPI 1: Complete a quiz on documents and laws related to professional ethics

KPI 2: Participating in a political learning session

KPI 3: Participate in 02 activities organized by the delegation of the University of Education/ Vietnam National University; collective consciousness, striving for the common good.

KPI 4: Participate in at least 01 of the following activities: social activities, volunteer activities, volunteering, clubs inside and outside the school.

(2) Group of learning awareness and learning results: KPI 13,14,15,16,17,18

KPI 13: Participating fully and responsibly in the activities of the course classes, certified by the lecturer in charge of the course classes, is eligible for the final exam; participating fully and responsibly

in faculty activities: pedagogical skills training, online and face-to-face teaching, etc.

KPI 14: Strictly and fully implementing rules in exams and tests

KPI 15: Achieve the prescribed academic average and number of credits without academic warning KPI 16: Attend at least 02 sessions of support, advice and guidance at the internship/educational institution

KPI 17: Write a summary report: record the experiences and values received after each semester; develop and implement a plan to practice personal values, show the will to overcome difficulties in the next year

KPI 18: Write a summary report: gather the products in eight semesters and develop the next plan

to practice professional ethics

(3) Group of lifestyles: KPI 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

KPI 8: On duty of cleaning for at least 3 sessions/semester: Classroom/laboratory, school campus,… KPI 9: Perform at least 01 activity to improve the environment: At least plant 01 tree or decorate the classroom/shared campus space,

KPI 10: Costumes and jewelry when performing tasks must be neat, polite, suitable for the educational environment, not offensive and distract the attention of learners.

KPI 11: Participate in at least 01 activity to propagate the manifestations of a civilized lifestyle and criticize the manifestations of a backward and selfish lifestyle.

KPI 12: Have a healthy lifestyle, do not use stimulants, and do not have bad talk; use social media for a positive purpose

(4) Group of relationships with relevant objects: KPI 5, 6, 7

KPI 5: Watch, read and share your feelings about inspirational stories and movies with the value

of love, respect, tolerance, sharing, helping people

KPI 6: Play the role of handling at least 01 real-life situation relating to teacher’s works, based on the principle of ensuring fairness and not offending learners

KPI 7: Completing a training course on emotion management skills when encountering conflict situations

Ethical training model using Battistoni’s hypothesis

There were six moral education models which are complimentary in helping students develop their morality comprehensively as Rationale building Model, Consideration Model, Value Clarification Model, Value Analysis Model, Social Action Model, and Cognitive Moral Development Model (Hersh, 1980) The Rationale building Model (Shaver & Strong, 1982) concentrates on defining and judging values as well as developing critical reflection while the Consideration Model (McPhail, 1975) emphasizes on people life-style of living for self and others The Value Clarification Model (Raths, 1966) encourages students to raise self-awareness and self-caring rather than solving moral problems The Value Analysis Model (Hersh, 1980) helps students promote a highly systematic step-by-step process of making moral decisions The Social Action Model (Newmann, 1975) aims to effect the desired social change by actively engaging in various citizen concern programs The overarching goal of the Cognitive Moral Development Model (Kohlberg, 1975) is to assist students in thinking more clearly and comprehensively about moral issues

In short, in order to develop efficiently ethics awareness of teachers in general and pre-service teachers in particular, we see a similarity between above-mentioned models and Battistoni’s model of civically-oriented service learning program (Battistoni, 1997) Service-learning is increasingly being utilized to train pre-service teachers in United States However, the ethical foundations of service vary widely, and service–learning poses a range of challenges for new instructors, showing the moral and political character of teaching and service Service-learning provides delivers to teachers real dilemmas

to provide them opportunity to recognize teaching as a political and moral endeavor that is not without conflict (Donahue, 1999)

There are three essential components in democratic civic education as: intellectual understanding, civic skills and attitudes, and direct action in schools and communities (Battistoni, 1997) We suggest assigning six above-mentioned moral models to three fields:

Besides, we have assigned 18 KPIs of ethical education for pre-service educators to fulfill three

crucial components in Ethical training model using Battistoni’s hypothesis

The objective of our study is analyzing the correlation between KPIs determined to evaluate the ability to implement the professional ethical standards of educators in different groups We use the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient on SPSS 22.0 software through self-assessment of the need to implement the KPIs for developing Professional Ethics in Education on 270 students in the first and second years of the University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

3 RESULTS

Intellectual understanding

The main purpose of education is “to train the mind” and develop cognitive thinking A “thinking citizen” is able to apply variety of methods, theories, and models to the real word and evaluate the facts By confronting concepts and theories with the actual realities in the world around them, students’ capacity to evaluate critically is strengthened

KPI 1, 2, 5, 17, 18 were designed to encourage students to learn and master the value system, culture, and professional ethics in the field of education by watching valuable movies or reading classic works of poetry and literature relating to teacher’s responsibilities They are also strictly required to study about system of laws/codes of ethics, standards, and guidelines which are relevant to educators (teachers, educational management, educational supervision, and educational researchers) Students need to master the codes of ethics for Vietnamese educators established by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training Instructors would guide and provide documents, stories, movies, etc., while students take research and discuss in pairs/in groups/for the whole class and actively complete KPIs during the learning and practice process Students need to take a quiz about laws/codes of ethics, standards, and guidelines related to educators’ professional ethics

Table 1 Reliability value of KPIs in intellectual understanding field

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s

Alpha N of Items

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Mean

if Item

Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation Cronbach’s Alpha if Item Deleted

Civic skills and attitudes

The NEA code (NEA, 2020), like most codes of ethics, is a list of do’s and don’ts (mostly don’ts) with no intellectual basis for the code’s fundamental ethical principles It is conceivable that the knowledge gained will be difficult to use in reality (Soltis, 1986) Students need to embed these codes

of ethics in community activities They need to show a positive attitude towards process of learning and exams as well as maintaining healthy lifestyle and habits (KPI 10, 12, 13, 14, 15) At VNU University of Education, each student must join a training course on emotion management skills when encountering conflict situation (KPI 7) After that, they need to discuss in groups and propose solutions for at least one real-life ethical dilemmas based on the principle of obeying the law and ensuring fairness and not offending learners (KPI 6) The practical experience students gain through discuss activities allows students to define and reset their standard of judgment, as well as alter their political judgments in response to the reality they see and interact with (Battistoni, 1997)

Table 2 Reliability value of KPIs in civic skills and attitudes Reliability Statistics

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Mean if

Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Corrected Item-Total Correlation Cronbach’s Alpha if Item Deleted

Direct action in schools and communities

Providing pre-service students opportunity to experience at the field facility is quite challenging because it may be tempting due to constraints on time, energy and funds However, direct involvement provides the best potential of encouraging students to participate in their communities constantly while also increasing their enthusiasm in studying academic skills and material The ethical learning programs must develop comprehensively the cognitive, civic attitudes and skills of the pre-service teachers as well as providing them chance to take action, both individually and together with members of one’s community (Battistoni, 1997) We have designed KPI 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 16 to require students at VNU University of Education to actively participate in tasks/projects/campaigns in the learning environment,

in the practice environment, and in the community and social environment, especially; pre-service teachers would have a practicum period of 2 – 3 years in schools from kindergarten to high schools

Table 3 Reliability value of KPIs in direct action in schools and communities Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s

Item-Total Statistics

Scale Mean if Item

Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted Total CorrelationCorrected Item- Cronbach’s Alpha if Item Deleted

In summary, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is over 0.8 indicates that KPIs in the same group have

a good correlation coefficient and measuring the same content The results show that the arrangement

of KPIs in three groups as: the intellectual understanding field, the civic skills and attitudes field, the direct action in schools and communities, has a great reliability In all KPIs, the correlation with the total variable is greater than 0.3, and none the KPIs reduce the reliability of the assessment results

Professional ethics education in the fields of ethics training

Based on analysis of abundant of documents related to professional ethics of Vietnamese educators published by the authority, we believe that the professional ethics of educators is expressed through 04 areas: political awareness, life style, professional expertise, and relationship with other objects

Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient analyses of all 04 KPIs groups are in the range of 0.733 to 0.845 and satisfy the reliability requirements

Table 4 Reliability value of KPIs in 04 fields of ethics training

KPI group

Cronbach’s Alpha

Senses of compliance with rules, regulations,

and participate in socio-political activities and

Implementation of subject of professional ethics for educators at VNU University of Education

Development of professional ethics for pre-service teachers is indispensably crucial During training period at university, with the experience of the KPIs of professional ethics for educators through either hypothetical or real ethical situation, pre-service teachers would have great opportunity to practice, orient their career, strengthen their faith and love for the profession

The model of professional ethics for educator training at VNU University of Education is organized during the bachelor’s program This model is a combination of learning activities, quality training activities with pedagogical practice and professional skills training in university and in high school environments Especially, there was the participation and orientation of collective activities of the Youth Union, the Student Political Affairs Department of VNU University of Education

In the academic year 2019 – 2020, the subject of Professional Ethics for Educators in integrated into the bachelor’s degree program Through the module, students will understand and master the value systems, culture, and professional ethics in the field of education; systematize legal documents, standards and guidelines related to professional ethics for educators (teachers, educational administrators, educational consultants and researchers); practice to handle real or hypothetical situations in different conditions in professional activities From there, pre-service teachers – future educators – would always love, respect, and be happy with their career; show responsibility and tolerance for learners; be honest and cooperative with colleagues, students’ parents

72.6% students agree to implement the subject of Professional Ethics for Educators during the students’ 04 academic years (08 semesters) and are organized in the form of blended learning, with the flipped classroom model It is managed on Learning Management System (LMS) platform of the University of Education In each semester, students would actively plan and implement, complete certain KPIs which correspond to cognitive characteristics and learning programs Students have the opportunity

to practice a number of values and life skills towards forming the standard qualities of educators On the other hands, the instructors need to organize a face-to-face or online meeting with students in the class

at least 03 sessions in week 1, week 7, and week 24/25 Instructors also would set up learning modules and interactive groups on LMS platform and other channels such as Zalo, Facebook,…

IV CONCLUSION

Education about moral qualities in general and moral qualities for educators in particular is an urgent task in pedagogical training that meets the context and requirements of comprehensive and fundamental innovation of education according to Resolution 29 The effectiveness of this work depends

on two important factors: the education and training work of the University and the self-education and self-training activities of the students In which, self-education and self-training are internal forces that play a decisive role The rigorous training of morality, knowledge, health, aesthetics and professional knowledge today will be a factor in forming and fostering personality, quality and capacity for teachers

in the future

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