Character Education

Summaries, Reports, Articles, Research Evidence and Evaluations, Examples, Resources

Character Education is a good issue for our first TrendsReport, as educational systems around the world are seeking to help young people re-connect with their communities, their parents and themselves. Many of the programs being developed as part of this trend are in reaction to increasing bullying and often use terms such as respect, citizenship, trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness, caring and global education to describe their programs.

"Character education" is an umbrella term used to describe many aspects of   teaching and learning for personal development. Some areas under this umbrella are "moral reasoning/cognitive development"; "social and emotional learning"; "moral education/virtue"; "life skills education"; "caring community"; "health education"; violence prevention"; "conflict resolution/peer mediation" and "ethic/moral philosophy" (Character Education Partnership 1999, 3)

A Guide to Moral Decision Making
Chris MacDonald, Ph.D. Lecturer, Department of Bioethics, Dalhousie University
Revised October 19, 1995
http://www.ethics.ubc.ca/chrismac/publications/guide.html

Assessing Character Education: Paradigms, Problems, and Potentials
By Ronald S. Thomas
http://www.quest.edu/wnarticles2.htm

Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education
The Character Education Partnership, Washington, DC
http://www.character.org/principles/index.cgi

Assessing Character Education: Paradigms, Problems, and Potentials
By Ronald S. Thomas,
http://www.quest.edu/wnarticles2.htm

Character Education. ERIC Digest. Otten, Evelyn Holt, 2000-09-00 ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed444932.html

What is character education, and does it work?
Ohio Education Information Center
http://www.ohioeic.org/CharterEducation.html

The Six Pillars of Character
JOSEPHSON INSTITUTE OF ETHICS
http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-6pillars.htm

Moral Development and Moral Education: An Overview
Association for Moral Education
http://www4.wittenberg.edu/ame/index.html

Character Education and Service Learning
Character Education Partnership
http://www.character.org/reference/index.cgi?detail:service

CoExistence education
The Council for Global Education
http://www.globaleducation.org/coexistence_ed.html

CHARACTER EDUCATION QUALITY STANDARDS
The Character Education Partnership, Washington, DC
http://www.character.org/schools/index.cgi?detail:quality_intro

Character Education Program Evaluations
California Department of Education
http://www.cde.ca.gov/character/curriculum.html

Evaluation of Character Education
University of Chicago
http://cuip.uchicago.edu/%7Ecac/chared/

ERIC Citations List
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/ieo/bibs/characte.html

US School Award Winners
http://www.character.org/schools/index.cgi

Model Programs
Califirnia Dept of Education
http://www.cde.ca.gov/character/model.html

PLANNING GUIDES

Assessment Tools for Character Education
http://www.character.org/search2/index.cgi

Program Review Checklist
http://www.character.org/reference/index.cgi?detail:Program_Checklist

How Concerned Citizens can Foster K-12 Character Education in Local Communities
http://www.character.org/reference/index.cgi?detail:howcitiz

PROGRAMS & MATERIALS

Guidelines for Effective Character Education Through Sports
The Character Education Partnership, Washington, DC
http://www.character.org/reference/index.cgi?detail:sports_guidelines

Character Counts
A nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of schools, communities and nonprofit organizations.
http://www.charactercounts.org/

All About Respect Net
School Program and Tools
http://www.allaboutrespect.net/

Resources and Guides from Character Counts
http://www.charactercounts.org/guides.htm

Conference “Moving Toward Moral Excellence”
The 27th annual meeting of the Association for Moral Education will take place in Vancouver from October 25 to 28, 2001.
http://www.educ.ubc.ca/ame2001/

Lesson plans for Law related Education
http://www.clre.org/material/CEmat.html

School Programs
The Curriculum Initiative
http://www.thecurriculum.org/schoolprograms.htm

The Six pillars-Schockwave Presentation
http://www.arp.sprnet.org/Curric/cc!/media.htm

Character Plus
A school program developed by several school boards
http://info.csd.org/staffdev/chared/characterplus.html

Child development Curriculum
http://www.devstu.org/

Do Something-A Youth Advocacy and Community Service program
http://www.dosomething.org/

Heartwood Institute School Programs
http://www.heartwoodethics.org/

Community of Caring Program
http://www.communityofcaring.org/

Good Character Teaching Guides By Grade Level
http://www.goodcharacter.com/table1.html

Wise Skills
http://www.wiseskills.com/