Impact of character education on student behavior as perceived by staff members

Spiro Chris Colaitis, Fordham University

Abstract

Student behavior within the schoolhouse is of paramount importance to educators, as disruptive behavior can have an adverse impact on the instructional process and to the learning of other students. In an effort to improve student behavior, many schools have begun providing character education to instruct students on the proper social and moral skills necessary in their daily interaction with other students. Character education programs have been found to help students understand the necessity of respecting one another. This study focused on four middle schools in Long Island, two of the middle schools have character education programs fully integrated in their daily curriculum while the other two middle schools do not have a character education program at all. The findings for this quantitative research project were derived from the Schools as a Caring Community Profile – II survey instrument, which was administered to the educators of the four middle schools, including faculty members, building level administrators, and other staff members, to gauge the adult impression of student behavior. The five scales used in the survey instrument represent a measure of the important skills and behaviors that are key components of character education programs. The study found that the educators that work at middle schools where character education programs are employed have a higher perception of the social and emotional learning of students than the educators that work at schools that do not have character education programs.

Subject Area

Educational leadership|Middle School education|Education Policy|School administration|Educational psychology

Recommended Citation

Colaitis, Spiro Chris, "Impact of character education on student behavior as perceived by staff members" (2014). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3628736.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3628736

Share

COinS