3.2 Individual Values
Our values are our fundamental beliefs about what is important. Our values motivate action and impact who we are and how we exist in the world. All individuals hold multiple values simultaneously, but attribute different levels of importance to each value (Schwartz, 2012). The values that an educator holds will impact their pedagogical practices and curricular decisions (e.g. what they teach, how they teach, how they interact with learners, etc.). In particular, your values will impact how you choose to use/not use generative AI tools in your teaching and course design and how you talk about generative AI with your learners. Similarly, the values that a learner holds will impact their decisions around if/how they use generative AI as part of their learning. Recognizing and naming your values may help you better navigate your beliefs and emotional response to generative AI.
Activity: Defining your values
1.) Write down all of the values that are important to you. Don’t try and rank them, just write down ideas until you can’t think of any more. You may also find it helpful to refer to the values list below.
List of Values
| Abundance
Acceptance Accountability Achievement Adventure Advocacy Ambition Appreciation Attractiveness Autonomy Balance Benevolence Boldness Brilliance Calmness Caring Challenge Charity Cleverness Community Communication Commitment Compassion Conformity Connection Cooperation Collaboration Consistency Contribution Creativity Credibility |
Curiosity
Decisiveness Dedication Dependability Diversity Empathy Encouragement Engagement Enthusiasm Ethics Excellence Expressiveness Fairness Family Friendships Flexibility Freedom Fun Generosity Grace Gratitude Growth Flexibility Happiness Health Honesty Humility Humour Inclusiveness Independence Individuality |
Innovation
Inspiration Intelligence Intuition Joy Kindness Knowledge Leadership Learning Life-long learning Love Loyalty Mindfulness Motivation Optimism Open-mindedness Originality Passion Peace Perfection Playfulness Performance Personal development Popularity Power Preparedness Privacy Proactive Professionalism Punctuality Quality |
Recognition Relationships Reliability Resilience Resourcefulness Responsibility Responsiveness Risk taking Safety Security Self-control Selflessness Service Simplicity Spirituality Stability Success Teamwork Thoughtfulness Traditionalism Trustworthiness Understanding Uniqueness Usefulness Versatility Vision Warmth Wealth Wellbeing Wisdom Zeal |
2.) From your list, circle your top 10 values.
3.) Rank your top 10 values in order of importance.
(Adapted from University of Edinburgh’s Values Toolkit)
Values Friction
Although values do impact decisions and actions, the link between a value and an action or decision is not always direct or obvious. There may be many factors that impact decision making, including different understanding of the value proposition of a decision. For example, one instructor who values inclusivity may encourage the use of generative AI technologies to help support student access needs, reduce language barriers, or provide additional scaffolds; another instructor who values inclusivity may discourage or ban the use of generative AI because not all student may have the resources to pay for a subscription which can result in inequal access for students.
Values friction (conflicting values) may also impact decision-making. Values friction can occur both within an individual and in interactions between an individual and others or between an individual and organizations. When one individual holds multiple values. they can come into conflict with each other (e.g. honesty and compassion; individualism and belonging). Typically, an individual will place different levels of importance on different values, which will affect which values have the greatest impact on decision making or action. However, individuals may also be constrained by the values friction that exists between their own values and peers’ values or institutional values and norms (Jensen, Schott, & Steen, 2021).
Consider the following scenarios and how values may impact decision-making.
Values Case Study: Assignment Feedback
You are teaching a second year global health course that uses case-based assessment. Each week, individual learners need to analyse a different global health scenario and submit a case analysis. In past years, you have always provided detailed feedback to each learner a few days before their next submission is due, to allow them to consider the feedback and make improvements. This year, your class size has increased significantly. Your colleague has shared how they are using genAI to help with feedback generation and suggested you do this to expedite your evaluation.
What values might impact your decision in this scenario?
Feedback
If your top values include punctuality or reliability, you might decide to use generative AI to provide feedback to ensure that you are able to provide feedback in the expected timeline and honour the commitment that you’ve made to students.
If your top values include authenticity or connection, you might decide to continue to generate feedback manually without the use of generative AI, even if that means a delay in returning the assignments to learners.
If your top values include both reliability and authenticity, you may experience values-friction and struggle to make a decision without feeling discomfort.
Values Case Study: Detecting Generative AI
You are a TA in an upper-year history course. Students need to complete a series of document analyses of primary sources. You have received a number of submissions lately that seem very structurally and grammatically strong, but that lack good analysis. You have a feeling that the students may be using generative AI to complete the assignments. Other TAs in the course have echoed these concerns and shared that they have all adopted an AI-detection tool to help flag AI-generated submissions. They’ve encouraged you to do the same.
What values might impact your decision in this scenario?
Feedback
If your top values include trust, you may feel uncomfortable using an AI-detection tool to identify academic misconduct since it impacts the educator-student relationship and assumes dishonesty.
If your top values include conformity or fairness, you might decide to use the AI-detection tool to align with the group consensus and to ensure that all students in the course receive a similar experience.
Values Case Study: Zoom AI Companion
You teach an Introduction to Environmental Science course online over Zoom. Recently, one of your students has requested to use the embedded AI tool, which records the meeting, generates a transcript and produces a summary with key concepts. The student says that this will help them take better notes and support their learning.
What values might impact your decision in this scenario?
Feedback
If your top values include accessibility or inclusiveness, you might decide to allow the use of the AI companion tool, or even use it yourself and share the summaries with the whole class.
If your top values include privacy, you might be reluctant to use the AI companion because it records student interactions. You may also have concerns around how the data is stored or if it might be used for purposes beyond the course, such as training.
Values Case Study: Image Generation
You are teaching an introduction to anatomy class. Your course materials include a lot of visuals, which you have typically taken from standard textbooks and online repositories. However, most of the images available to you portray light-skinned, able-bodied males. You are considering using generative AI tools to generate more diverse images for your course materials.
What values might impact your decision in this scenario?
Feedback
If your top values include inclusiveness, you might move ahead with using generative AI tools to generate more diverse images. However, you may also have concerns about the potential for biased or discriminatory representation in AI-generated images.
If your top values include sustainability, you might also have concerns about the potential energy costs of using generative AI to generate images compared to the costs of finding existing images.
Values are intrinsically linked to affect or emotion (Schwartz, 2012). When our values are threatened or questioned, it can activate a negative emotional response. Similarly, when our values are realized, it can activate a positive response. For more information on how to navigate the affective nature of generative AI, see the section on Emotional Intelligence.
Summary
Awareness Reflection: Your Pedagogical Values
Feedback/Errata