Article Critque

Teaching Moral Character: Two Alternatives for Teacher Education By Narvaez, Darcia Lapsley, Daniel K Debating whether or not teachers should teach values addresses the wrong question. Education already is a values-infused enterprise. The larger question is how to train teachers for positive character formation. Two teacher education strategies are presented in this article. A “minimalist” strategy requires teacher educators to make explicit the hidden moral education curriculum and to reveal the inextricable linkage between best practice instruction and moral character outcomes. The “maximalist” approach requires preservice teachers to master a tool kit of pedagogical strategies that target moral character directly as a curricular goal. To this end, the Integrative Ethical Education model outlines five steps for moral character development: supportive climate, ethical skills, apprenticeship instruction, self-regulation, and adopting a developmental systems approach. Teaching Moral Character: Towards a Conceptual Framework for Teacher Education
Option 1: Best Practice Instruction is Sufficient for Moral Character Formation Effective teaching for moral character aligns with best practice instruction for academic achievement. The knowledge base that supports best practice instruction is coterminous with what is known to influence the moral formation of students. Making explicit this linkage should be a clear goal for teacher education. Preservice teachers should consider not only how instructional practice influences academic learning but also how it shapes student character development. As we will see, schooling and teacher practices that promote achievement overlap with practices that support student prosocial development (Sebring, 1995). Effective teaching promotes both academic and moral excellence (Solomon, Watson, & Battistich, 2002). We will focus on two domains where best practice instruction pays dividends for moral character

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