Open Pedagogy Toolkit: Module 2

Understanding Your Teaching Values

What is the Value-First Framework

The Value-First Framework (VFF) is a conceptual framework developed by OP experts Eric Werth and Katherine Williams to help educators adopt open pedagogy.  Building on an extensive review of the research on Open Pedagogy, Werth and Williams’ framework does two important things to advance OP adoption: 

1. It explicitly maps OP values to the core elements. This visual alignment enables instructors to recognize the drivers of various forms of OP and use them to identify priorities for OP in their context and for their own vision of education.
2. It articulates 4 core elements of Open Pedagogy: Open Design, Open Content, Open Assessment, OER-Enabled Pedagogy (you might recognize that these are the 4 types of OP outlined in Module 1) and articulates 6 foundational values that drive educators to carry out OP: T=Transparency, S= Sharing, P=Personalized Learning, LE=Learner Empowerment, DTPS=Deconstructing Traditional Power Structures, CKC=Collaborative Knowledge Construction.

This framework is valuable for instructors because it aims to pinpoint the aspects of education that already motivate you. It helps you to make explicit connections between what drives your teaching and the drivers of Open Pedagogy. The framework aims to foster a more internalized sense of motivation for instructional design, supports decision-making, and reduces barriers to adopting Open Pedagogy. It fosters a more internalized sense of motivation by linking your design decisions to your deeply held values rather than to external pressures such as trends or mandates. It supports decision-making by ensuring consistency across your classes. Finally, it reduces barriers to adopting open pedagogy by reframing OP as an alignment with your values rather than the fear of doing something new. You will see that Open Pedagogy is a way to realize your goals more fully.

This module applies the Value-First Framework through a series of activities based on the recommendations of Werth and Williams. Follow along with us as we walk through 3 activities: 

• in Activity #1, you’ll identify your teaching values
• in Activity #2, you’ll map your teaching values to your classroom activities, and finally
• in Activity #3, you’ll revise your course learning outcomes, as the important drivers of what happens in your course