Developing a comprehensive framework for achieving quality character education
Abstract
The attributes that comprise "good character" are the virtues that communities agree are vital to their survival and well being. A complete character education program occurs throughout every facet of the school environment, as well as in the home and the community. This effective practice shares the model for building a comprehensive framework for achieving quality character education as described by Ryan and Bohlin in 1998. This information is excerpted from Service Learning and Character Education: Walking the Talk,(2000) by Swick et al., published by the South Carolina Department of Education, in partnership with the National Dropout Prevention Center, with funding by the Corporation for National and Community Service.Issue
How to develop a comprehensive framework for achieving quality character education within the parameters of service-learning.Action
According to the publication, Service Learning and Character Education: Walking the Talk by Swick et al. (2000), schools that aim to achieve quality character education use a comprehensive framework similar to the one described by Ryan and Bohlin (1998). A comprehensive framework includes:
A relevant mission statement
A short clear statement that articulates the culture's shared principles and ideals and specifies the desired outcomes of a character education program.
A set of core virtues
A list that represents those consistent habits that students should demonstrate in the culture (i.e. the school, home, and community).
Partnerships with the home and community
Strategies the school uses to connect with and support families in nurturing the core values in children and strategies that the community uses to support and reinforce the core virtues.
Teamwork
Groups of adults and students work together on ways that the mission of character education can be pursued in family, school, and community.
A formal launch
A celebration that launches special efforts to involve everyone in achieving the character education mission.
Regular meetings and assessment
The community (inclusive of school and family) holds regular gatherings to review how it is doing in achieving its character education mission.
Involved staff
Everyone in the school and community must be engaged in ethical modeling and seeking to achieve a moral community.
Relevant evaluation
Formal and informal assessments are used to see what is being achieved through the character education program and to determine the extent to which the mission is being accomplished.
Context
Service-learning and character education can be combined easily. Because of its focus on learning through service, students participating in service-learning activities not only offer meaningful assistance to others, but grow personally as well. As a result of this process, the values that are central to a community's well being are reinforced, and good citizenship is thereby encouraged.
Although the service experience is integral to service-learning, adherence to the entire service-learning model of preparation, action, reflection, and celebration can enhance the character education program.
The four-part approach should include:
Preparation
Students learn about good character traits before their service activities.
Action
Students are able to observe firsthand good character traits in others — parents, heroes, community members — as they begin to practice the traits themselves.
Reflection
Students can think and write about, as well as discuss the value of, the character traits they have seen in others and themselves.
Celebration
Students can celebrate the value of the character traits in the life of a healthy community.
Citation
Swick, Kevin J., et. al.Service Learning and Character Education: Walking the Talk . Prepared with funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service through a Fund for the Advancement of Service Learning grant funded to the South Carolina Department of Education in partnership with the National Dropout Prevention Center, 2002.Outcome
Numerous qualitative studies have shown that most students, including those who have records of disruptive behavior and poor academics, who are directly involved in all phases of the service-learning process, feel more empowered, develop more overt leadership skills, and tend to feel better about themselves as students.Evidence
Evidence suggests that service-learning and character education, when implemented properly, improve student learning, increase family-school partnering, engage the community in positive ways with schools, and strengthen the virtue of future citizens (Lickona, 1992).Posted On
December 13, 2002For More Information
Resources
The following resource(s) are available at the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Library:
Service Learning and Character Education: Walking the Talk
Item number: 515/G/SWI/2000
The publication can be purchased for $6.00 by calling the National Dropout Prevention Center publications department at 864-656-2599 or visiting their website at http://www.dropoutprevention.org/pubs/all_by_title.php.
Related Practices
No related practicesRelated sites
National Dropout Prevention Center