Character education

Under character education is meant an education in the development and promotion of the character in the foreground. "Character" is not understood in this context today than bundles of personality traits as the "Big Five", but rather in the sense of emotional intelligence. The term includes skills such as self-regulation, resilience, persistence, self-motivation, delay of gratification, good work habits, empathy and social skills, which can, unlike personality traits are learned.

History

The idea of ​​a " character education " or " education of character " is nothing new, the school reformer Joachim Heinrich Campe, for example, they had called for as an exchange of moral values ​​already in the late 18th century in the wake of the Enlightenment in education. Campe was for a time tutor to the family of Humboldt and has also passed on his ideas, among others, to his pupil Wilhelm von Humboldt. Humboldt was commissioned in the first decade of the 19th century, as in Prussia, the reforms have been pursued with the reform of the Prussian education system. The highlight of these activities was the establishment of the new university in Berlin (now Humboldt University ). His education concepts are summarized today as Humboldt cal ideal of education. Character education plays in these conceptions an important role and must - according to Humboldt - professional training not only precede, but are strictly divorced from this.

The ennobling of character also called Friedrich Schiller in his treatise On the Aesthetic Education of Man in 1795.

Until the 20th century was hiding under this term usually includes training in religious moral ideals. After the old moral consensus of society collapsed in the 20th century and values ​​were no longer taught in the conventional way, sat down in 1960 for a two modern psychological concepts through: the " values ​​clarification " and " cognition - and developmentally appropriate moral education ". In the " values ​​clarification " (Values ​​Clarification ), which remained in vogue until around 1980, the teacher gave no concrete moral concepts or values ​​more, but stepped into the role of a neutral facilitator back while the students should develop their own morality. The " cognitive and developmental moral education " ( Cognitive Developmental Moral Education ), which was found in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s in the curricula of many schools, based on Kohlberg's theory of moral development and the idea that the moral consciousness of every man by appropriate training could be increased.

Character education in the modern sense

United States

A scientific nature and fundamental recasting learned the character education since the 1980s, when researchers such as Albert Bandura, Martin Seligman, Howard Gardner and later John D. Mayer pointed out that for personal success ( advancement, prestige, happiness at work and in private life ) far more powerful predictors than are the mathematical- linguistic intelligence. In a longitudinal study of Walter Mischel had in 1981, for example, demonstrated that subjects who were able to afford a four- year-old delayed gratification, as adolescents in school and at home were significantly more successful than people in the comparison group. The re-introduction of the term "character" in the scientific discourse is primarily a power of Positive Psychology. The social theorist Amitai Etzioni has character defined as the " psychological muscle that is necessary for moral behavior " in 1993.

In the early 21st century, the concept was eventually discovered by educators and family therapists. Background was their growing unease at one in the middle class rampant parenting style, which is not characterized by long-term educational objectives, but of an excessive micro-management of the child's mood. In the United States Wendy Mogel in 2001 published her bestseller The Blessings of a Skinned Knee; the character education for Mogel argues it is indeed inspired Jewish, but has a large overlap with what is today perceived as the promotion of "emotional intelligence". The psychologist Michele Borba has published on the subject of several high-profile books.

Comprehensive practical implementation learns the concept of character education already in the American education system. Among other things, the following agencies and organizations are involved in it:

  • Already in 1976, the Association for Moral Education (AME ) was founded, a non- profit organization that sees itself as an interdisciplinary forum to discuss the moral dimensions of education on the interested parties.
  • Employed at Boston University since 1989, a Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character with the development of character education programs.
  • Based in Aspen Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics in 1992 a Character Counts program! Launched its concern teaching basic values ​​- is to the American Schools - trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, human compassion and common sense. There the program of full-time school counselors is today carried out nationwide.
  • Still in the testing phase there are programs for emotional literacy, such as at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica.
  • Another organization that promotes character education, is the non-partisan Character Education Partnership (CEP ), which for their concerns in Washington DC making since 1993 lobbying.
  • Among the academic institutions that deal primarily with character education, one in 1994 by Thomas Lickona, founded the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs ( Respect and Responsibility); the center is a facility of the School of Education at the State University of New York at Cortland.
  • The Center for Character and Citizenship in the College of Education at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, a Journal of Research in Character Education gives out semi-annually since 2003.

German-speaking

In German-speaking countries has Albert desire formulated similar considerations as Lickona and cheating. While he was in his published in 1998 and controversially -received -time items drug pampering initially showered pampering and Overparenting only criticism without counter with a sound counter-proposal, desire has this in his later publications ( The Verwöhnungsfalle, 2000; farewell to the fun Pedagogy, 2003 ) now rescheduled.

Hubert Markl, 1996-2002 President of the Max Planck Society, said in a 2005 lecture:

" At the beginning and at the center of what ushers young people succeed in life, so lets make fit for life, character education must be. This is a term that may sound a little altfränkisch I of today so often appointed, values ​​education ' but prefer; because it brings nothing if - at that very poorly defined - values ​​anerzieht to which unfortunately mostly neither educators nor hold behaved. Character education aims at something else. It has everything to do with honesty, integrity, courage, vitality, self-confidence and the ability to trust others at the same time as for being trustworthy. "

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