Smart & Good Report

Lickona and Davidson

www.cortland.edu/character

What is character?What is character education?What is a caring community? What is the role of character in academics-and work in general?

4 Foundational Questions:

What is Character?

•Performance is the outcome (the grade, the honor, the award, the achievement) •Performance character consists of those qualities .(Diligence, perseverance, a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, ingenuity, and self-discipline) needed to pursue our personal best—whether the outcome (is realized or not.

•Talent is the natural ability we are born with (intellectually, artistically, physically, morally, etc.) •Character development is the process by which we develop the dispositions that enable us to maximize our talent potential.

•Moral character enables us to treat others—and ourselves—with respect and care and to act with integrity in our ethical lives.•Moral character moderates our personal goals to honor the interests of others to ensure that we do not violate moral values such as fairness, honesty and caring as we pursue our performance goals.

Moral Character

A Relational Orientation

This concept of character has the potential to transform the culture of school in a way that improves both learning and behavior.

Character education is the intentional integration of excellence and ethics—in the home, school, workplace, and wider community.

Lickona & Davidson

What is Character Education?

A broader definition of character education represents a paradigm shift:

from a focus on developing moral character

to a focus on developing both performance character and moral

character.

What is a caring community?

It is a community where we care about each other not only by being kind and respectful, but also by helping each other to do our best work.

In this kind of a caring community, there is an

expectation that given enough time, effort and support, every student is capable of producing

high quality work.

Book by Ron Berger

An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students

In Berger’s Vision, a Caring Community Provides,,,,,

1. Work that matters

2. Models of excellence

3. A culture of critique

4. A norm of multiple revisions

5. Opportunities to make one’s work public.

Jason’s Story

From Ron Berger’s book

Illustrates the integration of excellence and ethics and the power of a community where students are not only kind and respectful, but also challenge each other to do their best work - a true caring community.

Collective Responsibility

An Ethical Learning Community requires collective responsibility - supporting and challenging others to do their best work and to treat people with care and respect.

Developing Collective Responsibility

• Empowering students to understand, monitor and change their behavior.

• Providing students with a clear sense of what it means to be a member of the class or school.

• Enabling students to share the responsibility for holding all class members accountable to agreed-upon rules.

School as a Community

•For a classroom to be seen as a positive learning environment, students must believe that they are part of a safe and caring community – both in and out of school.

– Have students take responsibility for their own actions.

– Hold each other accountable for following rules.

School as a Community

• Students often fail to see the school as a community, having an intrinsic worth. Thus they justify rules about class attendance, bullying, stealing or cheating solely in terms of how they benefit the individual.

• Help students to develop appropriate responses that articulate with a clear sense of what it means to be a member of this classroom or school.– “That is not how we do things here at

____________ school.”– “At our school, we show respect for others.”

There are at least four different roles for

character in academics and work.

What is the role of character in academics—and work in general?

Smart & Good High Schools; Lickona and Davidson

1.) We need performance character (effort, attitude, study skills, perseverance) in order to do our best work—in math, science, writing, etc.

Smart & Good High Schools; Lickona and Davidson

2.) When we strive for excellence in our work, we develop our performance character. We learn to work hard, overcome obstacles, and find joy in a job well done.

Smart & Good High Schools; Lickona and Davidson

3.) We need moral character (respect, kindness, fairness) in order to create the safe and caring environment required for teaching and learning.

Smart & Good High Schools; Lickona and Davidson

4.) Through academics we develop our moral character by:

• Engaging students in a culture of critique—helping each other do their best work

• Examining the ethical dimensions of the curriculum

• Using our knowledge to benefit others (e.g., through community service, democratic citizenship, & servant leadership).

Smart & Good High Schools; Lickona and Davidson

In this paradigm

• We need character in order to do academic work.

• We develop character through academic work.

•We need to balance character and academics.

•Test scores are important, but we also care about character.

•It’s easier to teach character through Language Arts and Social Studies than it is through Math And Science.

In this paradigm, we no longer say:

Instead we say:

In every academic subject it is both possible and necessary to develop character - performance character and moral character.

This, we believe, is what happens in an Ethical Learning Community.

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

There are at least seven competencies that teachers need to demonstrate in order to live up to their responsibilities as educators for character.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

First, they must be examples of good character to students. While they need not be perfect, they clearly must be working on their own character.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Second, they must see the development of the student’s moral life and character as a professional responsibility and priority.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Third, teachers must be able to engage students in moral discourse about the “oughtness of life”; they must be able to talk with students about what is right and what is wrong in life.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Fourth, teachers must be able to articulate clearly their own positions on a range of ethical issues, while at the same time, not unnecessarily burdening their students with all of their own ethical opinions.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Fifth, teachers must be able to help students empathize with the experiences of others, in effect, helping them to get outside themselves and into the world of others.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Sixth, teachers must be able to establish in their classrooms a positive moral ethos, an environment with high ethical standards, where respect for all is exhibited.

Josephson Institute

What Teachers Can Do to Foster Good Character

Seventh, teachers must be able to provide students with the opportunity for activities in school and in their communities that will give them the experience and practice in behaving ethically and altruistically.

Josephson Institute

4 Keys For Developing Performance Character and Moral Character

• Self-study

• Other-study

• Public performance/presentation

• A community that supports and

challenges.

Key: Self-Study

• Engage in self-monitoring to identify strengths and areas for growth in performance character and moral character.

• Based on self-assessment, set goals to chart a course for improvement.

Key: Other-Study

• Study and emulate the products and pathways of individuals who demonstrate performance excellence and high moral character.

• Learn to identify and replicate exemplars’ pathways to success.

Key: Public Performance/Presentation

• Use public performances—exhibitions, competitions, speeches, concerts, shows, “real-world” work.

• Make schoolwork public—sharing sample work, presenting to peers, getting feedback from peers, etc.—to heighten students’ responsibility for doing their best work and being their best ethical self.

Key: Community That Supports & Challenges

• Develop a learning community whose members pursue the realization of their own potential for excellence and ethics,

• AND help to bring out the best in every other person.