A Comprehensive Approach to Effective Character Education

1. A Comprehensive Approach to Effective Character Education Marvin W. Berkowitz, Ph.D. S. N. McDonnell Professor of Character Education University of Missouri-St. Louis

2. Contact Information Address: Marillac Hall 402 College of Education University of Missouri-St. Louis One University Blvd. St. Louis MO 63121-4499 Phone: 314-516-7521 FAX: 314-516-7356 Webpage: www.characterandcitizenship.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/UMSLCCC Email: berkowitz@umsl.edu

3. What is character?

4. Head Heart & Hands“Good character consists of understanding, caring about, and acting upon core ethical values” Character Education Partnership (www.character.org)

5. The complex constellation of psychological characteristics that motivate and enable individuals to function as competent moral agents Marvin W. Berkowitz

6. What is character education?

7. Dispelling Myths:This is not your mother’s character education!

8. Myth #1: Not the role of schools It is everyone’s role and is unavoidable: “All adults involved with children either help or thwart children’s growth and development, whether we like it, intend it or not.” Aristotle

9. Myth #2: Competes with the “true purpose: of schools • It is only in the past half century that America’s schools have become monomaniacal about purpose

10. Sputnik, the separation of church and state, and NCLB • Even the founding fathers emphasized the need for schools to produce virtuous citizens

11. Myth #3: Can’t afford to do academics and character ed • It is not a zero sum game • Many educators find that the best path to academic achievement is creating caring classrooms and schools • Research suggests that high quality character education results in higher academic achievement

12. Character education is… A way of being, and most notably a way of being with others.

13. For most educators… It is a NEW way of being.

14. Character education IS rocket science Effective character education requires understanding character development and the complex comprehensive approach to character education

15. Eleven Principles (CEP) • Core ethical values are the basis of character • Character is thinking, feeling and behavior • Intentional, proactive, comprehensive promotion of core values in all phases of school life • School must be a caring community • Students need opportunities for moral action • Includes a meaningful and challenging curriculum • Strives to develop students’ intrinsic motivation • School staff must be a learning community & adhere to core values • Requires moral leadership from staff & students • Must recruit parents & community as partners • Must evaluate character of school and students

16. “Schools are perfectly designed for the results we are getting. If we don’t like the results, we need to redesign schools.” Paul Houston Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators

17. PRIME Character Education • Prioritizing character education • Relationships • Intrinsic motivation • Modeling • Empowerment

18. Prioritizing Character Education • There are two primary purposes of education: academic and character • Schools often overlook character and focus primarily or exclusively on character • Character has to be an explicit centerpoint of the school’s mission and of the school leader’s philosophy

19. “To consistently build excellence for students, families, and for the community, a school must have an intentional culture based on shared values, beliefs and behaviors” Charles Elbot and Dave Fulton Building an Intentional School Culture

20. Never will wisdom preside in the halls of legislation until Common Schools…shall create a more farseeing intelligence and a pure morality than has ever existed among the communities of men. Horace Mann

21. “I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. My personal approach creates the climate. My daily mood makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.” Haim Ginott

22. “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society”President Theodore Roosevelt

23. Staff Buy-In • Relationships • Brentwood Middle School • Authentic collaboration • You have to feed the teachers…. • Invest in them; e.g. p.d. • The Four W’s • Waiting you out • Work with the willing • Win over the doubters • Winnow out the un-redeemables

24. Examples of Prioritizing • Central to school mission statement • Character related “touchstone” • School leader is the champion of the initiative • Integrated across all school elements

25. Resources for Prioritizing • Elbot, C.F., & Fulton, D. (2008). Building an intentional school culture: Excellence in academics and character. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. • Lickona, T., & Davidson, M. (2005). Smart and good high schools: Integrating excellence and ethics for success in school, work and beyond. Washington D.C.: Character Education Partnership. • Characterplus (2005). The Characterplus Way: Plan Implement Refine. St. Louis: Characterplus.

26. Relationships • The 3 R’s of character education are Relationships, Relationships, Relationships • Need to consider ways to doing the same work that also build positive relationships • Relationships should be targeted within and between all stakeholder groups

27. What’s done to children, they will do to society Karl A. Menninger

28. Dear Teacher:I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmans. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane. Sadker & Sadker, 1977

29. A Source of Moral Character UNRELATED SIGNIFICANT ADULTS “Invulnerable children” invariably have an adult outside the family who takes an enduring benevolent interest in the child

30. “Golden Child” and “Tarnished Child”

31. Adult culture of the school • Adults in the school must function as a caring professional learning community • They must “walk the talk” and “talk the walk” • The must treat each other as they want students to behave…with character!

32. Examples of Relationships • Cross-age initiatives • Cooperative learning • Service that builds sustained relationships • Professional Learning Communities • Authentic partnerships • Looping

33. Resources for Relationships • Urban, H. (2009). Lessons from the classroom: 20 thing good teachers do. Redwood City, CA: Great Lessons Press. • Watson, M. (2003). Learning to trust: Transforming Difficult Elementary Classrooms Through Developmental Discipline. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Denton, P., & Kriete, R. (2000). The first six weeks fo school. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.

34. Intrinsic Motivation • Educators often rush to using extrinsic motivation to promote character • The true goal of character education is for students to internalize moral values • Different pedagogical strategies are needed to foster intrinsic motivation

36. Basic Needs of Students • Deci and Ryan (Self-Determination Theory) • Autonomy (sense of empowerment) • Belonging (social connectedness) • Competence (ability to achieve/succeed) • Eccles • Mattering (make a meaningful difference) • Responsibility (contributing group member) • Engagement (challenge and enjoyment) • Identity (knowing one’s place in a social context)

37. Examples of Intrinsic Motivation • Developmental discipline • Community service • Studying role models • Guided reflection on character

38. Resources for Intrinsic Motivation • Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise and other bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. • Dalton, J., & Watson, M. (1997). Among friends: Classrooms where caring and learning prevail. Oakland CA: Developmental Studies Center. • Streight, D. (2013). Breaking into the heart of character: Self-determined moral action and academic motivation. Portland OR: Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education.

39. Modeling • Cannot demand from students what you will not do yourself • Lickona: The single most powerful tool you have for influencing a child’s character is your character • Students learn more from what you do than from what you say • Ghandi: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

40. Examples of Modeling • Peer tutoring • Multi-stakeholder working groups • Teacher (and other staff) behavior • School leader behavior (re: staff) • Open staff discussion of staff behavior

41. Resources for Modeling • Lickona, T., & Davidson, M. (2005). Smart and good high schools: Integrating excellence and ethics for success in school, work and beyond. Washington D.C.: Character Education Partnership.

42. Empowerment • Character develops in part through • as sense of one’s autonomy • Character education should focus on • the empowerment of all stakeholders: • teachers, administrators, support staff, • students, parents, community members, • etc. • A philosophy of empowerment should be • at the heart of the school

43. “The first service that one owes to others in community consists in listening to them. “ Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together

44. Empowerment • Character develops in part through as sense of one’s autonomy • Character education should focus on the empowerment of all stakeholders: teachers, administrators, support staff, students, parents, community members, etc. • A philosophy of empowerment should be at the heart of the school

45. Examples of Empowerment • Democratic student government • Class meetings • Peer mediation • Student guided curricula (e.g., project based learning) • Student run honor system • Student advisory committee • Culture of staff collaborative decision-making

46. Resources for Empowerment • Power, F.C., Higgins, A., & Kohlberg, L. (1989). Lawrence Kohlberg's approach to moral education. New York: Columbia University Press. • Developmental Studies Center. Ways we want our class to be: Class meetings that build commitment to kindness and learning. Oakland CA: Developmental Studies Center.

47. Evidence-Based Strategies • The implementation strategies • selected should be theoretically • justified. • They should also be chosen because • research has demonstrated their • effectiveness. 9

48. Best Practices: What works? Berkowitz, M.W. & Bier, M.C. (2005). What works in character education. Washington D.C.: Character Education Partnership. [Download from either www.characterandcitizenship.org or www.character.org]

49. Across Ages All Stars Building Decision Skills Child Development Project Facing History & Ourselves Great Body Shop I Can Problem Solve Just Community Schools Learning for Life Life-skills Training LIFT Lions-Quest Michigan Model Moral Dilemma Discussion Open Circle PATHE PATHS Peacebuilders Peaceful Schools Peacemakers Positive Action Positive Youth Development Project Essential Raising Healthy Children Resolving Conflict Creatively RIPP Roots of Empathy SDM/PS Seattle Social Development Second Step Social Competence Teaching Students/Peacemakers Teen Outreach Program Effective Programs

50. Most commonly found outcomes • Socio-moral cognition (77 out of 106) • Pro-social behaviors and attitudes (71/167) • Problem-solving skills (57/86) • Violence/aggression (46/100) • Drug use (45/97) • Emotional competency (32/50) • Risk attitudes (31/70) • School behavior (28/69) • Academic achievement (21/33) • Attachment to school (20/33)