Character Education
"Character education is a learning process that enables students and adults in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Upon such core values, we form the attitudes and actions that are the hallmark of safe, healthy and informed communities that serve as the foundation of our society." –US Dept. of Education, Character Education…Our Shared Responsibility
What is Character Education?
Character education is not a new movement it has been around for many years but has been gaining more attention in recent years. Character education aims to create classrooms and schools that foster ethical, responsible and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character based on values that our society shares. We are proactively teaching students about the “moral code” of society. Character Education aims to instill important core values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others. These traits may change depending on your school board or school but they are all basically similar in the fact they are a traits valued by society.
What has Character Education Looked Like In the Past?
There are many different Character Education programs out there. Many of us have experienced some type of program that has been implemented at our school. Many of these programs fall short of expectations. Usually a character trait is introduced in a large group setting like the gym, some examples are given as to what the behaviour would look like and then the students go back to their class. In some situations this trait is not discussed again until certificates are being handed out at the next assembly. Some teachers may provide their students with a lesson or two on the trait and that’s it. There is often no real direction in what we are suppose to do with Character Education, and it often seems like a waste of time. We still have the same behaviours in our classes and students are really not displaying the qualities of the various traits.
The Thought behind Character Education:
As mentioned earlier Character Education is not a new trend but one that has reemerged because of the behaviours we are seeing among students in and out of the school. Bullying, violence, disrespect, and lack of responsibility are trends being seen across school boards, provinces, and countries (White and Warfa 2011). There are various thoughts behind the reasons for such behaviours from our students, 1) We live in a culture where children see violent behaviour being accepted by the masses, they see role models behaving badly, whether it be a famous athlete, celebrity or their parents. And often there is no real consequence for these actions. 2) Researchers also believe that parents are not instilling the values of good behaviour in their children. The bad behaviour is deemed as acceptable (Bulach 2002). Since children spend a large percentage of their time at school this is the place to teach them how to be responsible, democratic citizen in our society.
Schools often spend more time and resources dealing with problem behaviour in a reactive and punitive way. Research by White and Warfa 2011 indicate that better results would transpire if our approach to discipline became preventative and positive. This is definitely not an easy change to overcome especially in school with many problems but it can work. (Parker, Nelson, and Burns 2010)
How can Character Education Be used to Manage Behaviour?
Many students come to school today not understanding some of the key traits. These traits may differ from school to school but are similar in that it’s a value such as respect, persistence, responsibility, empathy, honesty, cooperation etc…
When students are explicitly taught these traits they will begin to recognize these traits in themselves and other. The teacher and other students will recognize these behaviours on a daily basis. Research indicates that students negative behaviours will begin to change if they feel that they are a valued member of their class and if they have a chance to practices the traits and understand what they really are all about (Bulach 2002).
Who needs to be involved?
Research by Bulach 2003 indicates that character education programs work best to reduce behaviour issues when the whole school is involved. All staff must work together in a consistent way to provide a proactive school environment. It is also important that teachers feel supported in their school environment and feel they are able to talk about the issues they may be having in their class with other teachers and administrators
Common Behaviour Problems in the Classroom:
As educators we have seen and dealt with our fare share of behaviour problems. Students act out for various reasons, including the following:
· Boredom
· Problems at home
· Trouble with friends
· Feelings of isolation
· Not feeling successful in class
· Not feeling worthy
Some of the behaviours seen in classrooms are as follows:
· Disruption
· Disrespect
· Aggression
· Lack of motivation and responsibility
(Parker, Nelson, and Burns 2010)
What Should Character Education Look like in Our Schools and Classrooms?
This is simply a guideline, all schools will have there own ideas to implement. Also, this is not a quick fix and will take time to change attitudes and behaviours of students. The most important way to teach about traits is to engage students in authentic learning situations.
1) Teachers need to ensure that they get to know their students, have a real understanding of what is going on in their lives
2) Co create rules in the class so that students feel some sense of ownership
3) Character traits should be taught explicitly using relevant examples such as real life problems, video clips of situations demonstrating the trait, reading and talking about situations where this and other traits would have been beneficial to know.
4) Most importantly: The traits are continually reinforced
5) Teachers as much as possible will daily reinforce good behaviour or praise the students for demonstrating the trait. Sometimes students are not even aware that they are demonstrating a trait so teachers need to explicitly say what trait and behaviour they recognized and what the student was doing at the time.
6) Students will also watch each other for these “good behaviours” and recognize each other. These behaviours will need to be modeled and in time students will become more aware of what they are doing
7) Student also need time to practice these new behaviours, this can be done through the curriculum by integrating examples in what we are teaching, but also by giving students responsibility, talking to them and modeling how to solve problem situations when working together, having them work cooperatively, allowing them to collaborate on projects. Through practice these behaviours will become second nature.
8) Have students thinking critically about issues in our world such as violence in the school, or in our society, children at risk, current events etc... By engaging them in real life scenarios that tie into the traits being taught children will have an authentic understanding of what the trait means and why it would be important to demonstrate this trait in life.
9) Through discussions students will feel empowered to make decisions, solve problems and debate issues.
10) Use an inquiry model to engage students in researching about a trait that has been demonstrated by someone famous and why the trait is important
Although this is not a step-by-step guideline on how to teach character education in your class, it provides some ideas that could be used to change the way your students think about their character.
Benefits of Character Education:
· School climate improves
· Students and staff perceive school as a caring, safe, child-centered place
· Students behave more appropriately and pro socially
· Misconduct, drug use and violence decline significantly
· Academic motivation and achievement scores increase including on standardized tests
· Students improve their problem solving skills and develop greater emotional competency
· It allows for the development of leadership in our classrooms
(Berkowitz, 2012)
Does Character Education Work to Change Attitudes and Behaviour?
Character Education is not a cure for bad behaviour it is simply a strategy that if used consistently through the school will change the way students act and behave. (White and Warfa 2011). In order for it to work though all staff must be on board and enforcing the same rules. Overtime there hopefully will be a shift in the way students thinks about their behaviour and attitude not only in the school but also in life.
Additional Resources:
www.goodcharacter.com
www.theteacherslounge.com
There are also a variety of videos on you tube that demonstrate the traits.
References:
Milliren, Al; Messer, Mitchell H. (2009). Invitations to Character. Journal of Invitational Theory & Practice, 2009, Vol. 15, p19-31
Berkowitz, Marvin. 2012. Understanding Effective Character Education: The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat: Capacity Building Series.
Bulach, Cletus, 2002. Implementing a Character Education Curriculum and Assessing its Impact on Student Behaviour. The Clearing House, 2002, Vol. 76,
No. 2
White, R., Warfa, N., 2011. Building Scools of Character: A case-Study Investigation of Character Education’s Impact on School Climate, Pupil Behaviour, and
Curriculum Delivery. Jouranl of Appled Social Psychology, 2011, 41, (1), pp. 45-60.
Parker, D., Nelson, J., Burns, M, 2010. Comparisons of Correlates of Classroom Behaviour Problems in Schools with and Without a School Wide Character
Education Program. Psycology in the Schools, Vol 47(8), 2010.
What is Character Education?
Character education is not a new movement it has been around for many years but has been gaining more attention in recent years. Character education aims to create classrooms and schools that foster ethical, responsible and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character based on values that our society shares. We are proactively teaching students about the “moral code” of society. Character Education aims to instill important core values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for self and others. These traits may change depending on your school board or school but they are all basically similar in the fact they are a traits valued by society.
What has Character Education Looked Like In the Past?
There are many different Character Education programs out there. Many of us have experienced some type of program that has been implemented at our school. Many of these programs fall short of expectations. Usually a character trait is introduced in a large group setting like the gym, some examples are given as to what the behaviour would look like and then the students go back to their class. In some situations this trait is not discussed again until certificates are being handed out at the next assembly. Some teachers may provide their students with a lesson or two on the trait and that’s it. There is often no real direction in what we are suppose to do with Character Education, and it often seems like a waste of time. We still have the same behaviours in our classes and students are really not displaying the qualities of the various traits.
The Thought behind Character Education:
As mentioned earlier Character Education is not a new trend but one that has reemerged because of the behaviours we are seeing among students in and out of the school. Bullying, violence, disrespect, and lack of responsibility are trends being seen across school boards, provinces, and countries (White and Warfa 2011). There are various thoughts behind the reasons for such behaviours from our students, 1) We live in a culture where children see violent behaviour being accepted by the masses, they see role models behaving badly, whether it be a famous athlete, celebrity or their parents. And often there is no real consequence for these actions. 2) Researchers also believe that parents are not instilling the values of good behaviour in their children. The bad behaviour is deemed as acceptable (Bulach 2002). Since children spend a large percentage of their time at school this is the place to teach them how to be responsible, democratic citizen in our society.
Schools often spend more time and resources dealing with problem behaviour in a reactive and punitive way. Research by White and Warfa 2011 indicate that better results would transpire if our approach to discipline became preventative and positive. This is definitely not an easy change to overcome especially in school with many problems but it can work. (Parker, Nelson, and Burns 2010)
How can Character Education Be used to Manage Behaviour?
Many students come to school today not understanding some of the key traits. These traits may differ from school to school but are similar in that it’s a value such as respect, persistence, responsibility, empathy, honesty, cooperation etc…
When students are explicitly taught these traits they will begin to recognize these traits in themselves and other. The teacher and other students will recognize these behaviours on a daily basis. Research indicates that students negative behaviours will begin to change if they feel that they are a valued member of their class and if they have a chance to practices the traits and understand what they really are all about (Bulach 2002).
Who needs to be involved?
Research by Bulach 2003 indicates that character education programs work best to reduce behaviour issues when the whole school is involved. All staff must work together in a consistent way to provide a proactive school environment. It is also important that teachers feel supported in their school environment and feel they are able to talk about the issues they may be having in their class with other teachers and administrators
Common Behaviour Problems in the Classroom:
As educators we have seen and dealt with our fare share of behaviour problems. Students act out for various reasons, including the following:
· Boredom
· Problems at home
· Trouble with friends
· Feelings of isolation
· Not feeling successful in class
· Not feeling worthy
Some of the behaviours seen in classrooms are as follows:
· Disruption
· Disrespect
· Aggression
· Lack of motivation and responsibility
(Parker, Nelson, and Burns 2010)
What Should Character Education Look like in Our Schools and Classrooms?
This is simply a guideline, all schools will have there own ideas to implement. Also, this is not a quick fix and will take time to change attitudes and behaviours of students. The most important way to teach about traits is to engage students in authentic learning situations.
1) Teachers need to ensure that they get to know their students, have a real understanding of what is going on in their lives
2) Co create rules in the class so that students feel some sense of ownership
3) Character traits should be taught explicitly using relevant examples such as real life problems, video clips of situations demonstrating the trait, reading and talking about situations where this and other traits would have been beneficial to know.
4) Most importantly: The traits are continually reinforced
5) Teachers as much as possible will daily reinforce good behaviour or praise the students for demonstrating the trait. Sometimes students are not even aware that they are demonstrating a trait so teachers need to explicitly say what trait and behaviour they recognized and what the student was doing at the time.
6) Students will also watch each other for these “good behaviours” and recognize each other. These behaviours will need to be modeled and in time students will become more aware of what they are doing
7) Student also need time to practice these new behaviours, this can be done through the curriculum by integrating examples in what we are teaching, but also by giving students responsibility, talking to them and modeling how to solve problem situations when working together, having them work cooperatively, allowing them to collaborate on projects. Through practice these behaviours will become second nature.
8) Have students thinking critically about issues in our world such as violence in the school, or in our society, children at risk, current events etc... By engaging them in real life scenarios that tie into the traits being taught children will have an authentic understanding of what the trait means and why it would be important to demonstrate this trait in life.
9) Through discussions students will feel empowered to make decisions, solve problems and debate issues.
10) Use an inquiry model to engage students in researching about a trait that has been demonstrated by someone famous and why the trait is important
Although this is not a step-by-step guideline on how to teach character education in your class, it provides some ideas that could be used to change the way your students think about their character.
Benefits of Character Education:
· School climate improves
· Students and staff perceive school as a caring, safe, child-centered place
· Students behave more appropriately and pro socially
· Misconduct, drug use and violence decline significantly
· Academic motivation and achievement scores increase including on standardized tests
· Students improve their problem solving skills and develop greater emotional competency
· It allows for the development of leadership in our classrooms
(Berkowitz, 2012)
Does Character Education Work to Change Attitudes and Behaviour?
Character Education is not a cure for bad behaviour it is simply a strategy that if used consistently through the school will change the way students act and behave. (White and Warfa 2011). In order for it to work though all staff must be on board and enforcing the same rules. Overtime there hopefully will be a shift in the way students thinks about their behaviour and attitude not only in the school but also in life.
Additional Resources:
www.goodcharacter.com
www.theteacherslounge.com
There are also a variety of videos on you tube that demonstrate the traits.
References:
Milliren, Al; Messer, Mitchell H. (2009). Invitations to Character. Journal of Invitational Theory & Practice, 2009, Vol. 15, p19-31
Berkowitz, Marvin. 2012. Understanding Effective Character Education: The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat: Capacity Building Series.
Bulach, Cletus, 2002. Implementing a Character Education Curriculum and Assessing its Impact on Student Behaviour. The Clearing House, 2002, Vol. 76,
No. 2
White, R., Warfa, N., 2011. Building Scools of Character: A case-Study Investigation of Character Education’s Impact on School Climate, Pupil Behaviour, and
Curriculum Delivery. Jouranl of Appled Social Psychology, 2011, 41, (1), pp. 45-60.
Parker, D., Nelson, J., Burns, M, 2010. Comparisons of Correlates of Classroom Behaviour Problems in Schools with and Without a School Wide Character
Education Program. Psycology in the Schools, Vol 47(8), 2010.