CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
background of the study
There have been numerous views of what constitutes
character; the one that seems most succinct and comprehensive was developed by
Louise McBee (2004) in her essay on moral development in college. She proposed the
following virtues as components of character: personality concept,
self-efficacy, self-esteem honesty,
responsibility, fairness, dependability, consideration, courteousness,
diligence and self-discipline. The process of character development, as used in
the current discussion, refers to “the progression of an individual’s capacity
for understanding what is right or good increasingly complex forms, and the willingness
or courage to act on those conceptions” (Whitely, 2005).
The desired of parents is for their
children to grow up into well-mannered individuals and give the proper respect
to other people, that is why character education is an important part in their
studies, because success in life does not always rely on academics. It is true
that the main reason that students enrolled in school is to learn about
academic subjects like maths, business studies, and so on, but these are not
the only things that children need to learn if they ever want to become
successful in the real world. Character education gives them the necessary
tools that they will be using more often than those that they learn from the
other subjects.
Character education fosters the
development of ethical and responsible individuals and acquisition of good
values that people should have. It teaches the students the values of caring
about other people, honesty, responsibility, and other important traits that
make for an upstanding citizen. The parents are not the only ones that need to
be concerned in developing a student's character, the school and community
should also have a role in this. These days, with most families, the children
are often left alone with no one to guide them. This is why schools need to
implement character education so that the students know the correct path they
should walk on.
The need for students’ character and good values can be achieved if
students constantly practicing what they learned this help to instill good
character traits in students. And since students spend most of their time at
school, it is the perfect place to instill moral values in them. Diligence and
sense of responsibility are some of the main core values taught in character
education. With these students will learn how to focus on their studies, and
more importantly they will have the drive that will make them want to do well
in their academic subjects. Building character also helps them to interact
properly with their teachers and fellow students, turning their classroom into
a better learning environment.
Research done on the subject found out that schools that employ
character education have fewer incidences of disciplinary referrals,
suspensions, and truancy. The positive environment that it brought to schools
also increased attendance and has also brought about a significant improvement
in academic performance of students. Students’ character will be useful to them
as they engage and interact with other people in society. For them to become
upstanding members of their communities, they need to know the proper way to
treat other people, and these are the things that they learn and understand
through their character.
1.2
Theoretical Framework: Social Cognitive theory
Social cognitive theory proposes that
individuals do not simply respond to environmental influences, but rather they
actively seek and interpret information (Nevid, 2009). Individuals “function as
contributors to their own motivation, behavior, and development within a
network of reciprocally interacting influences” (Bandura, 1999, p. 169).
Although Social Cognitive Theory covers many topics such as moral judgment and
physiological arousal, research that is primarily focused on self-efficacy, or
the beliefs regarding one's capabilities of successfully completing tasks or
goals (Locke & Latham, 2002).
According to Bandura (2005), social
cognitive theory takes on an agent-like perspective to change, development and
adaptation. Bandura describes an agent as someone who intentionally influences
one’s functioning and life circumstances; “In this view, people are self
organizing, proactive, self-regulating, and self-reflecting. They are
contributors to their life circumstances not just products of them” (Bandura,
2005).
Self-concept
theory
Self-concept theory is a component of
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory and is referred to as the “beliefs in
one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to
produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1997, p. 3). Thus, the Self-concept of
students is their belief about their capabilities to control the outcome
regarding their performance. For this research study the definition of Self-concept
will be “the level of an individual’s belief in his/her competence to attain a
favorable outcome regarding their performance”.
Bandura goes on to state, such
beliefs influence the courses of action people choose to pursue, how much
effort they put forth in given endeavors, how long they will persevere in the
face of obstacles and failures, their resilience to adversity, whether their thought
patterns are self hindering or self-aiding, how much stress and depression they
experience in coping with taxing environment and the level of accomplishments
they realize.
1.3 Statement of the problem
1.3 Statement of the problem
The purpose of this case study was to
determine how character education affects students’ behavior. Many principals spend a significant amount of
time dealing with inappropriate student behavior. Character education programs are proactive
approaches to improve discipline in the schools, but do they make a
difference? If character education
reduces disciplinary problems, instills compassion and caring, promotes
citizenship, and develops a moral conscience in students, it would be a
worthwhile endeavor in terms of time and money spent. If character education does not affect the
manner in which students behave, then resources can and should be reallocated
to other programs.
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