Character Education

Over the past two decades, schools have demonstrated a renewed commitment to teaching and reinforcing shared prosocial values. This resurgence in character education programs has resulted in changes in public policy, district and school codes of conduct, and teaching practices within schools. Character education is broadly defined as a process of helping children and youth learn and demonstrate shared values.

Character educators use a variety of instructional strategies to meet these educational goals. For example, teachers and students may be asked to focus on a “character trait of the week,” social studies literature and current events may be used during academic instruction to emphasize conduct associated with good character, and students may receive reinforcement or recognition for demonstrating good character-related behavior at school. Advocates ...