The Impact of Social Interdependence on Values Education and Student Wellbeing

Abstract

This chapter argues that inculcating the values that students require in order to function as productive citizens of a democracy is most effectively achieved by ensuring that instruction and schooling are structured to create processes of promotive interaction among students and between students and faculty. The way that goals are structured in instructional situations determines the processes of interaction among students and between students and faculty, and in turn these determine the values that students (and faculty) internalize. The process of promoting each other’s success is an invisible curriculum inculcating civic and democratic values in students through their day-to-day experiences in school. During instruction, positive interdependence should be structured among students’ learning goals. Students will then engage in a process of promoting each other’s achievement while, at the same time, be internalizing values related to civic responsibility and contributing to the common good. An important aspect of positive interdependence is the resolution of conflict. Two of the processes used to manage conflicts are constructive controversy and integrative negotiations. The values inherent in each are inculcated as students engage in them. The processes of learning not only result in the internalization of the values central to being a productive citizen of society, but they also enhance students’ wellbeing and psychological health.