ERIC ED491499: The Heart of the Matter: Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools

2005·3.8 MB·English

by  ERIC

Alberta Education Cataloguing in Publication Data
Alberta. Alberta Education.
The heart of the matter : character and citizenship education in Alberta schools.
ISBN 0-7785-3791-9
1. Moral education - Alberta. 2. Character. 3. Citizenship - Alberta.
4. Education - Alberta - Curricula. I. Title.
LC312.A333 2005 370.11/4
For further information, contact:
Alberta Education
Learning and Teaching Resources Branch
8th Floor, 44 Capital Boulevard
10044 – 108 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 5E6
Telephone: [phone] in Edmonton or
toll-free in Alberta by dialing 310–0000
Fax: [phone]
This resource is primarily intended for:
(cid:1)
Teachers
(cid:1)
Administrators
Counsellors
Students
Parents
General Public
A PDF version of this resource is available at
www.education.gov.ab.ca/charactered
Print copies of this resource can be purchased from the Learning Resources Centre.
Order online at www.lrc.education.gov.ab.ca/ or telephone [phone].
Copyright © 2005, the Crown in Right of Alberta, as represented by the Minister of
Education. Alberta Education, Learning and Teaching Resources Branch, 44 Capital
Boulevard, 10044 – 108 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5J 5E6.
Every effort has been made to provide proper acknowledgement of original sources.
If cases are identified where this has not been done, please notify Alberta Education
so appropriate corrective action can be taken.
Permission is given by the copyright owner to reproduce this document, or any part
thereof, for educational purposess and on a nonprofit basis, with the exception of
materials cited for which Alberta Education does not own copyright.
Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Chapter 1: Table of Contents
Character and Citizenship Education
in Alberta Schools 1
Chapter 2:
A Sample Framework for Character and Citizenship 9
Chapter 3:
Choosing Approaches for Character and
Citizenship Education 15
Chapter 4:
Assessing Character and Citizenship
Education Initiatives 23
Chapter 5:
Creating a Safe and Caring School Culture 35
Chapter 6:
Infusing Character and Citizenship Education
Across the Subjects 45
Chapter 7:
Choosing Resources to Support Character and Citizenship Education 57
Chapter 8:
Integrating Character and Citizenship Education in Co-curricular and
Extracurricular Activities 61
Chapter 9:
Bullying Prevention and Character and Citizenship Education 73
Chapter 10:
Involving Parents in Character and Citizenship Education 91
Chapter 11:
Developing Community Partnerships 97
Chapter 12:
Instructional Strategies that Support Character and
Citizenship Education 105
Chapter 13:
Getting to the Heart of the Matter 135
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Table of Contents Appendix A:
Sample Approaches that Support Character
and Citizenship Education 139
Appendix B:
Assessment Tools 173
Appendix C:
What Character and Citizenship Looks Like 201
Appendix D:
Using Action Research to Initiate School Change 205
Appendix E:
Attributes of a Safe and Caring School 211
Appendix F:
Sample Evaluation Tools and Strategies 215
Appendix G:
Bullying Prevention Resources 219
Appendix H:
Graphic Organizers 227
Appendix I:
Service Learning 235
Appendix J:
Issue-based Inquiry 241
Bibliography 253
Index 265
Feedback 277
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Thank you to the many individuals and groups who contributed to the development Acknowledgements
of this resource, including those jurisdictions who presented to the Learning
Commission on the importance of character and citizenship education in Alberta
schools.
The following groups and school jurisdictions participated in the review of this
resource:
Alberta Home and School Councils’ Association
Aurora School Ltd.
Battle River School Division No. 31
Black Gold Regional Division No. 18
Canadian Rockies Public Schools
Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools
Edmonton Public Schools
Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium
Elk Island Catholic School Board
Elk Island Public Schools
Foothills School Division No. 38
Golden Hills School Division No. 75
Grasslands Regional Division No. 6
Greater North Central Francophone Education Region No. 2
Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division No. 29
Hope Foundation, University of Alberta
Lakeland Roman Catholic School District No. 150
Northern Gateway School Division
Parkland School Division No. 70
Pembina Hills Regional School Division No. 7
Red Deer Public School District
St. Albert Protestant Separate School District No. 6
Sturgeon School Division No. 24
Advisory Committee
Alberta Home and School Councils’ Association Heidi Schreiner
Alberta School Boards Association Gerald Kujala
Suzanne Lundrigan
Alberta Teachers’ Association J-C Couture
Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta Andy Jackson
Battle River Regional Division No. 31 Gerry Lawrence
Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 1 Patricia Makowski
Calgary School District No. 19 Kay Haslett
College of Alberta School Superintendents Michelle Dick
Bernadette Provost
Edmonton Public Schools Sandy Forster
Elk Island Public Schools Regional Division No. 14 Rita Spain
Greater North Central Francophone Education Region Denise Moulun-Pasek
The Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities Vicki Mather
University of Alberta George Richardson
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Acknowledgements Development and writing team
Resource Development Services, Edmonton Public Schools
Edgar Schmidt
Joanne Neal
Barb Milne
Sandra Gluth
Janet Thomas
Nancy Armstrong
Dana Antayà-Moore
InPraxis Group Inc.
Patricia Shields
Douglas Ramsey
Contributing writers
Crystal John
Linda Ellefson
Michelle De Abreu
Additional thanks to: Prevention of Family Violence and Bullying Cross-ministry
Committee
Graphic design Indexing
Lime Design Inc. Judy Dunlop Information Services
Additional layout
Trish Agrell-Smith
Alberta Education staff
Learning and Teaching Resources Branch
Director Raja Panwar
Assistant Director Greg Bishop
Project Manager Catherine Walker
Editor Rebecca Pound
Document Production Dianne Moyer
Copyright Sandra Mukai
Cross-branch team
Alberta Children and Youth Initiative Paula Coombs
French Language Services Branch René Langevin and Yannick Dufour
Curriculum Branch Shirley Douglas
Learner Assessment Branch Renate Taylor Majeau
Special Programs Branch Gail Sarkany-Coles
Aboriginal Services Branch Doris Gladue
Field Services Colleen McClure and Sandra Woitas
Additional thanks to: Lorraine Stewart and Wally Diefenthaler
iv
Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Chapter 1
Character and Citizenship
Education in Alberta Schools
“… it is next to impossible to separate the teaching of values from
schooling itself; it is a part of schooling whether people are willing
to acknowledge it or not. The question ... is how the educator can
influence students’ character development effectively so that the
impact is positive.”
– Williams 2000, p. 34
T
he primary responsibility for character and citizenship development lies with
parents and families, but schools play an essential supportive role. Whether
they are conscious of it or not, schools are involved in teaching cultural and
societal mores and values, and in shaping students’ ideas about what constitutes
good behaviour. Schools help students to develop civic responsibility, healthy
attitudes towards themselves and others, and a commitment to lifelong learning.
Often we think of learning as consisting entirely of academic skills and knowledge,
but character and citizenship are the foundation of learning. For this reason,
Alberta’s Guide to Education highlights key skills, knowledge and attitudes related to
character and citizenship that schools are expected to teach and model for children,
including the skills and attitude to pursue learning throughout their lives, and an
understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.1
In addition, students completing high school are expected to:
• respect the cultural diversity and common values of Canada
• demonstrate desirable personal characteristics, such as respect,
responsibility, fairness, honesty, caring, loyalty and commitment to
democratic ideals.2
One way to achieve these outcomes is through character and citizenship education.
Character and citizenship education is a deliberate effort to cultivate civility, ethical
behaviours, self-management skills and personal attributes that our society values in
its school graduates, community members and employees. It represents a consensus
on certain attributes or core values such as respect, responsibility, fairness, empathy
and self-discipline that transcend socioeconomic and cultural lines. Character and
citizenship education nurtures these attributes in an explicit, intentional, focused
and systematic manner by promoting, modelling, teaching, expecting, celebrating
and consciously practising them in everyday actions.
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Chapter 1 Character and citizenship education is an inclusive concept regarding all aspects of
how school communities can support the positive character development of
students, staff and other school stakeholders. It is woven throughout the school day
for all students and is integrated into the curriculum, discipline policies, and co-
and extracurricular activities.
All schools are doing some form of character and citizenship education, although
these efforts may not be explicitly called character and citizenship initiatives. For
example, comprehensive programs such as those of The Society for Safe and Caring
Schools and Communities, Lions-Quest and Effective Behaviour Supports are all
forms of character and citizenship education.
For an overview of sample approaches to support character and citizenship education, see
Appendix A.
The sample approaches discussed in the appendix include:
• Caring Relationships (Noddings)
• Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Lickona)
• Circles of Courage (Reclaiming Youth at Risk—Brendtro,
Brokenleg and Van Bockern)
• Community of Caring (Kennedy Foundation)
• Comprehensive School Health Approach
• Developmental Assets (Search Institute)
• Effective Behaviour Supports
• Emotional Intelligence (Goleman)
• Habits of Mind (Costa)
• Hope Research (Hope Foundation of Alberta)
• Lions-Quest Canada/Thrive!
• Moral Intelligence (Borba)
• Professional Learning Communities (DuFour et al.)
• Resiliency Research
• Safe and Caring Schools Initiative
• Skillstreaming: New Strategies and Perspectives for Teaching
Prosocial Skills (Goldstein and McGinnis)
• Virtues Program (Popov, Popov and Kavelin)
• You Can Do It! (Bernard).
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools
Why We Need Character and Citizenship Education Chapter 1
A growing body of school-based research suggests that character and citizenship
education provides significant benefits to students, school culture and the
community-at-large. The potential of character and citizenship education, and the
key goals that it fosters, include:
• a climate of respect for self and others
• the attributes of active citizenship
• higher academic achievement
• improved interpersonal relationships
• greater self-discipline
• fewer behavioural problems
• a continued focus on safe schools
• a positive school culture
• enhanced employability skills.
Classrooms today represent a microcosm of our rich and diverse society. Alberta
schools are dynamic environments that emphasize high standards, and respect and
safety, but we cannot take this for granted. A continuous focus on positive character
attributes can help build classrooms where students are ready to learn and teachers
are able to teach.
At the same time, the education of students contributes not only to their personal
development and opportunities, but also to their ability to fulfill social and
economic potential as a province and as a people. Character and citizenship
education contributes to the development of conscientious community members
and responsible citizens.
In faith-based schools and programs, character and citizenship education is a
synthesis of faith and culture, and is often built on gospel values.
Effective character and citizenship education provides school communities with an
understanding and a framework for practising core values in daily living that will
actively shape future society.
Purpose of This Resource
This resource is based on the work and efforts of many education partners including
The Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities, the Alberta School
Boards Association, the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the College of Alberta
School Superintendents. It is also a response to recommendation #5 from Alberta’s
Commission on Learning (2003) on expecting clear outcomes and values. The
report affirms that “… schools play an important role, along with parents and
community members, in modelling and reinforcing essential values and preparing
students to be productive and contributing citizens” (p. 51).
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Character and Citizenship Education in Alberta Schools