Understand & Discover Your Core Values

How Your Core Values Show Up in the Classroom

Sep 12, 2024

Why Core Values Matter

Taking the time to identify your core values is not just a personal exercise—it’s the foundation for a thriving classroom. Your core values influence everything from your teaching methods and strategies to the bonds you forge with your students. This process is the first step in recognizing both the strengths and areas for growth in your practice, helping you make intentional changes that align with your vision. Ultimately, this will strengthen your pedagogy, from lesson planning to building meaningful relationships, and fostering a classroom culture rooted in your core values. By doing so, you’ll help students succeed both academically and personally.

Embarking on the Journey to Identify Your Core Values

As you begin this process of identifying your core values, you are defining who you are as a teacher. These values will serve as guiding principles that shape your approach to instruction, relationships, and classroom culture. They influence every aspect of your teaching, from how you plan lessons to how you connect with students. While this process requires self-awareness and introspection, it is essential for creating an environment where students thrive both academically and socially.

Below are four key components designed to help you uncover your core values, guiding you through reflection on the principles that shape your teaching. To provide further support, we’ve also included a supplemental guide, offering additional questions and examples of core values to deepen your exploration.

1. Guiding Principles

Your guiding principles are the non-negotiable beliefs that influence every decision you make as a teacher. These values serve as the foundation for your practice.

What do I believe are the most important principles guiding my teaching?
Reflect on the values that guide how you design lessons, interact with students, and handle classroom management. Are you driven by fairness, creativity, respect, or growth?

Examples of Guiding Principles:

Integrity – Acting with honesty in all your interactions with students, staff, and parents.
Creativity – Promoting innovative thinking in your teaching and encouraging students to explore new ideas.
Equity/Fairness – Ensuring all students have equal opportunities for success.

2. Purpose and Impact

Purpose and impact go beyond daily lessons and academic goals. They focus on the broader influence you hope to have on your students’ personal growth and development.

What is the ultimate goal I have for my students, both academically and personally?
Think about how you want to shape your students’ character, resilience, and long-term success. What do you hope they will carry with them after they leave your classroom?
What impact do I want to have on their lives beyond academics?
While academic achievement is important, consider the personal lessons you want to impart. How do you hope your students will navigate challenges in their future?

Examples of Purpose and Impact:

Empathy – Fostering emotional intelligence by helping students understand and relate to others’ experiences.
Perseverance – Encouraging students to keep pushing through challenges and failures.
Growth – Promoting a growth mindset where students view mistakes as opportunities for learning.

3. Culture

Classroom culture is a direct reflection of your core values. Every action, choice, and interaction contribute to the atmosphere you create for learning.

How do I want my classroom culture to look and feel?
Do you want a collaborative environment where students support one another, or a more structured space focused on individual growth? Compare your current culture with the culture you envision.
What behaviors and attitudes do I expect from myself and my students?
Classroom culture is shaped by everyone’s behavior. Consider how your expectations—both for yourself and your students—align with your values.

Examples of Core Values that Shape Culture:

Inclusivity – Creating a classroom where all students feel valued and respected, regardless of background.
Accountability – Teaching students to take responsibility for their actions and learning.
Joy – Building a classroom where positivity and excitement for learning are prioritized.

4. Relationships

The relationships you cultivate in your classroom are central to the learning environment. Your values will dictate the kind of connections you build with your students and the relationships you encourage among them.

What kind of relationships do I want to foster with and among my students?
Do you want your students to feel comfortable sharing personal details or maintain a professional distance? Reflect on how you want students to interact—with trust, collaboration, or independence?
How do I want my students to feel when they enter my classroom each day?
Consider the emotional environment you want to create. Do you want students to feel safe, excited, or motivated? How do their current feelings align with the relationships you wish to foster?

Examples of Core Values in Relationships:

Respect – Fostering mutual respect between you and your students, and between students themselves.
Trust – Building open communication and trust with students so they feel comfortable discussing their concerns.
Collaboration – Encouraging teamwork and peer support in the learning process.

Narrowing Down and Clarifying Your Core Values

After reflecting on your guiding principles, purpose, culture, and relationships, you may have a broad range of values. To ensure your core values are clear and actionable, narrow them down to 3-5 essential ones. Ask yourself:

Which values are truly non-negotiable?
Focus on the values that feel most authentic and integral to your teaching.
How do these values manifest in my daily practice?
Reflect on whether your current practices align with your values, or if there are discrepancies that need addressing.
Can I integrate these values consistently?
Make sure your values are not only important to you but also sustainable in your day-to-day work.

Final Support to Teachers

By reflecting on these four key areas—guiding principles, purpose and impact, culture, and relationships—you can discover the core values that will not only define your classroom but also shape your teaching philosophy and classroom management practice. These values will serve as a compass for every decision, challenge, and success. Once you identify your core values, revisit them regularly to ensure your teaching remains aligned with the culture and relationships you want to build in your classroom.