Desarrollo y Evaluacion de Folletos Para Ensenar la Clase de Etica y Valores en la Institucion Educativa Agropecuaria Adventista del Llano (Instival), Colombia
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Gonzalez Oscar 
Published: June 2023

Problem Colombia’s educational system currently requires the teaching of a course called Educación Ética y en Valores Humanos [Education in Ethics and Human Values] in all institutions providing elementary and high school education. For the teaching of this course, the Seventh-day Adventist Agricultural Education Institute of the Plains (INSTIVAL, by its Spanish acronym) does not have its own support material in harmony with the educational philosophy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This situation has created the need to design, implement, and evaluate booklets to be used when teaching this course from sixth grade to eleventh grade. Purpose The purpose of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate textbook-type booklets to teach the ethics and values course in grades sixth trough eleventh at INSTIVAL, in Colombia. Methodology This research project belongs to the discipline of applied theology, and its object of study is the teaching of ethics and values. After establishing the basic elements of this research project, an analysis of the subject was undertaken in the Bible and the writings of Ellen White, as well as in contemporary literature. A careful analysis of the immediate context completed the theoretical platform for the design, implementation, and evaluation of booklets to be used when teaching the course of Ethics and Values in grades sixth through eleventh at INSTIVAL. The McCornick and James (1997) model of curricular evaluation served as a guide for assessing the results of the project. Results This research project resulted in the creation and implementation of a series of guiding booklets to be used when teaching the course of Ethics and Values at INSTIVAL. The material was received with satisfaction by the course teacher, the academic coordinator, and several visiting teachers. The official assessment by the President’s Office in INSTIVAL indicates that the booklets have “provided for the need we had” as an institution (Cely, 2017). Every one of the 490 students who participated in the project in 2013, 2014 and 2015 received a copy of the booklet assigned for his or her level, and the Institution’s internal assessment of the booklets indicates it was greatly beneficial (Fernández, 2017). Direct observation indicated that many students received the material with satisfaction and, very often, some of them even advanced beyond the course requirements. The booklets were adopted by the institution’s administration for the years 2016 and 2017, which suggests they continue to be useful. Conclusions The results of the implementation of this project indicate that the creation and implementation of study materials to be used when teaching the course of Ethics and Values resulted beneficial for INSTIVAL and that the materials could be useful for other Adventist institutions. The results of this project also indicate that it is indeed possible for an institution to create its own teaching materials and for such materials to enjoy acceptance and to be effective.