Evaluating the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project: a study among 11- to 13-year-old students

Abstract

In order to evaluate the impact of the pilot Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project, a pilot sample of 86 year 7 and year 8 students (11 to 13 years of age) completed a battery of tests both before and after participating for six weeks in the programme. The battery of tests comprised 12 Narnian Character Virtue Scales (NCVS) (to assess the degree to which students saw themselves as behaving virtuously), the Knowledge Index of Narnian Character Virtues (KINCV) (to assess knowledge of virtues gained during the programme), and established measures of personality, happiness, self-esteem, empathy, and religious affect (as control variables). Mean scores were significantly higher at the end of the programme on the KINCV, but on none of the 12 NCVSs, and on none of the control variables. These data suggest that the Narnian Virtues Character Education English Curriculum Project was successful in enhancing knowledge of virtues but not in changing self-perceived behaviour. These findings are consistent both with the general educational principle that education informs understanding prior to affecting behaviour and also with the expectations of the project – that improving virtue literacy and understanding of virtues precedes the practice of virtues.

Keywords:

• Character education
• virtues
• psychometric
• curriculum evaluation

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the generous funding of the John Templeton Foundation (grant number 56369) that made this project possible.