On June 10-12, the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) hosted a three-day training course within the framework of Work Package 2 (WP2) of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building PROVE Project (Promoting Values Education in South Caucasus Higher Education Institutions)

Nineteen teachers from general education schools and other educational institutions of the country participated in the training program.

The aim of the training was to present the theoretical foundations and practical applications of the Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) model used in contemporary educational settings, as well as to familiarize participants with effective strategies and methods in the field.

The trainers were Associate Professor Mariana Avetisyan, Acting Head of the Chair of Applied Psychology, and Associate Professor Marine Matosyan, Deputy Dean for Science and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geography.

Participants were introduced to the fundamental principles of the methodology, the specifics of its application, and the possibilities of implementing values-based education within the educational process.

During the practical sessions, participants studied Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development and the mechanisms for applying moral dilemmas as effective tools for fostering learners’ value judgments, critical thinking, and academic knowledge.

They developed their own moral dilemmas and experimented various models for applying the VaKE methodology, adapting them to their respective teaching disciplines.

The training also focused on the potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in education to create and develop dilemmas that are interesting, engaging, multidimensional and contain a values-based component to support the learning process.

The course participants highly appreciated the content and format of the training program, emphasizing that it provided them with an opportunity to acquire new knowledge, exchange professional experience, and rethink teaching approaches, which will contribute to both improving the effectiveness of the learning process and to their personal and professional development.

At the end of the training, the participants were awarded bilingual certificates.

Co-funded by the European Union, the three-year project (PROVE) is coordinated by Telavi State University.