Trust Based Learning (TBL) is based on the positive triad of trust approach (Hank & Krampen 2004). Trust is regarded as a protective and resilience factor of mental health and therefore important for the individual’s capability for action and learning. TBL postulates that interpersonal trust, trust in oneself (i.e. self confidence) and trust in the future (i.e. optimism) are the three crucial factors (triad) for (cognitive) development and the acquirement of competences (learning). The trust triad is a necessary requirement for all people involved in the learning process and it is especially needed in self determined learning settings which are characterized by an ill-defined situation (problem) as starting point and a high level of independence of the student during the learning process. Interpersonal trust deals with the quality of the communication between the people in the learning process. Appropriate learning settings foster trust in oneself. And the development of a personal system of goals and values is conducive to a positive trust in the future. VaKE (Patry 2002) corresponds entirely with this model. VaKE (Values and Knowledge Education) is a constructivist learning model that combines values education in the tradition of Kohlberg (1984) with knowledge acquisition according to the theory of Piaget (1972) and von Glasersfeld (1997). As a starting point for the constructivist learning process there is a dilemma containing challenges in both domains: a values problem (moral dilemma) and a specific content problem. The teacher sets up the situation, but the students have to look themselves for solutions to both problems. This process follows the principles of a constructivist learning algorithm in several steps (Patry 2001) implying actions that promote trust. The students discuss the moral dilemma and try to legitimate their moral judgements according specific principles which emphasize the cooperative search for the most valid moral argument, moreover the mutual appreciation of ones moral judgement and finally the opinion that there is no wrong argument. As a result of the dilemma discussion the students gain different aspects of a moral value, and that stimulates their moral development. For solving the content problem the students work together in a strong cooperative learning setting, which is characterized by different criteria such as time to familiarise themselves with contents without mainly focussing on the school achievement (cf. Ruf & Gallin 2004), and also beneficial interpersonal communication and possibilities for working out the link between contents and personal goals.

Prior research has revealed that VaKE is superior to a traditional teaching method focussed on direct instruction with reference to the acquirement of applicable knowledge (Patry & Weinberger 2004). Further, previous research showed the effectiveness of dilemma discussions on stimulating moral development (Blatt & Kohlberg 1975). In the present study the question whether there are differences in the trust scores between students who learn according to VaKE and students learning through direct instruction. It is supposed that the students learning with VaKE show a higher level of interpersonal trust, trust in oneself and trust in the future. The independent variable is the teaching method (direct instruction vs. VaKE), and dependent variables are interpersonal trust, self confidence and optimism. Instruments are questionnaires. The investigated dimensions of trust will be tested in an ex post facto design on 400 pupils in an Austrian secondary school.

It is supposed that the students taught with the VaKE approach show significantly higher scores in interpersonal trust and self confidence than students taught with direct instruction. No difference between the two groups is expected concerning the scores for optimism. VaKE is based on interpersonal trust and self confidence as well as fosters them. Optimism depends on the development of a personal system of goals and values but the dilemma discussion according to Kohlberg put the emphasis mainly on the structure of the moral argument and not on the values itself. Therefore it will be needed to focus on the values at specific steps during the VaKE process.