Barnett, R. (2007). Assessment in higher education: An impossible mission? In D. Boud, & N. Falchikov (Eds.), Rethinking Assessment for Higher Education: Learning for the longer term (pp. 29-40). London: Routledge.

Webb, D. (2009). Where's the vision? The concept of utopia in contemporary educational theory. Oxford Review of Education, 35(6), 743-760.

White, J. (2009). Education and a meaningful life. Oxford Review of Education, 35(4), 423-435.

The Moral Bucket List – New York Times APRIL 11, 2015 by David Brooks

Excerpt: It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love? We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character. But if you live for external achievement, years pass and the deepest parts of you go unexplored and unstructured. You lack a moral vocabulary. It is easy to slip into a self-satisfied moral mediocrity. You grade yourself on a forgiving curve. You figure as long as you are not obviously hurting anybody and people seem to like you, you must be O.K. But you live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys. Gradually, a humiliating gap opens between your actual self and your desired self, between you and those incandescent souls you sometimes meet.

White, J. (2009). Education and a meaningful life. Oxford Review of Education, 35(4), 423 - 435.

Equipping young people for a meaningful life is a worthwhile, but not all-important educational aim. Educators should help them not only to see their lives as meaningful but also to lead lives that are meaningful. This involves continuous engagement in the nesting of reasons mentioned above. Where autonomy is also an aim, temperamental attunement to possible options—rather than exposure to all possible options— and time to explore them are important considerations.

Christian, B. J. (2014). Using Assessment Tasks to Develop a Greater Sense of Values Literacy in Pre-service Teachers. Australian, Journal of Teacher Education, 39(2),

Although much emphasis is given to teaching values in schools, there appears to be less evidence that teacher education courses are explicitly preparing pre-service teachers for this responsibility. In this study, the Values for Australian Schools were integrated into two assessment tasks in the second year of a Bachelor of Education (Primary) Degree. Pre-service teachers interacted with the concept of values literacy through reflective readings and planning a unit of work. Results of the pre- and post-surveys and assessment tasks indicated that the pre-service teachers became more values-literate through engaging in the assessment tasks. Results also revealed a shift in their perceptions of the role that teachers play in developing the values literacy of students.