Know Your Values
> 1 hour
How to use the tool?
Have students take a Values survey (PVQ II) and reflect on their results in terms of their learning paths and goals.
Student experience
“Thinking about the fact that I wanted to make a difference and to be there for others often helped me in finding meaning in my academic work."
We can help students discover, evaluate, and act upon the values personally important to them. This will not only guide their own development and cultivate responsible citizens; it can also improve their academic motivation.
What to Do?
Students conduct the PVQ-II questionnaire. This is a 57-statement survey based upon Schwartz’ theory of Basic Individual Values. Upon conclusion of the survey, students receive their scores on 19 universally recognized values in the form of a radar chart, indicating what values – according to the survey - are most important for them.
The radar is then used for students to select the values that resonate most strongly to them. This forms the basis for further reflection, which can be done in several ways. Examples are:
-
Longitudinal: throughout a course, students are reminded about their values on a weekly basis. They also receive reflective prompts, such as:
- Was there a moment during which you experienced a conflict between your values? Describe that
- When did you act in alignment with your values? And when not?
-
Group-based: students discuss their various radar charts in a group setting. They are asked to reflect:
- What differences in values they observe?
- How they explain that they value varying things?
- What can be done to resolve possible conflicts between their various values, for example in their course?
-
Course alignment: students use their radar chart to set value-aligned goals for their course. Reflection prompts are:
- What knowledge or skills can you obtain during this course that can help you achieve your values?
- What do your values mean for how you want to behave in this course?
Example:
In 2025, all 200 first year students at Leiden University College completed the PVQ-II questionnaire in their very first week of studies. This was part of their year-long Global Citizenship programme. Throughout the remainder of the year and notably at the end of the year, students reflect on their values and goals and on how their education has connected with them and given them shape.
Example of a radar chart visualizing the survey results on 19 values.
How thinking about values can help students for their academic courses:
“Thinking about the fact that I wanted to make a difference and to be there for others often helped me in finding meaning in my academic work. Values I think really help you coin what for you matters and how you can put that into place. Sometime I would get to the table and feel frustrated demotivated and thinking about what I wanted to achieve pushed me to actually open the readings and do the work.”
“By reflecting on my values, I was able to be more focused on what I find important. In one way, it helped me prioritise academic learning, because I think right now is the time to learn in my life. On the other hand, it also made me prioritise other means of learning over strictly studying the academic content. This could be prioritising having a deeper conversation or attending a lecture even though this would not contribute to my studies (in the sense that it was not in preparation for an exam or class, but nonetheless still learning)”.
Download:
A Qualtrics version of the PVQ-II questionnaire is available upon request together with a program that visualizes the output into individual radar charts and shares this with respondents.