A1 Level – Elementary
1. What is important to you?
2. Do you think honesty is important?
3. What makes a person kind?
4. Do you value family or friends more?
5. What is the difference between right and wrong?
6. Do you think helping others is important?
7. What makes a job meaningful?
8. What is a common cultural value in your country?
9. Do you think money is a value?
10. What makes you feel proud?
11. Do you think children have values?
12. What makes a decision easy?
13. What is the opposite of a strong value?
14. What are some different types of values?
15. Do you think values change as you get older?
A2 Level – Pre-Intermediate
1. What are the key differences between personal values and societal values?
2. Describe one core value that you inherited from your family or parents.
3. What are the pros and cons of sticking rigidly to your values in every situation?
4. What role do religion or philosophy play in shaping a person’s moral values?
5. Have you ever been in a situation where two of your important values conflicted?
6. What specific values (e.g., honesty, punctuality) are most important in a work environment?
7. What is the difference between a moral value and a practical principle?
8. What are common challenges when trying to instill positive values in young people?
9. How does technology (e.g., social media) influence the values of the younger generation?
10. What are the biggest cultural differences in the value placed on individualism versus collectivism?
11. What is the importance of having a clear set of values when making major life decisions?
12. Do you think a person’s values are permanently set by adulthood, or can they change drastically?
13. What are the challenges of remaining true to your personal values in a highly competitive environment?
14. What are the best ways to determine if a company’s stated values align with its actual practices?
15. What is the difference between living by your values and simply paying lip service to them?
B1 Level – Intermediate
1. Discuss the difficulty of maintaining consistency between your stated values and your everyday actions.
2. How can organizations use clear, shared values to improve internal cohesion and decision-making?
3. What are the ethical issues surrounding companies that exploit public moral values for marketing purposes?
4. Do you agree that the current generation (Gen Z) holds a fundamentally different set of core values than previous generations?
5. Describe a time when defending one of your core values led to a major conflict with a friend or colleague.
6. To what extent should individuals be expected to tolerate the values of others, even if they deeply disagree with them?
7. What role does public discourse and media debate play in the evolution of societal values (e.g., acceptance of diversity)?
8. How do cultural shifts (e.g., urbanization) create tension between traditional and modern moral values?
9. Discuss the psychological challenge of dealing with “cognitive dissonance”—when actions conflict with deeply held values.
10. What are the challenges of establishing universal human rights when core values vary significantly across different cultures?
11. How does the concept of “ethical sourcing” reflect a growing consumer value for sustainable and responsible products?
12. Should public education focus more on teaching shared civic values or promoting critical self-reflection on personal values?
13. What is the difference between a value that is personally held and one that is politically imposed?
14. Discuss the concept of “moral clarity” and how prioritizing values simplifies complex decision-making.
15. What is the long-term impact of a society losing faith in its shared, core moral and ethical values?
B2 Level – Upper-Intermediate
1. How does economic inequality influence the ability of individuals to live according to their stated values (e.g., sustainability)?
2. What are the ethical arguments about the immense amount of money spent by political groups to shape public values and opinion?
3. Should governments invest in public service campaigns aimed at strengthening certain civic values (e.g., tolerance, cooperation)?
4. What are the psychological reasons why people sometimes betray their own values under conditions of extreme stress or peer pressure?
5. How has the dominance of individualistic social media platforms amplified the value placed on personal image and success over community?
6. Discuss the idea that a truly ethical person must constantly question and re-evaluate their fundamental values.
7. What is the role of legal frameworks (e.g., anti-discrimination laws) in enforcing a minimum set of societal values?
8. How do our cultural narratives about heroism and villainy communicate complex moral and ethical values through simple stories?
9. What are the challenges of mediating conflict between people whose core, non-negotiable values are mutually exclusive?
10. Discuss the concept of “value proposition” in business—how companies translate their values into marketable benefits.
11. What is the difference between the values of a capitalist system and the values of a socialist system?
12. Should mandatory ethics and philosophy courses be required in all university degree programs?
13. What is the impact of mandatory professional codes of ethics on an individual’s personal moral autonomy?
14. How does the history of philosophical debate reflect the evolution of ideas about universal moral values?
15. Discuss the idea that personal values are not fixed ideals, but flexible guidelines for continuous self-improvement.
C1 Level – Advanced
1. Analyze the socioeconomic factors that correlate with disparities in access to education that facilitates critical reflection on personal values.
2. To what degree should the legal system restrict the ability of organizations to enforce values that contradict an employee’s fundamental personal beliefs?
3. Discuss the philosophical concept of “axiology”—the study of value—and its application to political and economic systems.
4. Evaluate the efficacy of using targeted behavioral science (nudges) to align individual actions with desired collective values (e.g., conservation).
5. How does the strategic use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives function to mask underlying conflicts with ethical values?
6. Examine the legal challenges of ensuring judicial impartiality when a judge’s personal values may conflict with legal precedent.
7. What ethical guidelines should govern the use of AI to analyze a person’s digital footprint to predict their moral and political values?
8. Discuss the concept of “moral licensing”—performing a good act that later justifies a morally questionable one.
9. How do different national policies on media censorship affect the range of moral and ethical values discussed in public life?
10. Analyze the interplay between the increasing globalization of trade and the resulting clash of differing national business values.
11. What ethical challenges arise when new technologies create a sudden moral vacuum (e.g., deepfakes) before new values can be established?
12. Debate whether a society should prioritize freedom (allowing conflicting values) or consensus (requiring shared values) for stability.
13. How does the architecture of memorial sites and public monuments communicate a society’s highest historical values?
14. Discuss the concept of “value pluralism” and the idea that multiple, incompatible moral values can all be equally valid.
15. To what extent does the emotional investment in one’s core values make objective political negotiation impossible?
C2 Level – Proficiency
1. How do you analyze the idea that the entire structure of a legal and economic system is ultimately a formalized expression of underlying social values?
2. Formulate a critique of international relations frameworks that fail to account for deep, non-negotiable differences in core national values.
3. Analyze the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and the biological basis for human moral values.
4. Discuss the philosophical distinction between “is” (factual state) and “ought” (moral value) in ethical decision-making.
5. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of globalized ethical frameworks (e.g., UN declarations) in influencing local moral practices.
6. Propose a system for organizational culture that systematically audits its internal processes to ensure they align with its publicly stated core values.
7. Examine the psychological function of moral outrage and indignation in mobilizing groups to defend threatened shared values.
8. How does the semiotics of consumer choice (e.g., which brands we buy) communicate complex, evolving personal values?
9. Discuss the ethical responsibilities of educators and parents to teach children how to develop the moral courage to defend their values.
10. Analyze the historical relationship between cycles of major social upheaval and the subsequent radical transformation of collective moral values.
11. Articulate the inherent tension between the universal aspiration for certain human rights and the cultural relativism of local moral values.
12. Debate whether the future dominance of AI governance will require humans to codify their fundamental values into computational logic.
13. Assess the long-term societal effects of widespread political polarization rooted in increasingly divergent moral and political values.
14. Discuss the philosophical definition of ‘goodness’ and whether it is an objective standard or a culturally contingent value.
15. How might the principles of ethical value assessment be used to model processes of organizational mission-drift and strategic planning?
