Character development through the curriculum: teaching and assessing the understanding and practice of virtue

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the differential impact of a curriculum intervention on students’ understanding and practice of virtue. The research is germane given Ofsted’s new requirement that its inspectors should assess how the curriculum in all schools in England and Wales supports students’ character development. Results are reported here for a total of 1226 eleven- and twelve-year-olds assessed at the beginning and end of their first secondary school term: 822 children in nine program schools, where students experienced the Narnian Virtues character education English curriculum, and 404 children in eight control schools that did not experience the intervention (2 lessons per week over 12 weeks). Mean scores for knowledge and understanding of virtues (wisdom, love, integrity, fortitude, self-control and justice) in the experimental group showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test, which was not the case for the control group. Although scores pre- to post-test for the experimental group declined on a number of (self-assessed) character measures, this decline was not as pronounced as it was for the control group. That children’s understanding of character improved rapidly in the experimental group is important, as knowledge of virtue generally precedes behavioural application.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethical
• moral
• curriculum
• virtues
• character (5 words)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by John Templeton Foundation Grant ID-60516.

Notes on contributors

Mark A. Pike

Professor Mark A. Pike Ph.D is Professor of Education at the University of Leeds where he served for several years as Head of the School of Education. He is Principal Investigator of the Narnian Virtues character education research funded by a $1.2M grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Mark is also CEO of Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a Multi-Academy Trust providing schooling for around 8000 students, aged 4-19, in the north of England. Mark’s published work focusses on values and virtues in school leadership, the curriculum, teaching and learning. He has a professional and research interest in the ethics of education, school transformation and how school ethos and culture supports students to achieve a personal best. Mark has taught English literature for many years and his funded research has focussed on the value of stories in moral and character education. He has published numerous papers in international peer-reviewed journals such as the Oxford Review of Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Journal of Character Education and the British Journal of Religious Education. His books include Mere Education: C. S. Lewis as Teacher for our Time; Ethical English; Citizenship and Moral Education and Teaching Secondary English.

Peter Hart

Dr Peter Hart Ph.D is a research fellow at the School of Education, University of Leeds. He currently works on the REACH Primary reading intervention, having previously worked on the Narnian Virtues Character Education Project. He was previously based at the School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham, where he completed his PhD on ethical issues in youth work (particularly, investigating the relationship shared between youth workers and young people). His professional practice includes working for youth work organisations in the faith and statutory sectors, acting as a member of steering groups for a range of social charities, and as non-executive director for a Multi-Academy Trust.

Shirley-Anne S. Paul

Shirley-Anne S. Paul Ph.D is a Senior Project Manager at the Workers’ Educational Association – a large national adult education charity in the UK. She previously worked in Higher Education for ten years, undertaking teaching duties and conducting post-doctoral research across three Russell Group universities (Edinburgh, Leeds, and York) and across three disciplines (Psychology, Education, and Health Sciences). Shirley spent six years in the School of Education, University of Leeds, where she focussed her research work on the design, delivery, and evaluation of educational interventions aimed at secondary school pupils in the areas of reading comprehension and character education. For example, she worked on the Reading for Comprehension (REACH) project, a Randomised Controlled Trial, designed to evaluate the effectiveness of two reading interventions developed for secondary school pupils with weak reading skills. Shirley holds an MA (Hons) degree in Psychology, an MSc degree in Psychological Research Methods, and a Ph.D in Psychology, all awarded from the University of Dundee. She is also a certified PRINCE 2 Project Manager and a Trustee of Eden Academy Trust in Hartlepool, UK.

Thomas Lickona

Professor Thomas Lickona Ph.D is a developmental psychologist, education professor emeritus, and founding director of the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Respect and Responsibility) at the State University of New York at Cortland, where he has done award-winning work in teacher and parent education.   A past president of the Association for Moral Education, he writes and speaks on character development in schools, families, and communities. His nine books on moral development and character education include Educating for Character, Character Matters, Smart & Good High Schools,  and, most recently, How to Raise Kind Kids. Smart & Good High Schools was a two-year study of 24 award-winning US high schools and reported more than 100 promising practices for fostering moral and performance character in adolescents. He received the Character Education Partnership’s “Sandy Award” for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, and his Center’s work was the subject of a New York Times Magazine cover article, “Teaching Johnny to Be Good.”  The Center’s best-practices education letter, excellence & ethics, is distributed to educators and parents. He collaborated on the Narnian Virtues character education project directed by Professor Mark Pike, and writes a parenting blog for Psychology Today called “Raising Kind Kids.”

Paula Clarke

Dr Paula Clarke Ph.D is a cognitive developmental psychologist concerned with promoting children’s understanding of the world through effective engagement with spoken and written texts. Her work encourages the development of rich mental representations and emphasizes exploration of ideas in multiple contexts. Her research is at the intersection between psychology, education and linguistics and uses psychological theory to inform the development of teaching, intervention and assessment approaches. Her work involves training and supporting teaching assistants to deliver personalised intervention, as well as creating learning resources for use with diverse groups of pupils who have a range of learning needs. Most of her research has involved pupils in the later stages of primary school who are experiencing literacy difficulties. Studies have included children with identified Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, including Down syndrome and Autism. Dr Clarke is also interested in how we capture children’s understanding of written and spoken text and the development of methodologies that are inclusive and accessible for all. As an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, she works to link theory, research, policy and practice through her teaching and in her role as programme leader for the MA in Special Educational Needs.