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FAQs about Character Education

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This section provides the answers to the following questions:

What is character education?
What are the elements of a successful character education program?
Why is character education important?
Should schools be teaching values?
Whose values are being taught?
Aren't parents responsible for teaching values?
How does character education affect academic performance?

What Is Character Education?

Character education is the deliberate effort by school communities to foster students' ethical development. The goal of character education is to enhance students' knowledge about, commitment to, and behavior in accord with universal principles. Character education is grounded in the belief that a truly comprehensive education involves character formation and the development of good citizenship, as well as academic learning.

At the Ethics Resource Center, we believe that each school community is already involved in the process of character development, whether or not its members acknowledge this important role. Increasingly, many institutions are recognizing this responsibility, and are making a commitment to clarifying their understanding of character development.

In so doing, these schools are reorienting themselves toward becoming communities in which all members are challenged to become ethical people. Many find, however, that they need assistance in establishing both an adequate approach and the support systems to be able to sustain the effort.

Our experience in working with a variety of school and business organizations has confirmed arguments that are growing in scholarly literature. In order for a character development process to succeed, all members of an educational setting must be rooted in a common foundation. Each community needs a set of core ethical values to which everyone (parents, teachers, administrators, staff and students) can consistently and universally refer. When this happens, a foundation is established: teaching and learning can take place because there are ground-rules for behavior, and shared ideals to aim toward. When we agree upon the principles by which we can live (and recognize how our differences are not compromised), we can consistently recognize and reinforce behavior that reaches toward our ideals.

We aim to help schools establish themselves as communities based upon ethical principles, and to advise them as they create the support system that makes the most sense. This perspective places the Ethics Resource Center in a unique role among character development organizations. We approach the task as facilitators, aiming to help schools arrive at the conclusions and the structure they need. We are also ready to offer our expertise as schools or universities develop the influential and long-lasting character development program that meets the needs of their communities.

What Are the Elements of a Successful Character Education Program?

All successful character education programs share some basic elements that serve as the framework of their success. These include:

Establishment of a set of core ethical values.
The heart of a character education program is its core values. Core values represent the ideal ethical virtues or character traits that a school community considers to be worthy of attaining. To make a character education salient, these traits must be shared by all members of a community, including parents, board members, school personnel, and students. These values must be integrated into every aspect of the school community and its culture. Students should be surrounded by these core values: in everyday language, through pictures on the walls, in their extracurricular activities, and in curriculum they learn. Once students realize that ethical behavior is an integral part of the school community, they will consider good character worthy of attaining. Good character consists of understanding, caring about, and acting upon core ethical values that are needed in order to become a vital part of a community.
Integration of these core values in the school culture and curriculum.
The second element of an effective character education program is the integration of the core values into the school culture and curriculum. This requires an intentional and proactive effort to incorporate the core values into all aspects of the school day, including the example set by teachers, the code of discipline, extracurricular activities and the curriculum itself. Methods of integration should help students succeed and must be meaningful, challenging, and respectful of all learners. Character education should aim to increase students' recognition of the ethical element in all aspects of school life. Students should be encouraged to be intrinsically motivated to "do the right thing."
Establishment of the school as a caring community in which all members feel valued and supported, and are, in turn, willing to uphold the core values of the institution.

Ethics begins when the outcome of a situation has an impact on another person. The extent to which members of a school community feel valued is closely connected to the efficacy of any character education initiative. In well-designed character education programs, the behavioral focus is on the traits of a good person--someone who is willing to act so that harm will not come to others. For this reason, effective character education programs foster a sense of community. The opposite is true as well; when members of a school community do not feel valued, it becomes much less likely that they will be motivated to act ethically and make decisions with the best interests of others in mind.

For character education to work, the school itself must be a caring community where students and teachers feel that they matter and are able to form attachments to each other. Only when this occurs will any member of the school community become invested enough in the core values in order to encourage similar engagement of their peers and/or students.

Modeling of ethical behavior and leadership to all members of the school community.
People naturally emulate the behaviors of their leaders. According to Treviño, Hartman, and Brown (2000), a moral leader must become a visible role model and clearly communicate through both word and action his or her ideals about ethics and values. In this case especially, actions speak much louder than words. Role modeling through visible action carries more weight than simply talking about the importance of ethics and values.

Another important aspect of being a moral leader and manager is what Treviño, et al. refer to as "The Reward System." Using rewards and discipline effectively may be the most powerful way for leadership to model ethical behavior. This can be done by rewarding those individuals who behave according to the established core values of the organization and disciplining those who do not. Decisions to reward or discipline must always be guided by a clear and consistent discipline structure.

The same principles hold true for a school environment. A school system relies upon strong leadership--teachers look to administration for moral leadership, while students look to teachers in the same way. Students will agree with the core values of their school if and only if they see those values at work in the lives of their teachers. Similarly, teachers are more likely to cherish and model those values if they see those values displayed by the administration.

Additionally, a discipline system that is consistent across the board must be present if a reward system will be consistently applied. Alongside that system, enforcement must be made clear to both students and teachers.

A system in place to communicate and perpetuate the standards of the community.
Leadership changes are common in schools; principals transfer or get promoted and teachers' responsibilities change as well. For character education to survive and remain vibrant, the whole community must be committed to the effort. This allows for consistent growth and renewal of the effort in classrooms, activities, and the school community as a whole.

Why Is Character Education Important?

Character education enhances the lives of students, while positively impacting the academic environment and supporting strong communities. Character education is an edifying and essential part of any school environment because it:

Teaches right from wrong. People do not "just know" what to do; they need guidance to learn to cherish and uphold the ethical values of their communities.
Leads to success in later schooling and career. Students who have developed strong work ethics, have respect for others, and know the value of perseverance and commitment excel in the academic and career environments.
Enhances academic performance. Much of academic achievement is related to issues of character. Discipline, integrity, and responsibility are hallmarks of good character--and essential skills for academic achievement.
Improves school climate/discipline issues. Effective character education programs reduce distractions in the classroom and the school community. Students can focus and can make great progress because they feel safe and because they know others care about them.
Reflects and upholds community's values. Rather than competing against the values of the community, a well-designed character education initiative identifies community values, invites the larger community to become involved in the process, and helps instill in students the values the community holds dear.
Takes advantage of a grand opportunity. Students spend more time at school than they do in their own homes, with their own families. Instead of allowing the educational environment to be a moral vacuum, the school can be a place that supports families' and communities' efforts to nurture strong values in students.
Acknowledges the reality that schools are always teaching values. Whether schools take the time to intentionally teach values or not, they are always sending a message about their importance. Keeping this in mind, schools must be careful to let students know that values are essential and that time spent learning values is not an add-on, but a vital part of the educational process.

Should Schools Be Teaching Values?

Schools are tasked with creating knowledgeable individuals of good character. Ethical development is critical to the overall development of the individual. Intentionally or unintentionally, all schools teach values. By not taking deliberate action to address issues such as cheating, racism, or sexism, the underlying message is that these matters are not important. On the other hand, through effective character education programs, schools can foster and encourage students to become ethical people--people of good character.

The classroom is a professional environment for learning, and character must be explicitly taught therein. Teachers can use the classroom both as a forum for direct instruction and as an opportunity to lead by example. Administrators can aid in the development of good character by creating a moral community at school. Every student spends more than 900 hours each year in school. Since they are there to learn, it would be wrong to allow this opportunity for moral instruction slip away.

Whose Values Are Being Taught?

It is our experience that the more appropriate question is "Which values will be taught?" We strongly encourage each stakeholder in a school's education community to join together and discuss which of "humanity's" values need to be reinforced during the school day. When this broader discussion takes place, the controversy about schools and values often disappears.

We emphasize shared universal values. However, we believe that the way one teaches these ideals (by choosing words like respect as more important than justice, self-discipline versus responsibility), and the emphasis that is placed on those values are best identified by community members themselves. As a result, we do not predetermine a set of values through a curriculum that a school community must adopt and add into its day. The core values of a character development program are far more meaningful when they arise from an examination of one's own experience. Our efforts are designed to help a community clarify for themselves the principles which already guide them, and to help them to refine their teaching efforts so that character development becomes a recognized part of what they already do.

Aren't Parents Responsible for Teaching Values?

Parents have the primary responsibility of morally educating their children. However, communities, businesses, schools and our religious organizations must actively support families if moral education is to be effective. We are all members of the moral community and are all affected by the decisions and behaviors of others. Therefore, every person, as well as every institution, shares the responsibility to grow good children into good adults.

How Does Character Education Affect Academic Performance?

Studies conducted by various independent organizations provide reliable evidence for the idea that effective character education programs have a positive impact on academic performance, school culture and climate, and account for a reduction in behavioral problems--in addition to the initial goal of promoting social and ethical development.

An article in the August 16, 2005, edition of the New York Times entitled "No Emotion Left Behind" highlights the connection between social-emotional learning programs and academic progress:

"Social and emotional learning is the process through which children learn to recognize and manage emotions. It allows them to understand and interact with others, to make good decisions and to behave ethically and responsibly. … Recent studies, however, have revealed something even more exciting about these programs. Along with Joseph Durlak, a Loyola University psychologist, one of us [Roger Weissberg] recently conducted the largest-ever quantitative analysis, encompassing more than 300 research studies on this subject. The results… show that social and emotional learning programs significantly improve students' academic performance. The review shows, for example, that an average student enrolled in a social and emotional learning program ranks at least 10 percentile points higher on achievement tests than students who do not participate in such programs. Moreover, compared with their counterparts outside of these programs, social and emotional learning students have significantly better attendance records; their classroom behavior is more constructive and less often disruptive; they like school more; and they have better grade point averages. They are also less likely to be suspended or otherwise disciplined.

The numbers vindicate what has long been common sense among many teachers and parents: that children who are given clear behavioral standards and social skills, allowing them to feel safe, valued, confident and challenged, will exhibit better school behavior and learn more to boot."

Research conducted by the Character Education Partnership found that schools that incorporate character education into their curriculum show significant improvements in academic performance, school culture, and positive peer interaction.(1)

Another study conducted in South Carolina, funded by the US Department of Education, found that "91 percent (of students, administrators and parents surveyed) reported improvement in student attitudes, 89 percent reported improvement in student behavior, 60 percent reported improvement in academic performance, and more than 65 percent reported improvement in teacher and staff attitudes, since implementing character education".(2)

Finally, research conducted by the Development Studies Center, over a period of twenty years, reports similar findings. By participating in values education programming, students improve personal and social skills and engage in more positive behavior. Relative to comparative schools without a significant character education presence, students report feeling more connected to their peers and their school community.(3)

1. http://www.character.org/resources/qanda

2. http://www.sc.edu/ccfs/research/charactereducation.html

3. http://www.devstu.org/csc/research.html