משמעות ולא משמעת: חינוך ערכי בחינוך הממלכתי-דתי

The education system is attempting to advance two parallel processes, which often contradict, and sometimes complement, each other: value-based education and educational achievement. While there is a plethora of literature on ways to promote, measure, and evaluate educational achievement, the literature on value-based education poses more questions than answers: How to educate? What values to teach? Can the success of value-based education be measured? Additionally, the literature emphasizes academic achievement in high school, while emphasis on "softer" concepts like dialogue and interpersonal relationships is relegated to elementary school research. This study focuses on the variables predicting students' identification with their school's values. In a study conducted among 3023 students in a religious education network's high schools, we found that students place greater emphasis on human factors at school and in the community. Close relationships between the school and the community, and a dialogical relationship based on faith and caring, predicted identification with the school's values. The role of discipline, which is commonly viewed as a prerequisite for any educational effort, was greatly reduced, and did not predict success. In contrast to the emphasis in the literature to date, this study showed that interpersonal aspects remained important in the higher grades. Thus, the success of value-based education, at any stage, begins with a meaningful relationship.