Region 10 Davidson, 2004

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Using the 11 Principles of Effective Character
Education to Start, Strengthen, Assess Your
Program

• Region 10 - Project Character
• School Leadership Team Workshop
• April 3, 2004
• Matthew L. Davidson, Ph.D
• Research Director
• Center for the 4th 5th Rs (Respect
  Responsibility)
• DavidsonM_at_Cortland.edu
• 607-753-5798

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1-Minute Ice-Breaker

• Turn to a neighbor sitting near you and say hello
  (if possible, introduce yourself to someone you
  dont already know or get the chance to talk to
  very often).
• Each person should share 1 piece of good news
  and 1 thing youre looking forward to in your
  life.

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Eleven Principles of Effective Character
EducationFrom The Character Education
Partnership
  1. Character education promotes core ethical
values as the basis of good character.    2.
Character must be comprehensively defined to
include thinking, feeling, and behavior.    3.
Effective character education requires an
intentional, proactive, and comprehensive
approach that promotes the core values in all
phases of school life.    4. The school must be a
caring community.    5. To develop character,
students need opportunities for moral action.
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 6. Effective character education includes a
meaningful and challenging academic curriculum
that respects all learners and helps them
succeed.    7. Character education should strive
to develop students intrinsic motivation.    8.
The school staff must become a learning and moral
community in which all share responsibility for
character education and attempt to adhere to the
same core values that guide the education of the
students.    9. Character education requires
moral leadership from both staff and
students.  10. The school must recruit parents
and community members as full partners in the
character-building effort.    11. Evaluation of
character education should assess the character
of the school, the school staffs functioning as
character educators, and the extent to which
students manifest good character. 
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What, exactly, is character?

• From its Greek origins, the word character
  literally translates as, enduring, lasting, or
  distinguishing mark.
• Values are how we describe the enduring mark of
  individuals and communities.
• Character might best be defined as, values in
  action.

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Smart versus good Two great goals set against
each other

• Character education is not a new idea. It is,
• in fact, as old as education itself. Down through
  
• history, in countries all over the world,
  education
• has had two great goals to help young people
• become smart and to help them become good.
• Tom Lickona, Educating for
  Character

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Performance Moral Character

• Performance Character
• The knowledge, habits, dispositions necessary
  for achieving human excellence in performance
  environmentsin school, extracurricular
  activities, in our work.
• Moral Character
• The cognitive, emotional, behavioral
  dispositions necessary for ethical functioning.
  The character that moderates our personal goals
  with the interests of those outside of ourselves,
  and with shared moral values such as justice
  caring, respect responsibility, honesty
  integrity.

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• To educate a person in mind and not in morals is
  to educate a menace to society.
• Theodore
  Roosevelt
• The good-to-great companies placed greater
  weight on character attributes than on specific
  educational background, practical skills,
  specialized knowledge, or work experience. Not
  that specific knowledge or skills are
  unimportant, but they viewed these traits as more
  teachable (or at least learnable), whereas they
  believed dimensions like character, work ethic,
  basic intelligence, dedication to fulfilling
  commitments, and values are more ingrained.
• Jim Collins,
  (2001), Good to Great

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How many lies do you have to tell before you are
a liar? M. Josephson

• For students (and adults, too), moral identity is
  frequently preserved by bracketing off or
  compartmentalizing their moral self.
• We do a good job cultivating identities like,
  athlete and scholar, artist, but pay little
  attention to cultivating moral identity.

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Why the two-dimensional character distinction?

• It acknowledges moral dimension of human
  excellence or achievement, AND establishes a role
  for character in the realization of human
  excellence or achievement.
• It reserves a legitimate place for moral
  excellence in our quest for human excellence.
• If character counts, then show me what it will
  do for my GPA Chicago area High school student.

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Performance, Talent Performance Character

• Performance is the outcome (the grade, the honor
  or award, the achievement) performance character
  are psychological processes that help you pursue
  your personal bestwhether the outcome is
  realized or not (work ethic, courage,
  self-discipline, etc.)
• Its possible to achieve performance and not have
  performance character.
• Talent is the natural ability you are born with
  (intellectually, artistically, physically,
  morally etc.) Character development is the
  process by which you challenge yourself to get
  the most from your talent.

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How is Character Developed?

• Character is like a muscular systemnot just one
  muscle that must be exercised in order to
  develop.
• Can muscles be taught? Yes.
• Can muscles develop memory or habits? Yes.
• Can muscles atrophy? Yes, if they are not used
• Muscles have different potential, but all can be
  developedjust how much and for how long is what
  most want to know.

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What kind of values?

• Performance Values
• Are willing values required for success in
  performance environments.
• E.g., perseverance, courage, hard work, optimism,
  self-control, discipline, orderliness.
• Moral Values
• Are values that carry obligation.
• Are universal (universalizable)we would will
  all persons act according to them.
• Are reversiblewe would want to be treated this
  way.
• E.g., Respect, responsibility, justice, kindness.

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Values and the Sun

• Like the sun, we cant grasp values in their
  entirety.
• Values have infinite particulars based on
  developmental level, environmental context, and
  the value itself.
• Remember to teach in layers not lumps!

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Woodens Pyramid of Success
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Westmoor Elementary Skills

• Apologizing (grades 2/3)
• Accepting Consequences (grades 1/2/5)
• Asking for Help (grades K/1/2/3/4)
• Using Brave Talk (grades 1/3 )
• Dealing with an Accusation (grade 2)
• Dealing with Disappointment (grades 3/5)
• Giving and Accepting Compliments (grades 2/3)
• Ignoring (grades 1/2/3)
• Interrupting (grades K/1/2/3)
• Knowing When to Tell (grades 1/3)

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The Faces of Responsibility
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Jeff Beedy Leader to Detractor Scale

• 5 Leader understands role as a contributing
  team member actively models the value.
• 4 Contributor understands role as a member of
  team seeks opportunities to display teamwork.
• 3 Participant understands role as a member of
  team, but displays little proactive teamwork.
• 2 Observer engages in teamwork only when
  directed to promote self-interests.
• 1 Detractor Detracts from team. No regard for
  teammates.

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1-Minute Buzz Break

• In groups of 2-4 people list the performance
  values and moral values that are critical for
  your kids.
• Take at least one value and attempt to break it
  down into the specific knowledge and skills
  required for putting this value into action.

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Principle 6

• Effective character education includes
• a meaningful and challenging academic
• curriculum that respects all learners and
• helps them succeed.

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Character must be taught through the curriculum!

• Through the curriculumformal, informal,
  hidden. Make the implicit, explicit.
• Through diverse opportunities to help students
  develop performance and moral character.
• Through direct instruction and through
  discussions of emerging teachable moral moments.
  Take a standit is essential for student
  development!
• Through classroom and school-wide discipline that
  is fair, consistent, and co-created.

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The Heartwood Curriculum

• The Heartwood Institute creates ethics curricula
  for children from preschool to grade six.
• Based on good multicultural children's
  literature, the curricula are designed to
  introduce a language of ethics and to foster
  literacy, good judgment and moral imagination.
• Read aloud stories, discussions and activities
  promote understanding of the universal attributes

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• The Heartwood Institute
•  
• 425 North Craig Street  Suite 302 
• Pittsburgh, PA 15213 
• 412-688-8570 
• 1-800-HEART-10 
• hrtwood_at_aol.com 
• http//www.heartwoodethics.org

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The Art of Loving Well Table of Contents

• "Cinderella," by Charles Perrault
• "Cinderella," by the Brothers Grimm
• "The City of Trembling Leaves," by Walter van
  Tilburn Clark
• "Sixteen," by Maureen Daly
• "What Means Switch," by Gish Gen
• "The Makeover of Meredith Kaplan," by Barbara
  Girion
• "Sonnet 130," by William Shakespeare
• "Love Poem," by John Frederick Nims
• "Too Early Spring," by Stephen Vincent Benet
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, (excerpt) by
  Carson McCullers
• "Up on Fong Mountain," by Norma Fox Mazer
• "Houseparty," by Walter Bernstein

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The Loving Well Project Nancy McLaren, Project
Director School of Education, Boston
University 605 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA
02215 Phone [phone] Fax
617/353-2909 http//www.bu.edu/education/lovingwel
l/index.html
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Facing History OurselvesExamining History
and Human Behavior

• Foundational beliefs
• Democratic education must be an apprenticeship
  in liberty.
• History is a moral enterprise.
• Teaching is a craft.
• Adolescents are our future.
• Since 1976 more than 17, 000 educators have
  participated in Facing History workshops and
  institutes
• An estimated 1, 500, 000 students are reached
  each year.

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The Facing History Cycle
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Columbine Elementary SchoolPersonal Social
Responsibility Standards

• Practices organizational skills
• Supports and interacts positively with others
• Takes risks and accepts challenges
• Accepts responsibility for behavior
• Listens attentively, follows directions, stays on
  task
• Evaluates own learning
• A Advanced B Basic
• I In progress P Proficient

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• Math
• Tries a variety of strategies to solve a problem
• Exhibits a knowledge of basic math facts
• Shows effort
• Social Studies
• Participates in discussion
• Understands concepts
• Completes projects assignments
• Shows effort
• Science
• Works cooperatively in groups
• Understands concepts
• Completes assignments experiments
• Shows effort

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Mr. Shoenecks Standards of Excellence

• I will honor commitments.
• I will only make statements that add value and
  stick to the purpose at hand.
• I will come to meetings prepared and determined
  to contribute.
• I will offer alternative proposals to those
  things with which I disagree.

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• 5. I will avoid working in isolation and will
  seek the thinking of others.
• 6. I will not be limited by current boundaries
  and limitations.
• 7. I will look for How Can We rather than Why
  We Cant.
• 8. I will focus on helping others toward their
  purpose through listening and sharing of
  thoughts.

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Reflecting on CharacterMonte Pointe HS,
(Phoenix, AZ)

• Is character important for public figures, or are
  skills and performance all that matter?
• 2. Write about the character of a person you
  greatly admire. How has that persons character
  affected you?
• 3. As a society, have we lost sight of the
  qualities that constitute character?

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• Is character defined by universal qualities or
  does it depend on cultural setting and individual
  viewpoint?
• Describe a defining moment in your life when
  your character was shaped or strengthened. What
  has been the effect?

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1-Minute Buzz Break

• With a colleague from your grade-level or content
  area, brainstorm two character in the curriculum
  connectionsone performance character and one
  moral characterusing the character in the
  curriculum activity sheet.

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Why Be Good?

• This all important question has many different
  answersreward, recognition, punishment,
  disproval, cultural influence.
• Motivation is the bridge between what we know and
  what we do.
• Whats the motivation for elementary-age
  students? For middle and high school students?

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Principle 7

• Character education should strive to
• develop students self-motivation.

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Character Education is an inside job!

• Character education must develop self-motivation,
  students who Do what is right, even if nobody is
  looking.
• Competence in reaching those goals must be
  internally referenced, monitored, pursued.
• When it comes to promoting self-motivated
  individuals
• Tangible extrinsic rewards used primarily for
  controlling peoples behavior tend to undermine
  intrinsic motivation AND self-regulation.
• Extrinsic rewards are less detrimental if they
  are not used contingently and if the social
  context is oriented more towards support than
  control.
• Verbal rewards that convey information or
  feedback that affirms peoples competence tend to
  maintain or enhance intrinsic motivation.

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Do you have outies or innies?

• Do your students worry only about the final
  outcome?
• Do your students have a helpless response to
  success or failure?
• Can they make sense of an outcome and create a
  better plan for the future?

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Outies, Innies, Whats The Difference

• Outer-focused individuals experience
• Increased performance anxiety.
• Helpless response to success failure
• Q How did this happen? A I dont know
• Less personal enjoyment or satisfaction from the
  activity.
• Inner-focused individuals experience
• Increased self-reflection and self-awareness.
• Strong intrinsic motivation.
• A healthy approach to competition, with less
  performance moral character clashes.
• Are Less likely to engage in gaming strategies.

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Developing the Complete Moral PersonHead, Heart,
and Hand

• Developing Innies interconnects head, heart,
  and hand
• Through careful individual planning,
  self-assessment, and skill development.
• Through a balance of community support
  challenge for individual strengths and
  weaknesses.
• By providing a sense of control over our
  behavior.
• Empowering students to understand, monitor, and
  change their behaviors.

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Benjamin Franklins Virtues

• 1. Temperance 8. Silence
• 2. Order 9. Resolution
• 3. Frugality 10. Industry
• 4. Sincerity 11. Justice
• 5. Moderation 12. Cleanliness
• 6. Tranquility 13. Chastity
• 7. Humility

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Character Record Book

• How have I shown respect today?
• How have I failed to show respect today?
• How will I show respect tomorrow?
• Franklin Classical Charter School

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Got Goals?

• Directions In the three columns below list at
  least 5 goals
• for each category. When you have listed at least
  5 goals for
• each category, circle your top 3 goals and rank
  them by
• order of importance.
•  
• Academic Extra-Curricular Character
• For each of your goals from each category above,
  list
• potential assistance you will need (from friends,
  coaches,
• teachers, etc.) to help you reach your goals.

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100 Goals

• Write at least 100 goals.
• Divide them into categories.
• E.g., education, career, fun/adventure,
  spiritual, travel, reading, learning, etc.
• Select the 10 most important goals.
• Write a paragraph explaining the importance of
  your 1 goal.
• Hal Urban, Teacher, Redwood
  City, CA

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Trouble Card

• How to avoid trouble and make a good decision
• Is this something that would be considered wrong
  by my parents, teachers, or religion?
• Does it go against my conscience?
• Will it have bad consequences, now or in the
  future?
• Will I feel sorry after doing it?
• Will it cause me to lose self-respect?
• (adapted from Phyllis Smith-Hansen, Lansing
  Middle School)

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Essential Character Activity

• What is one thing you could do to improve your
  schools approach to recognizing and celebrating
  good character?
• Take one of your schools values and create an
  innie-promoting, self-monitoring tool for
  students.

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Principle 8

• The school staff must become a learning
• moral community in which all share
• responsibility for character education
• attempt to adhere to the same core values
• that guide the education of the students.

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You must be the change you wish to see in the
world

• Character educators need not be
  perfectthankfully!
• They must be committedto a process of ongoing
  growth and development.
• Effective character education requires TIME
  DIALOGUE.
• E.g., Lansing Mission Statement Survey.

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The People, The Process, Priming The Pump

• The People involved in planning, implementing,
  and modeling the shared values of the community.
• The Processes for reflecting on consistency and
  effectiveness in realizing character
  goalspersonal and collective.
• Priming the Pump by providing the time and
  training required for ongoing personal
  development and program improvement.

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

• In Professional Learning Communities at Work,
  DuFour and Eaker (1998) argue, cultures are
  defined by the stories we tell ourselves. These
  stories
• Help clarify our values
• Reveal our view of the world
• Reinforce our interpretation of events
• Instruct us on appropriate conduct
• Identify heroes and villains
• Data offer us an opportunity to tell a story.
• The story of our data and how we interpret it
  is essential to our growth development.

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Story Lines That Wont Lead to Growth
Development

• We dont care what a few people say, everybody
  knows this is a good place.
• By the time that get to high school, its too
  late for character education.
• I dont have the time for character education.
• There must be a program or person that is
  supposed to be doing this.
• Between the lack of parent involvement and the
  media, theres not much we can do.

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Mission-Driven Schools Classrooms

• Individual identity is developed at least in part
  through participation in communities with a clear
  and cohesive institutional identitynot a class,
  a way of life.
• Exemplary schools of character are mission-driven
  schools that provide students with a clear sense
  of what it means to be a member of this
  community.
• The Roosevelt Way
• The Souhegan Six

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The Souhegan SixSouhegan HS, New Hampshire

• Respect and encourage the right to teach and the
  right to learn at all times.
• Be actively engaged in the learning ask
  questions, collaborate, and seek solutions.
• Be on time to fulfill your daily commitments.
• Be appropriate demonstrate behavior that is
  considerate of the community, the campus, and
  yourself.
• Be truthful communicate honestly.
• Be responsible and accountable for your choices.

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Fenway High School Motto

• Work Hard.
• Be Yourself.
• Do the Right Thing.

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St. Benedicts Prep

• Whatever hurts my brother, hurts me.

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Research by Kathryn Wentzel on Middle School
Teachers Indicates That

• Teachers who do the following
• Have high expectations for students
• Avoid negative feedback and are nurturing
• Are fair and use democratic forms of
  communication
• Cultivate motivation for learning and school
• Set clear rules
• Have students who
• Possess prosocial and achievement motivation
• Have a sense of personal mastery and control
• Engage in more prosocial and less irresponsible
  behavior
• Get higher grades in school

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Responsibility, Efficacy, The Character
Educators Challenge

• In general, educators report a very high sense of
  responsibility for character education.
• However, this is juxtaposed by very low self
  reports of efficacy in doing character education.
  
• Nevertheless, character educators tend to
  overestimate the frequency, quality, and impact
  of their character education efforts.
• Herein lies the challenge to develop educators
  who feel responsible and capable for CE, and who
  regularly utilize multiple and diverse methods
  for reflecting on their actual effectiveness.

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Practice what you preach, but dont forget to
preach what you practice!

• Adults need to increase their character education
  practices. They also need to Preach what they
  practice so that the youth experience is caught
  and taught.
• Making your Truth Signs chronically accessible
• We only learn from our mistakes if we have the
  courage to make them.
• Any job worth doing is worth doing well.
• There are no failures, just disappointments when
  you have done your best.John Wooden

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The Intangibles of Best Practice

• Frequently, inadequate implementation of
  character education is NOT from lack of interest
  or commitment, but instead a need for
• More time
• More training
• More or better curricular resources
• Organizational assistance
• Changes in scheduling
• Etc.

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1-Minute Buzz Break

• In your grade-level groups, work in pairs to
  complete the activity, Teachers as Role-Models
  Activity
• Share out with the group.

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Principle 9

• Character education requires moral
• leadership from both staff and students.

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Authentic Involvement

• Character education is something we do with
  studentsnot to them.
• Students can drive the program if they are given
  the responsibility and the required skills.
• Problem-focused advisory group, discipline
  committee, cross-age mentoring, etc
• E.g., St. Leonard Elementary School Kids
  Character Committee, Lansing Middle school
  language survey, MKA honor code, Souhegan High
  School student government.

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• People resolve conflicts without fighting,
  insults, or threats.

• People try to get others to follow the rules.

• When children see someone being picked on, they
  try to stop it.

• People do not care if others cheat.

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The Giraffe Project
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The Giraffe Process

• Hear The Story
• Learn from the Giraffe story-bank of real heroes
  and heroines
• Tell The Story
• Look for giraffes in your community and share
  their story
• Be The Story
• Stick your neck out for worthy causes that need
  your help

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Sample Giraffe Story

• As an eighth-grader, Sarah Swagart decided it was
  wrong for young skateboarders to be treated like
  criminals, threatened with fines of as much as
  500 and 90 days in jail.
• Not a skateboarder herself, she could see that
  the kids might be annoying, but they definitely
  were not criminals.
• She formed Nobody Special, an organization
  whose mission is to get the skateboarders a
  placeand to get the community to see them as
  athletes, not hoodlums.
• She got commitment from the SeaBees at Whidbey
  Naval Air Station to do the construction
  businesses donated materials and theyre on the
  sidewalks raising a mile of money26,400 dollar
  bills.

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Compelling Giraffe Statistics

• The number who thought nothing could be done to
  solve community problems dropped by 55
• The number who agreed that they should help solve
  such problems went up by 27
• Those who chose celebrities as heroes dropped by
  50

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1-Minute Buzz Break

• As a grade-level group, make three columns on a
  piece of scrap paper (assign a group recorder to
  capture the thoughts of the group) . In the
  first column list ways that students are
  currently involved in authentic leadership for
  your character education program. In the second
  column list additional ways students could be
  more authentically involved. In the third column,
  list any between-building leadership
  opportunities for your students (e.g.,
  Middle-Elem, HS-Middle, etc.).

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Principle 10

• The school must recruit parents and
• community members as full partners in
• the character-building effort.

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Parents Need Help Walking the Performance/Moral
Character Tightrope

• Developing both performance and moral character
  requires their help.
• Education is needed for both!

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A lot Easier Said than Done

• A report focusing on the difficulty of raising
  children of integrity and character in America
  today.
• In general, the report indicates a majority of
  parents reporting they believe character
  development outcomes are essential, but also
  believe they are doing an inadequate job in their
  own character development efforts.

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10 Priorities fromThe Biggest Job Well Ever
Have(Laura Malcolm Gauld 2002)

• Truth over harmony
• Principles over rules
• Attitude over aptitude
• Set high expectations and let go of outcomes
• Value success and failure
• Allow obstacles to become opportunities
• Take hold and let go
• Create a character culture
• Humility to ask for and accept health
• Inspiration Job 1

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Principle 11

• Evaluation of character education should
• assess the character of the school, the
• school staffs functioning as character
• educators, the extent to which students
  manifest good character. 

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Reflective Practitioning in the Character
Education Cycle

• Effective character education is a dynamic,
  cyclical, ongoing, never ending process of
  attempting to create zones of optimal character
  development that challenge and engage.

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The Steps of Reflective Practice

• Brainstorm
• Organize
• Prioritize
• Plan
• Implement
• Reflect
• Begin again

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The Key to Effective Program Planning and
Evaluation

• We must be able to define our constructs if we
  hope to
• Effectively reach our educational objective
• Effectively measure our progress

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The Responsive Classroom Program Components

• Classroom organization
• Provides for active interest areas for students,
  space for student-created displays of work and an
  appropriate mix of whole class and individual
  instruction
• A morning meeting format
• Provides children the daily opportunity to
  practice greetings, conversation, sharing and
  problem solving
• Rules and logical consequences
• Generated, modeled and role-played with the
  children that become the cornerstone of classroom
  life.

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• Academic choice time for all children
• Provides them with the necessity of taking
  control of their own learning in some meaningful
  way, both individually and cooperatively
• Guided discovery of learning materials, areas of
  the room, curriculum content and ways of behaving
• Moves children through a deliberate and careful
  introduction to each new experience
• Assessment and reporting to parents
• An evolving process of mutual communication and
  understanding

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Using Data to Drive Practice

• Coaches Checklist
• School as a Caring Community Profile-II (SCCP-II)
• Character Education Quality Standards A
  self-assessment Tool for Schools and Districts
• Global Portraits of Social and Moral Health
• ITCSQ

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Sample Reflection Tools

• Journal Reflections
• Create a personal mission statement.
• Verbal feedback using a whip
• I liked, next time we might
• Sentence completion tests (3X5 cards)
• One specific way I show respect is
• Interviews
• Teacher-student, student-student,
  student-community member
• Observations
• Cafeteria, extracurriculars, bus, etc.

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Lansing Middle School Focus Group

• One specific behavior that indicates a lack of
  character is
• This behavior indicates a need to develop what
  value or skill

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The Faces of Responsibility
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How might your students answer the following
questions?

• When students see another student being mean,
  they try to stop it.
• Students try to comfort a peer who has
  experienced sadness.
• Students help new students feel accepted.
• Students help each other, even if they are not
  friends.
• Students can talk to their teachers about
  problems that are bothering them.

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Reflective practice a process of constantly
righting the flight

• We must constantly bootstrap between our ideal
  path and our current reality.
• We must make in flight corrections or risk
  arriving at the wrong, or unplanned
  destinationor worse.

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I laughed, I cried, I decided to try..

• Following todays discussion, write down 1 or 2
  specific things you plan to utilize within your
  sphere of influence to develop performance
  moral character.
• Challenge yourself to begin by finding 30 total
  minutes per week devoted to developing
  performance moral character (monitor by keeping
  a record).
• Challenge yourself as a professional ethical
  learning community to find 30 minutes every 2
  weeks where you share, reflect upon, refocus
  your efforts.