ABSTRACT

This article reports on the differential impact of a curriculum intervention on students’ understanding and practice of virtue. The research is germane given Ofsted’s new requirement that its inspectors should assess how the curriculum in all schools in England and Wales supports students’ character development. Results are reported here for a total of 1226 eleven- and twelve-year-olds assessed at the beginning and end of their first secondary school term: 822 children in nine program schools, where students experienced the Narnian Virtues character education English curriculum, and 404 children in eight control schools that did not experience the intervention (2 lessons per week over 12 weeks). Mean scores for knowledge and understanding of virtues (wisdom, love, integrity, fortitude, self-control and justice) in the experimental group showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test, which was not the case for the control group. Although scores pre- to post-test for the experimental group declined on a number of (self-assessed) character measures, this decline was not as pronounced as it was for the control group. That children’s understanding of character improved rapidly in the experimental group is important, as knowledge of virtue generally precedes behavioural application.

摘要

本文报告了课程干预对学生对美德的理解和实践的不同影响。鉴于 Ofsted 的新要求，即其检查员应评估英格兰和威尔士所有学校的课程如何支持学生的性格发展，这项研究是密切相关的。此处报告了总共 1226 名 11 岁和 12 岁儿童在第一个中学学期开始和结束时的评估结果：9 所项目学校的 822 名儿童，学生在这些学校体验了纳尼亚美德品格教育英语课程，以及 8 所未经历干预的对照学校的 404 名儿童（12 周内每周 2 节课）。实验组在知识和理解美德（智慧、爱心、正直、刚毅、自制和正义）方面的平均得分从前测到后测显着增加，而对照组则不然。尽管实验组的测试前后的分数在一些（自我评估的）性格测量上有所下降，但这种下降并不像对照组那样明显。实验组儿童对性格的理解迅速提高很重要，因为美德的知识通常先于行为应用。