The Importance of Character Education
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
Albert Einstein
We all believe that character is very important in life. We also educate our children to have good character—honesty, responsibility, selflessness, and many others. Good character is seen as vital to success in life. More studies show that there is a connection between good character and good scores. According to James Heckman, a US Nobel Laureate and economist, performance virtues are more predictive labour market success than IQ.
Then how do we educate our children to have good character? Many programmes are developed to instil character into young people, but according to one research from Jubilee Centre for Character and virtue, size of school, standardized test achievements, and accreditation level of a school has no correlation to the high level of moral character. What is needed for character education is a school-wide ethos, embedded in everything the school does, and with teacher support. Good links with parents and their agreement on the importance of character were also important. In short, character is more effectively “caught” than “taught”.
Truly speaking, it is a bit difficult to exemplify good character in the middle of our society, where bad examples are rampant, but then again, we, as teachers, are committed to do our best, with the help of parents, to set good example to our children so that they can truly acquire the good characters they need in the future—for their own advantage. *(Ray – BPK Penabur Banda)
How to build an Inquiry Art Room
At Sekolah Ciputra, we consider the Visual Arts room not only a place for students to create artwork; instead we consider it more as a place for freedom of expression, for exploring possibilities, for challenging creativity and for promoting inquiry. The Visual Arts teacher is not the single authority in this space. We offer students opportunities to build the Visual Arts room together with the teacher. We use the learning opportunities offered under the transdisciplinary theme “How We organize ourselves” to engage students collectively in realizing this vision of a shared creative space. Below are the details of the unit:
Central idea
A supportive work environment is essential to the development of our creativity
Key concepts: Function, Responsibility and Reflection
Related concepts: organization, work environment, creativity, aesthetic, design,
Lines of Inquiry
- Considerations when working in a Visual Arts room
- How the Visual Arts room supports the development of our creativity
- Maintaining a supportive Visual Arts room environment
Summative assessment task(s):
Students work in groups to design a safe and comfortable Visual Arts room to be used by the entire school community. This room should be organized with clear procedures and agreements created by all users (teachers and students). Students need to present their ideas for management, organization and design of the Visual Arts room to teachers and peers. The chosen ideas are accepted and applied in the Visual Arts room for use by everyone.
Once the idea is adopted, it is applied throughout the year. This has helped to build a greater sense of shared ownership of this creative space, with students actively taking responsibility for maintaining the space.
In addition to engaging students in designing and maintaining the Visual Arts room, here are some tips on creating an environment of inquiry that I gathered during my first year as a Visual Arts teacher:
- Materials and equipment should be easily accessible by students. When there are varied items available for them to use independently, then you may expect more from students in terms of creativity and inquiry, especially when exploring the use of these tools and materials.
- Make the thinking visible. Just like in other inquiry classrooms, you need to involve students in thinking and creative processes. More importantly this needs to be visible in the classroom. Use thinking routines such as “I see…I Think…I Wonder” which fits well with “responding to art” activities.
- Display provoking questions, along with samples of Art work. These questions provoke students to think about their responses to art work and to take inspiration from the samples. The questions should be conceptual and related to the UOI.
- Involve students in responding to Art. Encourage students to express their thoughts and opinions as this might lead to further inquiry questions. At the same time, students are learning about the techniques and elements of Visual Arts.
- Display lots of provoking images and artwork. These are great primary resources for allowing students to tune in to various art concepts and can also be a source of inspiration.
- Provide a variety of books about art. There are books available for students to use both for inspiration and for learning about technique.
Those are just a small sample of ideas and tips that could hopefully be useful for your school’s Visual Arts room or maybe for your classroom.
Yan Yulius – PYP Coordinator at Sekolah Ciputra, Surabaya, Indonesia
Our Wonderful Class Displays on the First Day of School
Displays have the ability to create a rich environment that is both engaging and welcoming – displays can be bright and colorful or scientific and intriguing – either way, if they are done correctly they can really influence children’s learning.
A sense of belonging is really important in any classrooms, especially in primary school. If each student has at least one piece of their work on the wall then they will feel more at home in the classroom. This promotes a sense of pride and team spirit which is essential in any class.
Display boards also give us the opportunity to teach the class through the art of creation. By decorating the boards together with the class they will feel a great deal more involved in the overall project and remember the information the teachers are teaching them.
Here are some wonderful class displays in Grade 5 classes.
Irma Mustafa
Homeroom Teacher of Grade 5 Barito
SEKOLAH VICTORY PLUS (SVP)
First Week of School
The first week of school is the most important week of the school year and it is always be exciting for both teachers and students after the holiday. This is the time for teachers and students to make an adjustment. Everything was well prepared to welcome those days. Everything was made to attract the students to play and learn
At the first week of school the students made their agreement. They wrote their agreement on a big piece of paper and put their colorful hand prints on it. We called it ‘Give Me Five’
- Respect each other
- Take turn
- Caring
- Keep ourselves and others safe
- Share
We tried to make our days more relaxing and less stressful with fun activities that required arts and games. We read stories, created our ‘jar of stories’, played together at the big playground, made friends and shared holiday experiences. We sang IB learner profile using ‘twinkle-twinkle little star’ tune. We used movements to represent the profiles. They loved it so much, for it’s easy listening.
The students also explored and created IB learner profile in the classroom. They made it using their understanding and of course their language. They discussed, wrote, and put them on the window so they could see and read it everyday.
Our first week of school was awesome. Students enjoyed their times to play for learning and of course they had fun.
“The best way to make children good is to make them happy.”
— Oscar Wilde, author and poet
Mamik
EY 2 Teacher
Sekolah Victory Plus
Nurturing Self Regulated Learner
“Study skills really aren’t the point. Learning is about one’s relationship with oneself and one’s ability to exert the effort, self-control, and critical self-assessment necessary to achieve the best possible results–and about overcoming risk aversion, failure, distractions, and sheer laziness in pursuit of REAL achievement. This is self-regulated learning.”
― Linda B. Nilson, Creating Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students Self-Awareness and Learning Skills
We, at sekolah Cikal believe that learning should begin with the end in mind. Therefore, upon developing our curriculum we begin with the subject of the learning: children. And we think of what the output of the learning that we wish to achieve, which is an individual with commitment, self – reliance and the ability to reflect.
What does a self regulated learner looks like? At one time and another, we have observed self regulated learners. Self regulated learner is goal-oriented, capable to commit to his/her goals, and in doing so, he/she is enthusiastic and eager to keep developing him/herself in many aspects. You may spot these learners arranges his/her priorities in completing duties. They respond with curiosity and efforts to setbacks or challenges, and are able to discover successful strategies to work independently and adaptively. More importantly, they understand what needs to be improved and how to do it.
In the effort of nurturing and building the dispositions, some challenges may occur. Often, the challenge revolves around making the decision to interfere and when to stand aside. For example, allowing a child to face setbacks and solve problems on their own such as separation, puberty, peer conflict and increasing academic expectations is always tough for parents. At these times, maintaining a sense of trust is crucial.
In school context, we train these young minds to be the master of their own learning through various channel, from classroom activities such as daily reflection journal, home projects and goal setting activity to school-wide program, such as peer mediator, student librarian and club activities. In the journey of learning every single initiative counts, and often it’s a matter of quality rather than quantity. We ask rather than tell, listen rather than talk, are involved rather than judge.
Indriyati Herutami
Principal, Sekolah Cikal
Establishing a Democratic Student-Driven Classroom
21st Century Education A Comparison between Finland’s and Sekolah Victory Plus’ Education System
Having a chance to pursue higher education in Finland is such a privilege for me since as a teacher, I am aware the importance of education for myself. As well as being birth country of Nokia, Wifi Technology and Angry Bird, Finland is well known for their high quality education. Of course studying there is not without challenges, especially the weather. Experiencing -30 degrees Celsius and going to 8AM classes in total darkness are very extreme for me personally. Still, it is totally worth the fight considering the outcome.
Talking about the education in Finland, equality and trust are factors that I believe contribute the most to Finland’s known reputation for their education quality. Let’s take a look: the main objective of Finnish Education is to offer everybody equal opportunities to receive education and this objective is well supported by having free education for everybody starting from Day Care Services up to University level. Not only that, most education and training is publicly funded, there are no tuition fees at any level of education.
If we go deeper, we’ll find that in primary education, the school materials, lunch, and transportation are provided free of charge. While, in secondary education students only pay for their books and transport. In addition, there is a well-developed system of study grants and loans; financial aid can be awarded for full-time study in upper secondary education and in higher education.
As I mentioned above, trust is one of important elements in making the education great in Finland. Teachers are given trust to develop and manage their own lesson and class activity to achieve the learning goal as there are no particular ways of learning.
Another thing that I am very please about is to see plenty similarities between Finnish Education and what we are doing in SVP:
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| Teaching style and class activities | Teachers are given trust to develop and manage their own lesson and class activity to achieve the learning goal as there are no particular ways of learning. | Teachers are given freedom to manage and modified their class activities guided by the Curriculum Coordinators. Planning is being done on a weekly basis and teachers are constantly challenged by the coordinators to deliver and create engaging activities that develop the student’s inquiry. |
| Teacher’s support to student | They are aiming for equality, where everybody learns and nobody is left behind. | Differentiated learning is being implemented, because we are aware that each student has different needs when it comes to learning. |
| Quality of teacher’s education | Potential teachers are selected carefully through University selection. The Teacher Education programme is known as one of the most challenging programmes to do and graduate from. It is compulsory for Finnish teachers to have a master’s degree as their educational background. | Currently there are many teachers pursuing their master’s degree and many of them have successfully graduated with a master’s degree. The school is trying their best to support teachers in pursuing good quality higher education. For example for the past 4 years SVP have been facilitating teachers who want to pursue their master’s degree by collaborating with a well-known university in Jakarta. Teachers are able to enroll in the programme and take the class in SVP’s classrooms after school hours. Teachers are really helped in this way, because they do not need to travel far. By next year the second batch of teachers who are taking this programme will graduate. |
| Teacher training | Teacher training is provided and funded by the Government annually. Thus, most of teachers have strong research backgrounds as their base for teaching. | As a practitioner of 21st Centuries Education and Differentiated Teaching, teacher’s skills and knowledge are one of the priorities in our school development. In SVP, teachers have weekly Professional Development meetings to be up to date and continue to be lifelong learners. |
| Learning Orientation | There is no national examination for students in basic education; teachers are responsible for assessment through an ongoing process of learning instead. There is only one national examination, which is matriculation examination. This is held at the end of general upper secondary education. The test result is normally used for admission to higher education (University or Polytechnic). | The learning is more process oriented instead result oriented. In SVP, assessments are beyond test. Teachers have ongoing assessment to monitor the constant progress of the students. The school has ways of reporting the student’s learning beyond just a report card, such as learning celebrations and student led conferences. |
| Learning Environment | To achieve 21st century learning in Finland, learning is designed to be fun and engaging. They are aiming to prepare the students to be ready with challenges that they are going to face in the future. | At SVP we are implementing the 21st century education system that encourages students to be creative, collaborative, communicative and critical in thinking because learning is beyond memorising textbooks or passing exams. Education should develop students to be inquirers and lifelong learners. Learning happens far beyond the classroom and the open learning concept is being well implemented in SVP. When students go for excursions, experts are invited to share their knowledge allowing students in SVP to learn beyond the textbooks or Google, so they will be equipped with relevant information that is useful for their future. |
In conclusion, according to my experience whilst learning in Finland. SVP is on the right track to provide the best education for our students. I am glad to know we are implementing a very similar approach to a country that is well known for their Education.
By Adelina Mulyani Go
Sekolah Victory Plus
Bekasi- Indonesia
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