Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Roslyn Doctorow
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
acts of kindness, character development, character education, character education policy, character traits, children’s materials, classroom resources, classroom teachers, collaboration, curriculum development, developmental areas, diversity, early childhood curriculum, early childhood education, expression of feelings, feelings, friendship skills, in-service training, journal entries, laboratory preschool, observation, policy development, preschool children, problem solving, professional development, program policies, service learning, social problem solving, social skills, student teachers, student teaching, teacher resources, training, university laboratory preschool, values, values development
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to provide training, coursework, resources, children’s materials, and program policies that would improve the development of character within preschool children enrolled in a university laboratory preschool setting. Many of the young children enrolled in this school were not exhibiting the skills often associated with character development. A number of these children were not working with others to solve social problems, did not verbalize feelings or expressed feelings in unacceptable ways, and did not identify classmates as friends. Classroom teachers also found that some children were unwilling to help others and that they were doing nothing as class groups to encourage the children to practice helping. Finally, teachers and university student teachers received little to no instruction on supporting children’s character development and had no knowledge of classroom resources.
The applied dissertation included the development of a character education policy/program within the targeted program that included marked goals supporting character development within each of the program’s developmental areas, encouraged program teachers and student teachers to plan weekly experiences supporting character education goals, the purchase of children and teacher/student teacher resources supporting character traits and value development, and incorporated a service learning policy. The writer also conducted two teacher in-service trainings, collaborated in the development of an early childhood curriculum course including character development, revised the student teaching course syllabus to include three lectures on developing values, incorporating diversity, and reviewing the character education and service learning policies, required journal entries summarizing the lecture information and integrating that new knowledge into an observation or experience that they had in the preschool classroom, and required a reading assignment with a written report.
An analysis of the data revealed that the children achieved the most growth in social problem solving, but also met the stated outcome for friendship skills. A majority of children were also able to recognize an act of kindness described within a story scenario and were able to indicate a way in which they could help another child. The most successful activity was the service learning strategy, which was successfully implemented in all classrooms and which was well received by the teachers. Although there was an increase in the children’s skills in the area of expression of feelings, it was not significant nor did it meet the expected outcome.