How to assess children's virtue literacy: methodological lessons learnt from the Knightly Virtues programme

Character education is of growing importance in educational discourse. The Knightly Virtues programme draws on selected classic stories to teach eight moral virtues to nine- to 11-year-olds; it has proved to be hugely popular with UK schools. A finding of the trial was the different levels of "...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of beliefs and values
Authors: Davison, Ian (Author) ; Harrison, Thomas 1969- (Author) ; Hayes, Daniel -1766 (Author) ; Higgins, Jenny (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge [2016]
In: Journal of beliefs and values
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Child (9-11 Jahre) / Moral act / Ethics teaching
RelBib Classification:AA Study of religion
AH Religious education
NCB Personal ethics
Further subjects:B Character
B Education
B educational trial
B virtue literacy
B programme evaluation
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Character education is of growing importance in educational discourse. The Knightly Virtues programme draws on selected classic stories to teach eight moral virtues to nine- to 11-year-olds; it has proved to be hugely popular with UK schools. A finding of the trial was the different levels of "virtue literacy" in faith and non-faith schools. This article outlines the key features of this trial which yielded the positive results and details its methodological strengths and potential shortcomings. Overall, statistical concerns are less problematic than the practical concerns of running trials designed to measure the impact of character education interventions. Of greatest theoretical interest is the conflation of general and virtue-specific literacy; in addition, we tease apart differences in understanding and motivation. The article highlights and discusses the challenges of running trials designed to measure character education, as well as providing insights into promising methodological approaches.
ISSN:1469-9362
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of beliefs and values
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13617672.2016.1141526