Symposium '07
Keynote Presentations
Character in the Classroom - How New Zealand's changing social values are impacting on student behaviour and how schools can meet new challenges
Rod Galloway, Principal George Street Normal School, Dunedin and Chairman, New Zealand Foundation for Character Education Inc.
Key Findings:
- Deteriorating classroom behaviour reflects the rising number of dysfunctional homes
- The family unit is not as strong, cohesive and functioning as it once was and the focus on raising children has been weakened
- While living standards seemed to be improving, there was now evidence that significant changes in the values systems in the community had come at a social cost and affected children
- Nowhere are these social changes more dramatic than in family life
- The number of parents who share an evening meal and spend time with their children is the lowest in developed countries
- Declining marriage rates and increasing divorce rates now meant half of all New Zealand families are blended units
- Statistics showed New Zealand had an epidemic of absent fathers with the second highest rate single parenthood in the OECD – a figure that has tripled in the last 30 years
- While many of these families are doing a fine job, the combined effect of older, busier and often emotionally, physically and financially stressed parents is having a significant impact on classroom teaching and learning
- New Zealand’s increasing violent society is influencing classroom behaviour and principals identify disruptive behaviour as the most common obstacle to learning that they have to deal with
- More New Zealand parents than ever before were unable to provide a home environment where children were safe, nurtured and provided with clear moral guidance
- The restoration of character education offered schools the best hope of meeting these challenges while at the same time supporting homes to in the critical role of character formation
complete report available here
Rod's presentation can be downloaded from here (3.34MB / PDF format)
Character Education in New Zealand Schools - A Follow-Up Study
Dr. Gael McDonald, Professor of Business Ethics, Vice-President, Research, UNITEC, Auckland. A follow-up study to the 2004 research into the outcomes of character education in New Zealand schools.
Key Findings:
- Relationships between staff and students and between students were perceived to have seen a positive improvement as an effect of character education
- Positive effects in overall student and playground behaviour
- Positive effect on school discipline and stand-downs
- A majority of schools noticed a decline of 60 – 70 percent in vandalism
- Positive effect on staff morale
- Positive comments in ERO reports
- Decline in the need for specialist services
- Schools easier to manage
- Improvement in effectiveness of teaching
- Parents and caregivers intrinsically believe in core values and are very supportive of character education
complete report available here
Dr McDonald's presentation can be downloaded from here (155KB / Powerpoint format)
Character - Education's Forgotten Goal
John Heenan, author of "Building Character through Cornerstone Values" and Director, NZ Foundation for Character Education
In this presentation a case is made for the restoration of character education to its historical place at the centre of the curriculum. The difference between "values" and "virtues" and between "values education" and "character education" is discussed along with the importance of character formation in a civil society
complete presentation available here