Author(s): S Neogi, G Chatterjee

Abstract:
The purpose of the present study was to assess the personal values of the higher secondary students and to identify the importance of classroom learning environment and the different curricular programmes in this regard. The sample comprised of the class XII students of the West Bengal Board of Higher Secondary Education. Cluster sampling technique was used to select 12 schools and the size of sample was 763. An Information schedule was used to identify the curricular programmes carried out in schools, and standardized questionnaires were used to assess classroom learning environment and personal values. In this Correlational research, Descriptive Statistics, Correlation, Regression Analysis and One-way ANOVA were computed in SPSS - 17. The findings revealed that the majority of the students had high preference for Democratic, Economic, Hedonistic and Family prestige Values. The correlation and regression analysis indicated that significant correlation of learning environment exists only with two personal values - Knowledge and Hedonistic. The relative contribution of the learning environment in predicting these criterion variables is significant, though it is very low. ANOVA results suggest that the different curricular programmes for teaching personal values have significant impact only on religious and social values. So the study implies that more concerted efforts in conducting the curricular programmes for value education are necessary. For this purpose the steps suggested by Burrett and Rusnak (1993) [3] have been discussed.