Character Education

1
Character Education

• Knowledge is Power

2
Character Education

• Students need a curriculum that will help them
  to understand knowledge as a social
  construction and to acquire the data, skills and
  values needed to participate in civic action and
  social change.
• Banks (2001), p. 197

3
Definitions of Knowledge

• Familiarity, awareness or understandings gained
  through experience or study (Banks)
• The sum or range of what has been perceived,
  discovered or inferred (American Heritage
  Dictionary)
• Justified belief (Bruner)
• Ideas, values and interpretations (Banks)

4
Types of Knowledge

• Personal / cultural derived from personal
  experience
• Popular institutionalized in mass media
• Mainstream Academic Western/Euro-centric
• Transformative Academic challenging mainstream
  academic knowledge
• School presented through textbooks, educators
  and educational institutions

5
The Dominant Canon of Knowledge

• Who will participate in the formulation of that
  common core of shared knowledge and whose
  interest will it serve?
• Banks (2001)

6
The Dominant Canon

• Mainstream scholars label other groups knowledge
  as special interest to detract from their
  generalizability
• Mainstream groups view their interest as
  benefiting the entire public and often get
  marginalized groups to internalize this belief
• Students must learn to critically analyze
  knowledge and construct their own knowledge to
  avoid the traps of traditional western/euro-centri
  c curriculum

7
A Transformative Curriculum

• Should be
• Organized around powerful interdisciplinary
  concepts and social issues
• Facilitate the inclusion of diverse cultural
  content
• Use multiple voices and viewpoints

8
A Transformative Curriculum

• Helps students
• Develops critical thinking skills
• Understand knowledge construction and construct
  personal knowledge
• Engage in reflective decision makings
• Make value choices
• Implement personal and civic action

9
Banks Value Inquiry Model

• The nine step Banks value inquiry model helps
  students identify and clarify personal values and
  make reflective moral choices.

10
Value Inquiry Model 9 Steps

• Defining and recognizing value problems
• Describing value-relevant behavior
• Naming values exemplified by the behavior
• Determining conflicting values in behavior
  described
• Hypothesizing about the possible consequence of
  the values analyzed

11
Values Inquiry Model 9 Steps

• Naming alternative values to those described by
  behaviors observed
• Hypothesizing about the possible consequences of
  values analyzed
• Declaring value preferences choosing
• Stating reasons, sources, and possible
  consequences of value choice justifying,
  hypothesizing, predicting

12
Decision Making Process
13
Questions

• Does the Euro/Western-centric dominant curriculum
  contribute to anti-Semitism?
• How would a transformative curriculum be used to
  help people understand the roots of the current
  crises in Israel and evaluate the medias
  viewpoints?

14
Reflections

• The Decision Making Process might be used to
  evaluate the problem of using the Internet in
  Jewish educational institutions.
• The Decision Making Process might be used to
  analyze the issues of pluralism in Judaism from
  various ideological and cultural perspectives.