Virtue-based Character Education

in the 21st Century Classroom

Vince Moore
University of North Texas
Learning Technologies - Distributed PhD Program
Questions that Arose
1) What is character education and why is it important in our school system?

2) What is indoctrination and in what ways does it happen?

3) Is it possible to have character education without it becoming indoctrination?

4) Why should virtues be utilized in character education?

5) How should teachers apply virtue-based moral education?

6) What impact does this issue have on technology education?

What is Character Education & Why is it important?
Defined by US DOE: a learning process that enables students...to
understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as
respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for
self and others.
US DOE references Cicero, Benjamin Franklin, and others as
guides
Public schools have historically included character ed
People disagree on key values
Who gets to decide?
What is Indoctrination & How does it happen?
Merriam-Webster says, to teach someone to fully accept the ideas,
opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider
other ideas, opinions, and beliefs.
Institutional: TEKS, State Board of Education, Common Core, etc.
Accidental: Pledge of Allegiance, teachers personal beliefs, not
allowing questions, behavior guidelines, etc.
Can Character Education avoid Indoctrination?
Enculturation vs. Indoctrination
Question Authority!
Involve students ideas
Explain reasoning and offer discussion
Student autonomy is okay
Higher order questioning and thinking
Use Virtues...
Should Virtues be utilized in Character Education?
Morals are lacking in schools:
Survey of 23,000+ high school students
over 50% lied to teachers
over 50% cheated on exams
over 75% lied to parents about something significant
99% said good character is important
93% were happy with their moral character
Virtues steer clear of dogmatic relativism, aka grey areas
Virtues offer Right vs. Wrong scenarios
Virtues create a moral paradigm
Which Virtues and Ideals should be the focus?
According to Galston (2006)

diversity & tolerance

respect for rule of law
upholding institutions that support liberty and opportunity
identifying with fellow citizens
loyalty to the community
respect for others basic liberties

Liberal slant? Universal support?

How should teachers apply virtues in education?
Place moral decisions into perceivable situations with right vs.
wrong choices
Borrow from the morality masters: Jesus, Aristotle, and Aesop
Parables and Storytelling
What impact does this have on Technology Ed?
Cyberbullying, social media, online research
Lee, Pan, Liao, Chen, & Walters (2013) suggest character
exemplars (the same as virtues) for online morality
Common Sense Medias program for online morality
Ancient virtues are modernized for Instagram and Twitter
Beyond bullying, it applies to plagiarism, security, copyright, etc.
Includes at-home features supporting dialogue, avoiding
indoctrination
Final Thoughts
Character Education can exist without indoctrination
Students need help learning right from wrong and applying it to
their lives
Virtues can help create right-wrong scenarios
Virtues can be effective in an online world
Questions? Comments? Ideas?
Sources
Aristotle. (1908). Nicomachean Ethics. (W. D. Ross, Trans.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html

Common Sense Media. (n.d.). Digital Literacy & Citizenship Classroom Curriculum. Retrieved from

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum

Department of Education. (2005). Character education our shared responsibility. Washington, DC: U.S.

Government Printing Office.

Dossey, L. (2011). Stolen history: The great Texas textbook war. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing,

7(4), 203-211.
Sources
Duplass, J. A. (2011). The Obama tapes: Is it indoctrination or enculturation. Social Studies Review, 50(1), 60.

Galston, W. A. (2006). Signs of progress: The debate over civic education. Theory and Research in Education,

4(3), 329-337.

Hill, T. E. (2013). Two conceptions of virtue. Theory and Research in Education,11(2), 167-186.

indoctrinate. (2014). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved Sept. 12, 2014, from

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indoctrinate

Josephson Institute of Ethics. (2012). The ethics of American youth. Retrieved on October 14, 2014, from

http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/
Sources
Klein, R. (2014, September 11). Texas textbook battle heats up with claims of conservative bias. Huffington Post.

Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Lee, C. Y., Pan, P. J. D., Liao, C. J., Chen, H. Y., & Walters, B. G. (2013). E-character education among digital

natives: Focusing on character exemplars. Computers & Education, 67, 58-68.

Merry, M. S. (2005). Indoctrination, moral instruction, and nonrational beliefs: A place for autonomy?.

Educational Theory, 55(4), 399-420.

Mulkey, Y. J. (1997). The history of character education. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and

Dance, 68(9), 35-37.

Sources
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers (2014).

Common Core State Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org

Simon, S. & Campoy, H. (2010, May 10). Texas syllabus: Its history. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from

http://online.wsj.com

Smith, B. H. (2013). School-based character education in the United States. Childhood Education, 89(9),

350-355.

Sommers, C. H. (1993). Teaching the virtues. Public Interest, (111), 3-13.

virtue. (2014). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved Oct. 14, 2014, from

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virtue