Transforming value education by determining the relationships between developing human values and cognitive skills

Numerous recent developments worldwide have raised awareness of the need to rethink public education and closely integrate cognitive skills and human values. Fake news flooded the social media during society-changing events such as Brexit and the American election 2016, but new evidence indicates that young people cannot distinguish between fake news or even ads and a news story. That means teaching the ability to judge and evaluate information is essential. While value education has traditionally been a core element of the school curriculum, as reflected for example in the specification of ‘British values’ by the Department for Education in 2014, value development has long been considered primarily an issue of social and emotional maturation. Accordingly, value education in schools typically happens outside of the core curriculum with its ‘cognitive’ subjects such as maths, literacy, and sciences. However, new studies show that values and cognitive skills develop alongside and mutually affect one another: The higher children’s IQ and logical reasoning skills, the more differentiated is their understanding of values. In turn, a good understanding of values can be beneficial for cognitive development.
This PhD project will longitudinally explore how values and cognitive skills develop in childhood and adolescence and how both are affected by various factors of the educational environment. Closely collaborating with schools and practitioners, the PhD student will then develop and evaluate training sessions, workshops, and teaching materials that integrate best practice. The project will also use state-of-the-art neuroscience techniques to examine neural bases of these developmental effects.
The supervisory team is truly multidisciplinary; it is composed of Dr Anna Doering who has strong expertise in value development in childhood and adolescence, Professor Juha Silvanto who leads the cross-departmental Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, and Dr Mark Gardner who is an experienced cognitive psychologist and Director of Learning and Teaching in our faculty.
There is scope for the PhD student to adopt the project according to the PhD student’s background and career goals. The student will take part in the University Graduate School and Faculty Doctoral Research Development Programme; in addition to these training programmes and the subject specific skills listed above, the student will gain important transferable skills (e.g. presentation skills, scientific writing and employability skills) to aid in future career progression.