Character Education for the 21 Century · 5 For a review, see Farrington, Camille A., et al. (2012). Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping

Character Education for the 21st Century: What Should Students Learn?

February 2015

Prepared by: Maya Bialik Michael Bogan Charles Fadel Michaela Horvathova

With many thanks to: The Department of Education of Alberta, The Department of Education of New South Wales, Scott Cody, Jennifer Groff, Jordan Magid, Peter Nilsson, and Bernie Trilling for their contributions.

With sincere thanks for the generous support to the:

Center for Curriculum Redesign Boston, Massachusetts www.curriculumredesign.org

February 2015

Copyright © 2015 Center for Curriculum Redesign. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.curriculumredesign.org


Table of Contents

Center For Curriculum Redesign Overview ii .........................................................Why Learn Character Qualities 1 ........................................................................How Would Character Qualities Be Learned 3 .........................................................Character Qualities Framework 4 .......................................................................

Mindfulness 7 ..........................................................................................Curiosity 10 .............................................................................................Courage 13 ..............................................................................................Resilience 16 ............................................................................................Ethics 19 .................................................................................................Leadership 22 ..........................................................................................

Conclusion 25 ...............................................................................................Appendix 1: Evolution of the CCR Character Framework 27 ............................................Appendix 2: Crosswalk Comparison of the CCR Framework to other Character Frameworks 29 ...

i

About the Center For Curriculum Redesign

In the 21st century, humanity is facing severe dif6iculties at the societal, economic, and personal levels. Societally, we are struggling with greed manifested in 6inancial instability, climate change, and personal privacy invasions, and with intolerance manifested in religious fundamentalism, racial crises, and political absolutism. Economically, globalization and innovation are rapidly changing our paradigms of business. On a personal level we are struggling with 6inding ful6illing employment opportunities and achieving happiness. Technology’s exponential growth is rapidly compounding the problems via automation and offshoring, which are producing social disruptions. Educational progress is falling behind the curve of technological progress, as it did during the Industrial Revolution, resulting in social pain.

The Center for Curriculum Redesign addresses the fundamental question of "WHAT should students learn for the 21st century?" and openly propagates its recommendations and frameworks on a worldwide basis. The CCR brings together non-‐governmental organizations, jurisdictions, academic institutions, corporations, and non-‐pro6it organizations including foundations.

Knowledge, Skills, Character, and Metacognition

CCR seeks a holistic approach to deeply redesigning the curriculum, by offering a complete framework across the four dimensions of an education: knowledge, skills, character, and metacognition. Knowledge must strike a better balance between traditional and modern subjects, as well as interdisciplinarity. Skills relate to the use of knowledge, and engage in a feedback loop with knowledge. Character qualities describe how one engages with, and behaves in, the world. Metacognition fosters the process of self-‐re6lection and learning how to learn, as well as the building of the other three dimensions.

To learn more about the work and focus of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, please visit our website at www.curriculumredesign.org/about/background

ii

http://www.curriculumredesign.org/about/background

Character Education for the 21st Century © CCR – www.curriculumredesign.org 1

Why Learn Character Qualities?

Since ancient times, the goal of education has been to cultivate confident and compassionate students who become successful learners, contribute to their communities, and serve society as ethical citizens. Character education is about the acquisition and strengthening of virtues (qualities), values (ideals and concepts), and the capacity to make wise choices for a well-‐rounded life and a thriving society.

Facing the challenges of the 21st century requires a deliberate effort to cultivate in students personal growth and the ability to fulfill social and community responsibilities as global citizens. The Millennium Project tracks 30 variables globally to discern the State of the World1 and identifies “where we are winning, losing, and unclear/little change.” Worrisomely, areas where humanity is losing (see below) are largely ethical (environmental issues, corruption, terrorism, income inequality)2.

Figure 1. Millennium Project analysis of areas where we are losing.

At the same time, advances in science and technology are a double-‐edged sword. Although they provide more opportunities for global collaboration and progress, they also create new ethical challenges such as the use of nuclear energy, pesticides, genetic modification and more broadly a paradigm of material progress.3 On a practical level, their exponential growth is also rapidly compounding problems via automation and offshoring, which are producing social disruptions.

1 Glenn, J. Gordon, T. J., & Florescu, E. (2007). State of the Future. The Millennium Project.

2 See https://themp.org

3 Eckersley, R. (2001). Postmodern science: The decline or liberation of science? In, Science Communication in Theory and Practice. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 83-94.

Ecological Footprint / Biocapacity ratio [*10]

Economic income inequality (share of top 10%)

Terrorism incidents [1/100]

Levels of corruption (0=highly corrupt; 6=very clean)

O2 emissions from fossil fuel and cement production (billion tonnes) (GtCO2)

Forest area (% of land area)

Renewable internal freshwater resources per capita (thousand cubic meters)


It is through a sense of personal and ethical responsibility that students, the citizens of the future, will be able to make knowledgeable and wise decisions that address the challenges above. These are the broad aims of character education:

• to build a foundation for lifelong learning;

• to support successful relationships at home, in the community, and in the workplace; and

• to develop the personal values and virtues for sustainable participation in a globalized world.

Our human interdependency is both our strength and weakness. In the words of Nobel Prize winner Christian de Duve: “We have evolved traits [such as group selfishness] that will lead to humanity's extinction – so we must learn how to overcome them.”4 Indeed our collective well-‐being comes through our individual awareness.

Research has shown that students’ capacities beyond academic learning of knowledge and skills are important predictors of achievement,5 and that it proves useful once in the workforce. While knowledge and skills may or may not be used in future jobs, character qualities will invariably be applicable to a wide range of professions.

4 De Duve, C. & Patterson, N. (2010). Genetics of original sin: the impact of natural selection on the future of humanity. Yale University Press.

5 For a review, see Farrington, Camille A., et al. (2012). Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance—A Critical Literature Review. Consortium on Chicago School Research.


How Would Character Qualities Be Learned?

In brief, it is not the intent of this paper to address the “How” of teaching character qualities, but rather the “What” of what those qualities ought to be. Here we provide a brief discussion of how they might be learned just to provide a concrete example for both in the classroom but also, critically, outside the classroom and even outside the school, which will challenge traditional education systems to cater to such needs via activities such as scouting, adventures such as Outward Bound, etc.

In school, “practices” will include a wide range of pedagogical activities beyond didactic instruction, such as play, inquiry, debate, design, performance, sports, and contemplative practices. Each pedagogical activity has unique challenges and benefits.

Practices may feature characteristics such as:

• Growth mindset6

• Stages of moral development7

• Systems-‐awareness

• “Co-‐opetition”: Competition (in sports, music, robotics, etc.) and Collaboration (team-‐structured)

• Fail-‐safely experimentation, with endeavors that stretch the student

• Processes, not just flat Knowledge

• Systematically metacognitive (reflection on processes)

• Longitudinal/multi-‐year span (of projects, and Self [career planning, metacognitive…])

• Senior citizens involvement for mixed aged dynamics (wisdom, sensitivity, etc.)

• Global cause involvement

• Internships/job training

• Embedding technology deeply and wisely

6 Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House LLC.

7 Kohlberg, L., Levine, C. & Hewer, A. (1983). Moral stages: A Current Formulation and a Response to Critics: Contributions to Human Development. S Karger Publications.


Character Qualities Framework

“There is every reason to place renewed emphasis on the moral and cultural dimensions of education… this process must begin with self-‐understanding through… knowledge, meditation and the practice of self-‐criticism.”

~ Report from the International Commission on Education in the 21st Century UNESCO 19968

First, a definition: “Character” encompasses all of “Agency,” “Attitudes,” “Behaviors,” “Dispositions,” “Mindsets,” “Personality,” “Temperament,” “Values” aka “Social & Emotional Skills”9 (OECD). “Character,” although sometimes charged with negative connotation, is a concise term that is recognizable by all cultures.

Character qualities are defined as distinct from Skills, which represent the ability to effectively use what one knows. Higher-‐order skills (such as the “4 C’s” of Creativity, Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration – also known as “21st Century Skills”10) are essential for acquisition and application of Knowledge as well as for work performance.11

"Why “Qualities”? Because “Traits” are incorrectly assumed by many as fixed and immutable". Herein, the accent is placed on brain plasticity, implying that aspects of Character can be learned to a certain extent.12

Why a framework? Simply because it is human nature to focus on what gets clearly identified, and even further, measured. It makes crisper the “design goals” of Character education. As to what would make a good framework, it would need to be:

1. Complete → no major elements missing 2. Compact → actionable and deployable 3. Uncorrelated → no duplication and confusion 4. At the Appropriate layer of abstraction → for robustness and clarity – sensical 5. Globally relevant → for broad acceptability

As a framework responding to all of the aforementioned criteria was not located, the Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) synthesized and then refined a composite of many frameworks from around the world, including:

8 For more information see:

www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/rethinking-education/visions-of-learning

9 And not the incorrect and incomplete terminology: “non-cognitive skills” or “soft skills”. See: http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/educationandsocialprogress.htm

10 Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2009) 21st century skills. Wiley.

11 The Conference Board “Are they really ready to work?”; AMA “Critical skills survey”; PIAAC program (OECD).

12 Lickona, T. (2004). Character matters: How to help our children develop good judgment, integrity, and other essential virtues. Simon and Schuster.


• CAEC • Character Counts! Coalition • CharacterEd.Net • Character Education Partnership • China MoE • Facing History and Ourselves • KIPP Schools • P21.org

• Royal Society for the Arts • Singapore MoE • South Korea MoE • CASEL • Sweden MoE • Thailand MoE • Young Foundation

CCR’s Character Framework also incorporated the education philosophy of thought leaders such as Howard Gardner13, Robert Sternberg14, and Edgar Morin15, whose concepts are presented below:

Gardner: ● Disciplined ● Synthesizing ● Creating ● Respectful ● Ethical

Sternberg: ● Practical ● Analytical ● Creative ● Wise

Morin: ● Pertinence in knowledge ● Confronting uncertainties ● Detecting errors ● Understanding each other ● Teaching the human condition ● Ethics for Humanity

It was then iteratively refined with input from more than five hundred teachers from around the world, in late 2014. For a sample of previous drafts of the framework that led up to the current one and a comparison of our framework with others, see Appendices 1 and 2 respectively.

The table below identifies the six essential qualities that emerged from the Center’s research, as well as a host of associated traits and concepts.16 It is important to keep in mind that the list of associated qualities and concepts is not exhaustive, and very often cross-‐defined, which makes this field ripe for never-‐ending academic debates.

13 Gardner, H. (2009). Five minds for the future. Harvard Business Review Press.

14 Sternberg, R. (2003). Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. Cambridge University Press.

15 Morin, E. (1999). Seven complex lessons in education for the future. UNESCO.

16 Along the way, it was found that the distinction of Moral vs. Performance is difficult and partially duplicative. The Distinction between Inter- and Intra-personal is also unnecessary for the same reasons.


Top Qualities Associated Qualities and Concepts (non-exhaustive)

Mindfulness Wisdom, self-‐awareness, self-‐management self-‐actualization, observation, reflection, consciousness, compassion, gratitude, empathy, caring, growth, vision, insight, equanimity, happiness, presence, authenticity, listening, sharing, interconnectedness, interdependence, oneness, acceptance, beauty, sensibility, patience, tranquility, balance, spirituality, existentiality, social awareness, cross-‐cultural awareness, etc.

Curiosity Open-‐mindedness, exploration, passion, self-‐direction, motivation, initiative, innovation, enthusiasm, wonder, appreciation, spontaneity etc.

Courage Bravery, determination, fortitude, confidence, risk taking, persistence, toughness, zest, optimism, inspiration, energy, vigor, zeal, cheerfulness, humor etc.

Resilience Perseverance, grit, tenacity, resourcefulness, spunk, self-‐discipline, effort, diligence, commitment, self-‐control, self-‐esteem, confidence, stability, adaptability, dealing with ambiguity, flexibility, feedback, etc.

Ethics Benevolence, humaneness, integrity, respect, justice, equity, fairness, kindness, altruism, inclusiveness, tolerance, acceptance, loyalty, honesty, truthfulness, authenticity, genuineness, trustworthiness, decency, consideration, forgiveness, virtue, love, helpfulness, generosity, charity, devotion, belonging, civic-‐mindedness, citizenship, equality, etc.

Leadership Responsibility, abnegation, accountability, dependability, reliability, conscientiousness, selflessness, humbleness, modesty, relationship skills, self-‐reflection, inspiration, organization, delegation, mentorship, commitment, heroism, charisma,followership, engagement, leading by example, goal-‐orientation, focus, results orientation, precision, execution, efficiency, negotiation, consistency, socialization, social intelligence, diversity, decorum, etc.

In the following sections, we will describe each one of the six Character Qualities, and briefly summarize how they can be learned and – whenever possible – measured. The subject of character assessment is a large and important undertaking. The cursory coverage of these ideas in this document aims to simply give some examples of possible methods of assessment, not prescribe any particular assessments or exhaustively describe all possibilities.


A. Mindfulness

Self-awareness, self-esteem, self-actualization, growth, vision, insight, observation, consciousness, compassion, listening, presence, sharing, interconnectedness, empathy,

sensibility, patience, acceptance, appreciation, tranquility, balance, spirituality, existentiality, oneness, beauty, gratitude, interdependency, happiness, etc.

“If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”

— Dalai Lama

a. What it is

The practice of mindfulness comes from Eastern spiritual philosophy, first translated from Sanskrit to English by British scholars in 1784, and later influencing a range of western thinkers; Zen Buddhism in particular experienced a boom of recognition in America after World War II both in the intellectual and public spheres.17 In addition to fulfilling a spiritual role, mindfulness has been used successfully for clinical purposes (treating stress, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and addiction), and has recently been introduced as a practice that enhances everyday life.18

Mindfulness can be defined as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-‐judgmentally to the unfolding of experiences moment by moment.”19 Although it is common to practice mindfulness through meditation, the two should not be confused, as mindfulness can be practiced through any daily experience such as eating, walking, driving, etc.

Ellen Langer famously argues that the traditional view of “no pain, no gain” education in which learning occurs with repetitive study and unwavering focus is designed for a perfectly static environment and for the constantly changing environment we live in, mindfulness education is far more effective.20 Research suggests that mindfulness training can enhance attention and focus, and improve memory, self-‐acceptance, self-‐management skills, and self-‐understanding,21 although the size of the effect is debated. It has also been associated with higher positive affect, vitality, life satisfaction, self-‐esteem, optimism, and self-‐actualization,” as well as with “higher autonomy, competence, and relatedness.”22 It has also been proposed as a mechanism to address oppression23 and combat global and environmental crisis and the apparent inability to respond to

17 McCown, D., Reibel, D., & Micozzi, S. (2010). Teaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators. New York. Springer.

18 Hooker, K. & Fodor, I. (2008). Teaching mindfulness to children. Gestalt Review, 12(1), 75-91.

19 Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Delacorte.

20 Langer, E. (1993). A mindful education. Educational Psychologist 28(1) 43-50.

21 Hooker, K. & Fodor, I. (2008). Teaching mindfulness to children. Gestalt Review, 12(1), 75-91.

22 Brown, K. & Ryan, R. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848.

23 Orr, D. (2014). The uses of mindfulness in anti-oppressive pedagogies: philosophy and praxis. Canadian Journal of Education. 27(4), 77-497.


it due to a lack of translating knowledge into action and value the world intrinsically.24 Even brief mindfulness meditation trainings have shown reduced fatigue and anxiety, and improved visuo-‐spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning.25

b. How it can be taught

It is very important that the person who is teaching mindfulness also practices it in his or her own life, otherwise the authenticity and effectiveness is likely to be lost.26 It is important to explicitly discuss the exercises with children in order to address misconceptions such as meditation is only for experts, that it means going into a trance, or that it is used for relaxation.27 Some children may experience anxiety from practicing mindfulness, and teachers should be careful to gently encourage these students only in the ways that are appropriate for them.

Many successful mindfulness curricula for children begin with exercises emphasizing awareness of the environment, such as writing in a journal about their daily routine in increasing detail, or drawing a picture of an object with increasing levels of detail. Slightly more advanced exercises focus on awareness of the body’s movement,28 or on the senses. Consider for example the following script.29

Bring your attention to the raisin, observing it carefully as if you had never seen one before. Pick up one raisin and feel its texture between your fingers and notice its colors. Be aware of any thoughts you might be having about the raisin. Note any thoughts or feelings of liking or disliking raisins if they come up while you are looking at it. Then lift the raisin to your nose and smell it for a while and finally, with awareness, bring it to your lips, being aware of the arm moving the hand to position it correctly and of your mouth salivating as the mind and body anticipate eating. Take the raisin into your mouth and chew it slowly, experiencing the actual taste of the raisin. Hold it in your mouth. When you feel ready to swallow, watch the impulse to swallow as it comes up, so that even that is experienced consciously. When you are ready, pick up the second raisin and repeat this process, with a new raisin, as if it is now the first raisin you have ever seen.

Some classic exercises such as meditation on the breath may not need to be adjusted very much at all. Counting breath in various ways is a helpful exercise for focusing awareness, and it is important to remind children that it is normal for the mind to wander, and when they notice this they should simply bring it back to focus on the breath, without judgment. A particularly useful exercise emphasizing not engaging with thoughts involves imagining thoughts as bubbles rising up or clouds drifting across the sky.30 Explicitly connecting such exercises to their daily life (particularly when they feel anxious, overwhelmed or angry) can be especially effective if it is reinforced by other adults in the children’s lives. Mindfulness exercises may also be coupled with breathing techniques that physiologically prepare the body, such as in the Youth

24 Bai, H. (2001). Beyond Educated Mind: Towards a Pedagogy of Mindfulness. In, Unfolding Bodymind: Exploring Possibilities Through Education,

eds. B. Hockings, J. Haskell, & W. Linds (Brandon, VT: The Foundation for Educational Renewal), 86 - 99.

25 Zeidan, F. et al. (2010). Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: evidence of brief mental training. In, Consciousness and Cognition.

26 Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003) Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156.

27 Gunaratana, V. (1991). Mindfulness in Plain English. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

28 Fontana, D. & Slack, I. (1997). Teaching Meditation to Children: A Practical Guide to the Use and Benefits of Meditation Techniques. Boston: Element.

29 Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Delacorte.

30 LeShan, L. (1974). How To Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery. New York: Bantam Books.


Empowerment Seminar.31 This grounded approach may be especially useful for children, or people suffering through hardships like PTSD.32

At the beginning of the day, during key transitions, or before important events may be the best times to engage children in mindfulness exercises so that they may approach their activities centered and focused.

c. How it can be assessed

Self-‐report questionnaires, especially those that take into account multiple facets of mindfulness, have been found to be valid measures in psychometric research.33 This is philosophically aligned with the practice of mindfulness as it encourages people to reflect on themselves and their experiences.

31 Ghahremani, Dara G., et al. (2013). Effects of the Youth Empowerment Seminar on impulsive behavior in adolescents. Journal of Adolescent

Health, 53(1), 139-141.

32 Seppälä, Emma M., et al. (2014). "Breathing‐Based Meditation Decreases Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in US Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study." Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(4), 397-405.

33 Baer, R. et al. (2006). Using self-report assessment methods to explore facets of mindfulness. Assessment, 13(27) 27-45.


B. Curiosity

Open-mindedness, exploration, passion, self-direction, motivation, initiative, innovation, enthusiasm, spontaneity, etc.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

— Albert Einstein

a. What it is

Early discussions of curiosity as a character quality date back to Cicero, who described it as “an innate love of learning and of knowledge, without the lure of any profit”34; and Aristotle, who saw it as an intrinsic desire for information,35 a view that is still widely recognized as important. Modern psychology research has taken several different approaches to studying curiosity: examining its source, situational determinants, correlates, and relationship to motivation.

Research suggests that curiosity is both a trait (general capacity) and a state (sensitive to context). It is also both an internal (homeostatic) drive as well as a response to external cues (stimulus evoked)36. Curiosity can be conceived of as a drive (comparable to thirst or hunger) due to organisms trying to minimize the unpleasantness of uncertainty. Behavioral studies of organisms ranging from cockroaches to monkeys to humans have found that when deprived of sensory input they will seek out information, and that the “thirst for knowledge” can be satisfied with information just as physiological thirst can be satisfied with water.

It has also been described as a response to violated expectations (or perceptual and conceptual conflict37), following an inverted U-‐shaped curve where the greatest amount of curiosity is elicited by an optimal degree of violated expectations;38 when we know enough to be interested, but we are still to some degree uncertain of how best to make sense of the idea. The optimal arousal model was arrived at separately by three different researchers in different fields: Hebb (who studied neuroscience), Piaget (who studied developmental psychology), and Hunt (who studied motivation). Curiosity has also been placed in a larger model of motivation, stemming from the drive to resolve uncertainty39.

This model is both intuitive and supported by research: we naturally try to understand the world around us, and this manifests as curiosity. As one would expect, it is highly specific to the interplay of person’s strengths

34 Cicero. (1914). De finibus bonorum et malorum (H. Rackham, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Press.

35 Aristotle. (1933). Metaphysics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

36 Lowenstein, G. (1994). The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 75-98.

37 Berlyne, D. (1960). Conflict, arousal and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill.


39 Kagan, J. (1972). Motives and development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 22(1), 51.


and the difficulty of the task.40 This is related to ideas such as cognitive dissonance, ambiguity aversion, and gestalt psychology. The Information-‐Gap theory,41 building on these findings, models, connections, and at that time unexplained observations, treats curiosity as the feeling resulting from paying attention to a gap in knowledge between what one knows and what one wants to know. The Interest/Deprivation theory combines the ideas from curiosity models with the neuroscience of desire and reward, and claims that both induction of a positive sensation of interest and reduction of a negative sensation of uncertainty are involved in curiosity.42

A recent fMRI study43 successfully found that the greater the curiosity, the more resources (time or tokens) participants were willing to spend on receiving the answer, and (in line with mounting evidence) the more likely they were to remember the information later. Additionally, higher curiosity correlated with higher activation of areas of the brain associated with anticipated reward, prediction error, and memory.


One thing that is clear from research into curiosity is that simply “giving” students information is not as effective as first piquing their curiosity. This can be done in a variety of ways that challenge their existing mental models and orient them toward a gap in their knowledge such as presenting a contradiction,44 or through inquiry-‐based learning and problem-‐based learning.45 An operationalized notion of the information gap has been developed to estimate the information gap in students’ knowledge: the lower bound is students’ confidence in their knowledge of the information, and the higher bound is how important learning about a topic is to the students.46

However, while many relevant factors are in the teachers’ control, it is important to keep in mind that since curiosity is closely related to students’ intrinsic drive to make sense of the world around them, students’ autonomy must be closely considered. An environment that is too controlled by the teacher leaving no space for the agency of the student is not going to be effective in encouraging curiosity.47 Research suggests that monitoring children’s play and offering them rewards decreases their interest in the activity even two weeks later.48 In further support of this, studies have found that the most important aspect underlying students’ curiosity is their perceived value of the information.49 If they are learning because they must do so for the class, this undermines the students’ intrinsic curiosity for the knowledge, which must stem from their understanding of its importance. In addition to autonomy, personalization and contextualization have also

40 Miyake, N., & Norman, D. (1979). To ask a question, one must know enough to know what is not known. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal

Behavior, 18(3), 357-364.


42 Litman, J. (2005). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition and Emotion,19(6), 793-814.

43 Kang, M., Hsu, M., Krajbich, I., Loewenstein, G., McClure, S., Wang, J., & Camerer, C. (2009). The wick in the candle of learning epistemic curiosity activates reward circuitry and enhances memory. Psychological Science, 20(8), 963-973.

44 Vidler, D. (1974). The use of contradiction to stimulate curiosity. Educational Technology, 14(10), 41-43.

45 Pluck, G. & Johnson, H. (2011). Stimulating curiosity to enhance learning. Educational Science and Psychology, 2(19) 24-31.

46 Gentry, J., Burns, A., Dickinson, J., Putrevu, S., Chu, S., Hongyan, Y., Williams, L., Bare, T., & Gentry, R. (2002). Managing the curiosity gap does matter: What do we need to do about it? Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 26, 67-73.

47 Niemec, C. & Ryan, R. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in Education. 7(2), 133-144.

48 Lepper, M., Greene, D., Carskaddon, G., & Gronner, P. (1972). Turning Play into Work : Effects of Adult Surveillance and Extrinsic Rewards on Children’s Intrinsic Motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(3), 479–486.

49 Rossing, B. & Long, H. (1981). Contributions of curiosity and relevance to adult learning motivation. Adult Education Quarterly, 32, 25-36.


been found to increase students’ intrinsic motivation.50 Finally, teacher involvement has been found to be particularly important to motivation, and students who are initially are more motivated receive greater attention from their teachers, thus enhancing their involvement further.51


Measurement of trait curiosity directly is very difficult, since any test must be biased toward some particular subjects and not information in general and since most studies found it to be highly correlated with IQ and creativity. The measurement of trait curiosity is less relevant to education, however, than the measurement of state curiosity. In other words, measuring how generally curious any individual is may be less informative than measuring how successful a given activity or curriculum is at inducing curiosity. Accordingly, questionnaires have been developed to address state curiosity and have been found to be valid and reliable for use as research instruments.52 In a related vein, questionnaires that measure motivation (extrinsic, intrinsic, and amotivation) have been developed and tested cross culturally.53 Behavioral measures such as how much effort/resources/time individuals use to obtain a new piece of information as well as exploratory behaviors have been used to measure curiosity as well.

Interestingly, this translates directly to students’ “engagement” with class material. To what degree do the students seem intrinsically motivated? How far do they push themselves? The questions involved in measuring curiosity are the same ones involved in describing how driven students are about their learning.

50 Cordova, D. & Lepper, M. (1996) Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning: Beneficial Effects of Contextualization, Personalization, and

Choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(4), 715-730.

51 Skinner, E. & Belmont, M. (1993). Motivation in the classroom: Reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across the school year. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(4), 571.

52 Naylor, F. (1981). A state-trait curiosity inventory. Australian Psychologist, 16(2), 172–183.

53 Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., Blais, M., Briere, N., Senecal, C., & Vallieres, E. (1992). The Academic Motivation Scale: A measure of intrinsic, extrinsic, and motivation in education. Educational and Psychological Measurement. 52(4), 1003-1017.


C. Courage

Bravery, determination, fortitude, confidence, risk taking, persistence, toughness, zest, optimism, inspiration, energy, vigor, zeal, cheerfulness, humor, stability, etc.

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

a. What it is

Courage can be thought of as an ability to act despite fear or uncertainty, in risky situations or when we are feeling vulnerable.54 While courage must not be taken to the extreme since some errors can clearly have devastating consequences, it is still true that courage is necessary for all individuals both in their professional and personal lives. A commonly cited professional example is entrepreneurship. While studies have not found entrepreneurs to be more risk-‐taking on self-‐rated measures, "multivariate tests revealed that entrepreneurs categorized equivocal business scenarios significantly more positively than did other subjects, and univariate tests demonstrated that these perceptual differences were consistent and significant (i.e. entrepreneurs perceived more strengths versus weaknesses, opportunities versus threats, and potential for performance improvement versus deterioration)."55 In fact, one paper describes organizational failures as consequences of “failures of courage,” since none of the people responsible were able to act to prevent it.56 It is well established that risk taking is higher in adolescents than in children or adults,57 and higher in males than in females.58 It is also clear that this capacity is not fixed.

Courage can be considered a subjective experience, where an individual overcomes fear and chooses to take action in the face of uncertainty. In the courageous mindset there are three intrapersonal positive traits that one must develop in order to “loosen the hold that a negative emotion has gained on that person's mind and body by dismantling or undoing preparation for specific action,”59 and contribute to one’s courageous mindset. These traits include openness to experience, conscientiousness, and self-‐evaluation traits such as

54 Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. Penguin.

55 Palich, L. & Bagby, R. (1995). Using cognitive theory to explain entrepreneurial risk-taking: Challenging conventional wisdom. Journal of Business Venturing, 10(6), 425–438.

56 Rate, C. & Sternberg, R. (2007). When good people do nothing: a failure of courage. In, Research Companion to the Dysfunctional Workplace, 3-21. Northampton, MA,: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

57 Steinberg, L. (2007). Risk Taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives From Brain and Behavioral Science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(2), 55–59.

58 Byrnes, J., Miller, D., & Schafer, W. (1999). Gender Differences in Risk Taking : A Meta-Analysis, 125(3), 367–383.

59 Fredrickson, B. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226.


self-‐efficacy.60 Simultaneously, one must withhold pro-‐social values and experience affirmative social forces in order to minimize one’s level of fear and act courageously “to be liked (normative influence) or to be right (informational influence).”6


In School Courage is needed in the classroom for both teachers and students to overcome fears, challenge one another’s biases, and learn new concepts and skills. Significant risk taking – and consequent failing – is shown to increases students’ competencies, imaginations, confidence, and resourcefulness.61 In order to encourage risk taking, and therefore develop courage, a teacher can use four tactics: (1) serve as role models of risk takers themselves, (2) celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn, (3) structure grading policies that forgive mistakes and encourage revision, and (4) discuss narratives about mistakes that resulted in successful outcomes.62

Outside of School Specific types of courage, such as physical, expressive, and moral courage, can be taught through informal learning frameworks that include structured time for relationship building, physical challenges and skill acquisition.63 These qualities of an informal learning experience, blended with a supportive social environment that includes culturally competent role models, can foster courage by ensuring that learners are “seen, heard and valued.” Such programs increase self-‐efficacy, and encourage learners to make healthy choices despite possible social scrutiny or intrapersonal fearful emotions.64


Risk taking tendencies of entrepreneurs were not accurately captured by self-‐report methods, however they were reflected in their responses to case studies65 and situational judgment tasks66 providing a glimpse into a potential method for assessment. There are, however, ways to measure moral courage, which is a construct relevant to organizational psychology, particularly useful for hiring processes. These measurements assess levels of altruism and the propensity to take risks, in order to determine ethical orientations among employees towards morally courageous action.67 It is important to distinguish morally courageous acts from foolhardiness or thrill-‐seeking, which describe risk taking as mere adrenaline boosts that puts oneself or others in danger with general disregard.68

60 Hannah, S., Sweeney, P., & Lester, P. (2007). Toward a courageous mindset: The subjective act and experience of courage. The Journal of

Positive Psychology, 2(2), 129-135.

61 Haworth. J. & Conrad. C. (1997). Emblems of quality in higher education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

62 Loui, M. (2006). Courage in the Classroom. College Teaching, 54(2), 221-221.

63 Whittington, A. & Mack, E. (2010). Inspiring courage in girls: An evaluation of practices and outcomes. Journal of Experiential Education, 33(2), 166-180.

64 ibid.

65 Palich, L. E., & Bagby, R. (1995). Using cognitive theory to explain entrepreneurial risk-taking: Challenging conventional wisdom. Journal of Business Venturing, 10(6), 425–438.

66 ibid.

67 Chapa, O., Gonzalez, R., & Stringer, D. (2012). The path of measuring moral courage in the workplace. Proceedings of 2012 Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business – US Northeast Chapter: Business Without Borders, 1-9.

68 Konter, E. & Ng, J. (2012). Development of sport courage scale. Journal of Human Kinetics, 33, 163-172.


Other fields, such as sports psychology, have also developed courage measurements. Konter and Ng identified a five-‐factor measurement scale that assesses courage in sport, which evaluates: (1) Determination to push towards a goal despite boundaries, (2) Mastery as a source of self-‐confidence, (3) Assertiveness to expend a high amount of energy, (4) Venturesome as a way to cope with fear, and (5) Sacrifice Behavior related to altruistic risk-‐taking.69

Despite holistic attempts to categorize courage within four specific “types,” such as work/employment, patriotic/religion-‐based belief systems, specific social/moral situations, and independent or family based courage, recent research suggests that far more types of courage are yet to be understand and the construct of courage may need to be classified more frequently as complex and situation-‐based conceptualizations.70

69 ibid.

70 Woodard, C. & Pury, C. (2007). The construct of courage: Categorization and measurement. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 59(2), 135.


D. Resilience

Perseverance, resourcefulness, tenacity, grit, spunk, charisma, confidence, adaptability, dealing with ambiguity, flexibility, self-discipline, commitment, self-control, feedback, effort,

diligence, etc.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

— Nelson Mandela

a. What it is

In its most basic form, resilience can be thought of as an ability or set of qualities that allow one to overcome obstacles. Resilience is the essence of the rags-‐to-‐riches stories that have permeated cultures for centuries. It encompasses the ability of certain people to succeed where others in their circumstances would not. In a 2000 paper about the history and continuing discussion on resilience, it is defined as, “a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity.”71 The designation “dynamic process” highlights the fact that resilience is a word used for a multitude of factors which all influence whether or not someone will succeed in the face of adversity. One of the contributing elements of resilience is the notion of “grit.” In her seminal study regarding grit, which is defined therein as, “perseverance and passion for long-‐term goals,” Angela Duckworth and her colleagues found that, “grit accounted for an average of 4% of the variance in success outcomes.”72

The three main factors that have been identified in schools, communities and social support systems as positively influencing resilience in youth are: caring relationships, communication of high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful involvement and participation.73 74 75

As resilience is primarily concerned with overcoming adverse conditions when others might not, much of the early research on resilience focuses on sample groups from “high-‐risk” communities and school systems. This research did much to identify resilience as a key factor in whether or not a student was likely to succeed in a high-‐risk setting.76 The identification of resilience as a positive quality led many to question the validity of certain “at-‐risk” models for reform.77 78 Now researchers are looking at ways to encourage the positive factors

71 Luthar, S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B. (2000). ‘The Construct of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guidelines for Future Work’. Child

Development 71, 543–562.

72 Duckworth, A., Peterson, C., Mathews, M. & Kelly, D. (2007). ‘Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92(6), 1087-1101.

73 Pianta, R. & Walsh, D. (1996). High-risk Children in the Schools: Creating Sustaining Relationships. New York: Routledge.

74 Benard, B. (1991). Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community. San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development.

75 Rees, P. & Bailey, K. (2003). ‘Positive Exceptions: Learning from Students who “Beat the Odds.”’ Educational and Child Psychology, 20(4), 41-59.

76 ibid.

77 Garmezy, N. & Rutter, M. (1983). Stress, Coping and Development in Children. New York: McGraw-Hill.


that have been identified in fostering resilience instead of focusing exclusively on mitigating risk factors. This has led the way for research on resilience as it relates to all students, not just those identified as “high-‐risk.”79


In School As discussed above, resilience has been linked to three key factors: caring relationships, a communication of high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful involvement and participation. It has been suggested that the greatest opportunity for the reinforcement of these key principles is on the classroom level as opposed to on a school level.80 Children spend the most time in the classroom and therefore are more likely to develop meaningful relationships, and more likely to have opportunities for participation. It has been shown that when children feel supported in the classroom, there is a greater likelihood that they will engage with the material being taught and with their peers.81 82 With a view to the classroom as the most appropriate level to affect resilience, research suggests seven traits to be encouraged in the classroom environment in order to promote resilience: care and connection, pro-‐sociality and support, engagement, inclusivity, collaboration, empowerment, and a focus on learning.83 According to this research, by focusing on making the classroom an environment which places the highest priority on these values, we will be fostering resilience in all students, not only those identified as being “at-‐risk.” While work is ongoing regarding how to best encourage these identified qualities, there is promising research supporting the implementation of a “caring community” model, first suggested by John Dewey almost a hundred years ago.84 85

As mentioned above, work on teaching resilience has moved away from only targeting “at-‐risk” students. This is due to an important study, which indicates that by trying to intervene in situations where a student is identified as “at-‐risk,” through measures such as pullout programs, there is the possibility of causing isolation and alienation from the classroom community.86 Therefore, by trying to intervene, we might actually be inhibiting resilience. By teaching resilience to all students, we not only protect those students identified as “at-‐risk” but also equip each and every student with the tools needed to deal with the difficulties they will inevitably need to overcome in their lives.

Outside of School Outside of the school and classroom environment, family life and community involvement have been identified as two other environmental factors that affect a child’s resilience. While more research needs to be done into how all three of these factors interact, it has been demonstrated that the more of these protective

78 Werner, E. (1990). Protective Factors and Individual Resilience. In S.J.S. Meisels (ed.), Handbook of Early Childhood Intervention. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

79 Cefai, C. (2008). Promoting Resilience in the Classroom: A Guide to Developing Pupils’ Emotional and Cognitive Skills. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

80 Brown, S., Riddell, S., & Duffield, J. (1996). Responding to pressures: a study of four secondary schools, in: P. Woods (Ed.) Contemporary Issues in Teaching and Learning. London, Routledge.

81 Slavin, R. (1991). Student Team Learning: A Practical Guide to Cooperative Learning, 3rd ed. Washington DC: National Education Association.

82 Fraser B. (1994). Research on classroom and school climate. Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan Publishing

83 Cefai, C. (2008). Promoting Resilience in the Classroom: A Guide to Developing Pupils’ Emotional and Cognitive Skills. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

84 Battistisch V., Solomon D., Watson M. & Schaps M. (1997). Caring School Communities. Educational Psychologist, 32(3), 137- 151.

85 Sergiovanni, T. (1994). Building School Communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

86 Pianta, R. & Walsh, D. (1998). Applying the Construct of Resilience in Schools: Cautions from a Developmental Systems Perspective. School Psychology Review, 27(3), 407-417.


factors a child has access to, the more likely they are to succeed when faced with challenges in one of these spheres. 87


While most of the current research identifies resilience from a retrospective analysis, i.e. by looking at subjects who have faced adversity and overcome it, there is work being done to formulate ways to identify resilience at earlier stages. Some researchers have questioned the ability to effectively identify resilience due to certain methodological problems, such as a lack of a consensus on what resilience is, and conclude that more research must be done before we can effectively assess resilience. 88 However, there is evidence that teachers are already effective in identifying resilient students in their classes89 and there is an ongoing effort to develop more structured assessment methods. One such effort focuses on six separate domains to be assessed for each child: security, education, friendships, talents and interests, positive values and social competencies.90 While efforts such as these provide a good base for continued assessment methods, the ongoing nature of research into resilience will continue to improve and inform the way in which we identify resilience.

87 Dent, R. & Cameron, R. (2003). ‘Developing Resilience in Children who are in Public Care: The Educational Psychology Perspective.’ Educational

Psychology in Practice 17(1), 3-19.

88 Kinard, E. (1998). ‘Methodological Issues in Assessing Resilience in Maltreated Children.” Child Abuse and Neglect 22, 7, 669-680.

89 Read, L. (1999). ‘Teachers’ Perceptions of Effective Instructional Strategies for Resilient and Non-resilient Students.’ Teaching and Change, 7(1), 33-52.

90 Daniel, B. & Wassell, S. (2002). Assessing and Promoting Resilience in Vulnerable Children. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.


E. Ethics

Humaneness, kindness, respect, justice, equity, fairness, compassion, tolerance, inclusiveness, integrity, loyalty, honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, decency,

authenticity, genuineness, consideration, forgiveness, virtue, love, care, helpfulness, generosity, charity, devotion, belonging, etc.

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

— Theodore Roosevelt

a. What it is

Ethics as a teachable character quality is informed in a large part by the literature on moral development, pioneered by Jean Piaget and John Dewey, and expanded by Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan. The main idea is that children naturally progress through stages of moral reasoning, from pre-‐conventional (obedience and punishment, self-‐interest orientations) through conventional (interpersonal accord and conformity, authority and social-‐order maintaining orientation) to post-‐conventional (social contract orientation, universal ethical principles).91

John Dewey proposed that, “education is the work of supplying the conditions which will enable the psychological functions to mature in the freest and fullest manner.”92 Among these conditions are intellectual development and the concurrent social and educational climates, environments that provide opportunities for group participation, shared decision-‐making, and the assumption of responsibility for the consequences of actions.93

However, knowledge of ethics does not necessarily lead to ethical action. Once a moral reasoning level has been achieved it is never lost, however, moral behavior is highly context specific. As such it can involve contextual factors like motivation and emotion, or other necessary qualities like courage. A study linking moral reasoning stages and “strength of will” with prevalence of cheating behavior found that 15% of students who were at a post-‐conventional stage cheated (compared to 55% of conventional subjects and 70% of pre-‐conventional subjects). Notably, within the conventional stage only 26% of what the study called “strong-‐willed” participants cheated, compared to 74% of those determined by the study to be “weak-‐willed.”94 For this reason, it is useful to think of ethics as a character quality rather than a pool of knowledge.

91 Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages and the idea of justice (essays on moral development, volume 1). San

Francisco: Harper & Row.

92 John Dewey, as cited in Kohlberg, L. & Hersh, R. (1977). Moral development: A review of the theory. Theory into practice, 16(2), 53-59.

93 Kohlberg L. (1976). Moral stages, moralization: the cognitive developmental approach. In, Moral development and behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 54.

94 Krebs, R. & Kohlberg, L. (1973). Moral judgment and ego controls as determinants of resistance to cheating. Moral Education Research Foundation.



In School Ethics is often taught through a particular lens of one’s specialization in post-‐secondary education such as business95, medicine96, law97, or public administration98. But there are also ways to teach and practice ethics across the curriculum,99 and adolescence in particular has been identified as an important time of transformation in this regard.100 Research shows that behaviorist “drill” methods are only effective on a superficial level, and that methods engaging students’ autonomy are much more deeply effective.101

One way to grant students autonomy with ethical decisions is through democratic schools, in which students are responsible for collectively making decisions that affect the entire community. This responsibility engages them in an age-‐appropriate yet important roles requiring ethical conduct. In his theory of the just community high school, Kohlberg claims that in order for the democracy to be successful, it must 1) be embraced as a “central commitment of a school rather than a humanitarian frill,” 2) that the content of discussions should be framed in terms of morality and fairness, and 3) that small group discussions preceding the large democratic community meetings would help facilitate and preserve students’ higher-‐stage thinking in the face of mob mentality.

There are also ways to integrate ethics into the curriculum without restructuring the school. Just as post secondary ethical education often takes place with small groups working through a series of case studies of ethical dilemmas, Philosophy for Children programs use children’s stories to teach children to think through ethical questions.102 According to Kohlberg, for discussions to be effective, the necessary conditions are 1) exposure to the next level of reasoning and 2) confrontation with challenges to the learner’s current moral structure.103 Classroom studies have shown successful moral development when the teacher carefully supported and clarified students’ arguments, and continuously pushed the students to think one step beyond their current understanding104.

These programs have a wide range of different curricula for different age groups. Ethics can also be taught as a separate subject for older students, such as in the International Baccalaureate curriculum105 and in New South Wales public primary schools106.

95 Oddo, A. (1997). A framework for teaching business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(3), 293-297.

96 Pellegrino, E. (1989). Teaching medical ethics: some persistent questions and some responses. Academic Medicine, 64(12), 701-3.

97 Pearce, R. (1998). Teaching ethics seriously: Legal ethics as the most important subject in law school. Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, 29, 719.

98 Hejka-ekins, A. (2014). Teaching Ethics in Public Administration, American Society for Public Administration 48(5), 885–891.

99 Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum: http://www.rit.edu/cla/ethics/seac/Teaching%20Ethics.html - Retrieved on October 10, 2014.

100 Kohlberg, L. & Gilligan, C. (1971). The adolescent as a philosopher: The discovery of the self in a post-conventional world. Daedalus, 1051-1086.

101 Schaps, E., Schaeffer, E., & McDonnel, S. (2001). What’s right and wrong in character education today. Education Week.

102 Lipman, M. (1976). Philosophy for children. Metaphilosophy, 7(1), 17-33.

103 Kohlberg L. (1976). Moral stages, moralization: the cognitive developmental approach. In: Lickona T ed. Moral development and behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 54.

104 Blatt, M. & Kohlberg, L. (1975). The effects of classroom moral discussion upon children's level of moral judgment. Journal of Moral Education, 4(2), 129-161.

105 Dunn, Michael. “Ethics”. (10th May 2013). http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/areas-of-knowledge/ethics/ Last accessed: 10/9/2014

106 See: www.primaryethics.com.au/index.html


Outside of School As Kohlberg107 points out, the moral atmosphere of the home, the school, and the larger environment are extremely important contributors to moral development. In particular, two dimensions are crucial: the role-‐taking and empathy opportunities that the environment provides for the learner, and the level of justice in the institution. As an example, Kohlberg compares various prisons; those in the pre-‐conventional stage of development rely on obedience to arbitrary command by power and punishment for disobedience, while those in the conventional stage implement a system of points are reward for conformity. This further speaks to the importance of autonomy in education, not just in the curriculum but in every aspect of the educational experience.


Moral judgment research claims that a person’s judgments reflect an underlying organization of thinking and that these organizations develop through a series of transformations.108 Therefore by categorizing students’ reasoning to various ethical questions, one can place an individual on a point within the larger framework of moral reasoning development. It’s also possible to flip this exercise, with students attempting to comprehend explanations of others’ moral reasoning, as it has been shown that they are able to correctly understand those below and at their own level (some can even correctly understand one level above their own), but not higher level arguments.109,110

107 Kohlberg L. (1976). Moral stages, moralization: the cognitive developmental approach. In: Lickona T ed. Moral development and behavior. New

York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 54.

108 Rest, J. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

109 Rest, J., Turiel, E., & Kohlberg, L. (1969). Relations between level of moral judgment and preference and comprehension of the moral judgment of others. Journal of Personality, 37(2), 225-252.

110 This type of assessment, placing learners along a developmental trajectory, is being developed further by Zak Stein and Theo Dawson at Lectica and as the company expands, will surely be able to cover concepts such as Ethics.


F. Leadership

Responsibility, heroism, abnegation, accountability, selflessness, humbleness, inspiration, integrity, organization, delegation, teamwork, mentorship, commitment, engagement, leading by example, goal-orientation, consistency, self-reflection, social

awareness, cross-cultural awareness, dependability, reliability, conscientiousness, efficiency, productivity, results orientation, focus, precision, project management,

execution, socialization, negotiation, diversity, decorum, etc.

“To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!”

— Lao-Tsu

a. What it is

While the need for organizations to have effective leaders is undisputed, the notion of what is involved in leadership and how it can be taught is currently in the process of shifting. The traditional views can be described as falling into a “systems control” framework, with leaders conceived of as extraordinary, charismatic, almost superhero individuals who work in an isolated way to inspire followers to act in the good of a unitary and fixed organization. This is in line with a general mechanistic view of organizations with subordinates viewed as followers and leaders viewed as experts who attempt to maximize their control and motivate subordinates to act in certain ways toward the organization’s goals.111

However, this view suggests that leadership is reserved for special individuals (out of the reach of the majority of people) and to a great extent innate and unteachable. It is also at odds with studies that have discussed the importance of “quiet leadership,”112 and that successful leaders often do not fit the traditional description; rather they can be “shy, unpretentious, awkward and modest but at the same time [have] an enormous amount of ambition not for themselves but the organization.”113

The emerging process-‐relational framework of leadership by contrast emphasizes that organizations are social constructs composed of “ongoing patterns of meaning making and activity brought about as … people [are] in relationships with each other and to their cultures.”114 In this view, leadership is not about any one individual, but a set of processes, practices and interactions,115 and complete control is neither possible nor desirable. Leaders, just like everyone else, must constantly make sense of crosscutting and often conflicting

111 Hay, A., & Hodgkinson, M. (2006). Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership? Leadership & Organization Development

Journal, 27(2), 144–158.

112 Badaracco, J. (2001). We don’t need another hero. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 121-6.

113 Collins, J. (2001). Level 5 leadership: the triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review, 79(1), 67-76.

114 Watson, T. (2005) as cited in Hay, A., & Hodgkinson, M. (2006). Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership? Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(2), 144–158.

115 Crevani, L., Lindgren, M., & Packendorff, J. (2010). Leadership, not leaders: On the study of leadership as practices and interactions. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 26(1), 77–86.


goals and information, and the skills they need (such as negotiation and asking questions) are both more teachable and more practical.116 This framework also allows for a greater degree of flexibility and uncertainty, with group processes seen as more important than individual visions.

This framework is also in line with current complex systems science models of best practices for management, in which the individual leader facilitates group processes and relationships rather than imposing his or her vision top-‐down and thus limiting the organization’s potential to that of one individual.117 This change in conceptions of leadership to as relational, collectivist, and non-‐authoritarian so as to include higher complexity decision making and greater flexibility is a natural response to the need to cope with the increasing complexity and uncertainty of our world.

A widely accepted model of teaching leadership defines leadership as a “relational and ethical process of people together attempting to accomplish positive change.”118 This relational model of leadership includes dimensions of being inclusive, empowering, purposeful, ethical, and process oriented.


In School While most leadership literature has been focused on adults,119 there are certainly skills and guidelines that can be applied and adapted for use with children. The skills identified as necessary for a leader within a process-‐relational framework of an uncertain and complex world include those that are interpersonal (negotiation, networking, conflict resolution, communication), as well as those that are intrapersonal (openness, learning, and self-‐awareness).120 Leadership should not be reserved for those students identified as gifted, but rather should be part of all students’ education since true leadership grows out of group processes.121 As such, providing examples of successful leaders is unhelpful whereas a focus on the process of leadership and using experiences of leadership along with discussions around these experiences will allow students to make sense of how groups function and build up the relevant capacities in themselves.

The method of instruction should also be in line with the process-‐relational philosophy, with teachers and students co-‐constructing understanding rather than the teacher transmitting knowledge to students in a top-‐down one-‐directional manner. This modeling of appropriate leader behavior is most effective if also discussed explicitly with students. A study of high quality leadership programs identified 16 characteristics clustered into three groups in successful programs: participants are engaged in building and sustaining a

116 Hay, A. & Hodgkinson, M. (2006). Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership? Leadership & Organization Development

Journal, 27(2), 144–158.

117 Bar-Yam, Y. (2002). Complexity rising: From human beings to human civilization, a complexity profile. In, Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. EOLSS UNESCO Publishers, Oxford, UK.

118 Komives, S., Lucas, N., & McMahon, T. (2006). Exploring leadership: For college students who want to make a difference (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

119 Oakland, T., Falkenberg, B., & Oakland, C. (1996). Assessment of leadership in children, youth, and adults. Gifted Child Quarterly, 40, 138-146.

120 Hay, A., & Hodgkinson, M. (2006). Rethinking leadership: a way forward for teaching leadership? Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(2), 144–158.

121 Yukl, G. (2010). An Evaluative Essay on Current Conceptions of Effective Leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(1), 33–48.


learning community, student-‐centered experiential learning experiences, and research-‐grounded continuous program development.122

Outside of School There are also opportunities outside of school for students to take positions of leadership within the community. Students should be encouraged to take leadership roles and be metacognitive about their experiences working with groups. Subjects such as music may be particularly useful in this sense (discussed below).

Additionally, teachers should be careful of the messages they are sending to students implicitly about responsibility and autonomy; a study comparing 1st grade classrooms in traditional schools and progressive schools found that despite some expected differences, in both settings responsibility was usually conveyed in a negative light (when students failed to do something) and focus in all classrooms was on procedural knowledge, followed by conceptual understanding, and only then character qualities.123

c. How it can be assessed The majority of leadership assessment tools are intensive, targeted toward adults (usually in managerial positions), and fall into the systems control framework. There are now efforts at developing assessments that are process-‐relational in nature, minimally intensive, and targeted toward students (although a literature review did not find a suitable assessment that achieved all of these things at once).

The Leadership Dimension Questionnaire (LDQ)124 is built on the idea that effective leadership is “being yourself, with skill”125 and assesses 15 dimensions (intellectual, managerial, and socio-‐emotional) of adults in management positions, matching them to three different styles of leadership (engaging leadership, involving leadership, and goal leadership). It was found to be both valid and reliable, but further studies would need to test its success with student populations.

A tool used to assess teamwork in high school students (a related concept to the post-‐heroic notion of leadership) successfully triangulated results from self-‐report, teacher evaluation, and situational judgment.126 Each method has its advantages and disadvantages: self-‐report is the most subjectively true to the students’ experiences but may produce response distortion and may be confounded by students’ language comprehension abilities, situational judgment tests have high ecological validity but are difficult to score, and teacher ratings are slightly more objective and bypass the issue of students’ language difficulties but are subject to halo effects. Combining them, therefore, conveys the most accurate depiction, but is a highly involved process. An interesting finding from this study is that of all subjects analyzed, music was the most correlated with teamwork scores. This makes conceptual sense, since grades in music depend on the groups ability to work together to choose, learn, refine, and perform musical pieces, and points to a potential direction for inserting modules on leadership and teamwork into existing curriculum by calling attention to it existing role.

122 Eich, D. (2008). A Grounded Theory of High-Quality Leadership Programs: Perspectives From Student Leadership Development Programs in

Higher Education. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 15(2), 176–187.

123 Blumenfeld, P., Hamilton, V., Wessels, K., & Falkner, D. (2014). Teaching Responsibility First Graders. Theory Into Practice, 18(3), 174–180.

124 Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2005). Assessing leadership styles and organisational context. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20(2), 105–123.

125 Goffee, R. & Jones, G. (2000), “Why should anyone be led by you?” Harvard Business Review, September-October, 63-70.

126 Wang, L., MacCann, C., Zhuang, X., Liu, O., & Roberts, R. (2009). Assessing Teamwork and Collaboration in High School Students: A Multimethod Approach. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 24(2), 108.


Conclusion

The Aspiration:

A Wiser Society for a Sustainable Humanity

Supporting education to meet the needs of today’s world is a global goal. Most of the education transformation efforts worldwide are laudably focused on the “How” of education. But very little is being done about the “What”. Education needs innovative global curricular goals adapted to the needs of the 21st century student and society.

A “21st century education” is both broad in a relevant way, as well as deep in judiciously chosen areas, where the three dimensions of Skills, Character and Metacognition are taught through the lens of traditional and modern knowledge, with interdisciplinary lenses.

The CCR’s Geneva Declaration has stated:

“We call for Character Education of the entire population as a critical right and necessity, requiring:

• A new vision of Character Education that identifies and anticipates needs, and reinforces the role of both performance and moral qualities, at both the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels, in society, economies, and individuals;

• Improvement in teachers professional development through rethinking what and how to teach Character in order to support development of the students, inside and outside the classroom and school;

• More inclusive assessments, at the global, academic entrance, local (jurisdiction-‐specific) and classroom (formative and summative) levels, and providing data and information that can be used to help improve character education at all levels;

• Mobilization of public awareness through the media, and involvement of private and public sectors, governmental bodies, students, international organizations, foundations and others in strengthening partnerships and networks for character education, and in improving character education globally.

•

Humanity has a very large stake in making these goals happen, and very soon. To wax philosophical about the ultimate goal of an Education, CCR does, like many from Socrates to Confucius, view wisdom as the ultimate goal of an education. These eminent thinkers remind us that what is legal is not necessarily just and what is ethical is not necessarily wise. To quote E.O. Wilson: “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.”

The Center for Curriculum Redesign invites you to jointly explore the seminal question,

“What should students learn for the 21st century?”


Please continue the conversation and join our mailing list at, www.curriculumredesign.org/subscribe

With sincere gratitude to all external sources; their contribution is used for nonprofit education work under the “Fair Use” doctrine of copyright laws.


Appendix 1

Evolution of the CCR Character Framework a. Draft Framework – 2011

b. Draft Framework – 2012

Performance “character”: one’s mastery and thrust for excellence in life, school, and the workplace:


Moral “character” (relational and ethical): wisdom, and how one treats oneself and others, in interpersonal, social and occupational matters:

c. Draft Framework – 2013

Type Purpose Trait Leading to and to associated Traits and ConceptsMORAL Self-‐awareness Empathy Mindfulness,balance, self-‐actualization, self-‐esteem,

vision, care, kindness, compassion, considerationManaging Self Courage Zest Determination, fortitude, grit, confidence, persistance

risk taking, toughness, enthusiasim, energy, zealoptimism, cheerfulness

EthicsIntegrity, fairness, respect

Generosity, humaneness, inclusiveness, tolerance, loyalty, honesty, truthfulness, forgiveness, justice, equity

Cooperation Socialization listening, speaking, sharing, social awareness, executionWorking with others cross-‐cultural awareness, efficiency, conscientiousness,

PERFORMANCELeadership Productivity Engagement, humbleness, commitment, mentorship,

consistency, leading by example, reliability, focus

Curiosity Initiative Open-‐mindedness, enthusiasm, exploration, innovation,passion, self-‐direction, motivation,

Achieving Goal Resilience Adaptability Flexibility, dealing with ambiguity, diligence, discipline,perserverence, patience, grit, confidence, tenacity


Appendix 2

Crosswalk Comparison of the CCR Framework with Other Character Frameworks

Mindfulness Curiosity Courage Resilience Ethics Leadership

Character Counts! Coalition127

Caring Respect, Trustworthiness, Fairness, Citizenship

Responsibility

CharacterEd.Net Caring Courage Perseverance, Self-‐Discipline

Fairness, Honesty Respect, Integrity, Citizenship (Patriotism)

Responsibility

Character Education Partnership128

Caring Self-‐Discipline Respect, Fairness, Citizenship

Responsibility

Facing History and Ourselves129

Caring Resiliency Fairness, Justice, Respect, Citizenship

Responsibility

KIPP Schools Gratitude Curiosity Zest, Optimism

Grit, Self-‐Control

Social intelligence

P21.org Flexibility and Adaptability, Social and Cross-‐cultural skills

Initiative and Self-‐Direction

(Productivity and) Accountability,

Social and Cross Cultural-‐Skills, Leadership and Responsibility

Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character130

Wisdom Courage Diligence, Self-‐Discipline

Honesty, Justice, Kindness

Responsibility

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning131

Self-‐Awareness, Self-‐Management, Social Awareness,

Relationship skills, Responsible Decision Making

The Jubilee Center for

Compassion, Gratitude

Courage Self-‐Discipline Justice, Honesty, Modesty (and Humility)

127 Josephson Institute, The Six Pillars of Character. Retrieved from http://charactercounts.org/sixpillars.html 128 Retrieved from http://www.character.org/ 129 Facing History and Ourselves National Evaluation Study: Outcomes and Implications. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.facinghistory.org 130 Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/education/caec/files/FAQ.htm 131 Retrieved from: http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/core-competencies/


Character and Virtues132

Young Foundation

Grit

China MoE133 Patience Justice, Respect, Equality, Citizenship

Responsibility

Singapore Character and Moral Education (CME)134

Caring Resiliency Respect, Integrity, Citizenship

Responsibility

South Korea Moral Education135

Kindness Honesty, Respect, Citizenship

Responsibility

Swedish National Agency for Education136

Diligence, Perseverance, Self-‐Discipline

Thailand Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy137

Patience Diligence, Perseverance

Honesty, Integrity

132 Retrieved from: http://jubileecentre.ac.uk/userfiles/jubileecentre/pdf/other-centre-papers/Framework.pdf 133 Xiaoman, Z. (2006). Moral Education and Values Education in Curriculum Reform in China. Frontiers of Education in China, 1(2), 191-200. 134 Teo, W. (2010). The Effectiveness in Measuring Character Development Outcomes in Singapore Schools Through the Character Development

Award. Retrieved from http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/704/ 135 Song, S. (2005, Sep 13). Moral Education in Korean Primary and Secondary Schools. Introductory material prepared for the Malaysian Ministry

of Education delegation. Retrieved from http://english.mest.go.kr 136 Bergmark, U. (2008). ‘I want people to believe in me, listen when I say something and remember me’ – how students wish to be treated.

Pastoral Care in Education, 26(4), 267-279. 137 Tabucanon, M. (2010, Oct 6). Sufficiency Economy Philosophy: A Model for Sustainable Development. Presentation at the 3rd ASEAN-Plus-

Three Leadership Programme on Sustainable Production and Consumption. Retrieved from http://www.emb.gov.ph/

Maya Bialik With the generous support of: Michael Bogan Charles Fadel Michaela Horvathova

Copyright © 2015 Center for Curriculum Redesign. All Rights Reserved.

Center for Curriculum Redesign Boston, Massachusetts www.curriculumredesign.org



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Character Education for the 21 Century · 5 For a review, see Farrington, Camille A., et al. (2012). Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping