by Rosa Tham, Singapore
  
On Tuesday 17 July 2001, in the Wattle Room of Balayana Conference Centre, Adelaide, 58 educators, in groups of 6-7 people, swapped recipes in the midst of laughter, happiness and camaraderie on baking a world cake that can bring peace and love to the whole world. The groups drew pictures of round cakes, multi-layered cakes topped with icing, etc with ingredients such as happiness, peace, love, respect, tolerance, unity, oneness, responsibility, joy and humour. While this peace value activity was designed for children aged 3-7 years, these educators experienced the activity just as relevant to them too. International LVE trainer, Ruth Liddle led the 4-day non-residential Educators' Training workshop with co-trainer Sally Segal from Melbourne. The training was partly sponsored by Asia-Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education (APNIEVE). 28 educators from Singapore joined their Australian counterparts to explore how to create and sustain a values-based classroom environment and develop teaching methods that will enable students to feel safe, loved, respected, understood and valued in the process of their learning in school.

Ruth and Sally brought the participants through the peace, respect and freedom values activities using a variety of teaching methods such as visualisation, reflection, discussion, expression on paper like drawing, story-telling values-based songs. Each participant explored and gained insights into their own understanding of those values. The educators recognised the need to appreciate and understand what those values mean to them before they can teach them. The participants found how easy it is to use the manuals to teach the 12 values. Participants experimented with active listening and conflict resolution skills. In particular, the educators felt that the conflict resolution method helps students to be truthful without fearing punishment. The methodology shifts the power balance from the teachers to the "warring" students themselves. It enables the students to be self-responsible to problem solve conflicts with their classmates. One educator felt that this shift in ownership and responsibility would have a profound impact on discipline and on society as a whole in future. On the last day, the educators commended Ruth's teaching style as values-based, that she "walked her talk. She was fully present with the participants' needs and fulfilled their "wish" by adjusting the programme schedule to allow educators more time for sharing their teaching experiences and to network. She included ideas and input from the participants, encouraged discussion and sharing of experiences during the plenary sessions, thus enriching the learning. Sally's warm, quiet, calm and gentle manner was personable and participants approached her for advice for their classroom problems. The mix of Australian and Singaporean nationalities and different teaching backgrounds enabled the educators to learn different ways to deliver lessons. All participants would like to implement Living Values in their schools. Singapore educators were encouraged by Ruth's advice to implement the LVE programme one step at a time in their schools. Throughout the workshop, participants' spirits were high. At the certificate presentation ceremony, APNIEVE Vice President (for programmes) Ms Joy de Leo received feedback that the workshop was "fantastic", "wonderful", "terrific", "marvellous" and "great". These superlative words were apt expressions of a successful and enriching LVE Educators' Training workshop.