We are participating in the project called "Ethics and the Educated Person" by refining the character formation component of our program. Character formation intends to promote the internalization of certain values, particularly (but not only) those values of personal responsibility and concern for the common good needed to successfully function in the overall program. Some of these values include: managing one's time and commitments, honesty, willingness to accept criticism, toleration for the expression of other opinions, etc.
Character formation is one of five such formations comprising the overall program. The other formations include Spiritual formation, Academic formation, Wellness formation, and Service formation. These formations are intentionally linked with one another in an effort to give the student a coherent educational experience. Thus, for example, we insist that students engage in intellectual reflection on their service and spiritual activities.
Character formation has two kinds of embodiments in our program, and participation in Ethics and the Educated Person will be a factor in both of these. The first kind of embodiment is co-curricular. There are a set of character activities which we require all students to participate in. These include (a) the annual student self-evaluation procedure, (b) participation in conferences and workshops on such topics as chastity, stress management, courtesy, etc., and (c) participation in student convocations where matters of current or urgent concern are dealt with. In addition, the activities that students participate in as part of service, spirituality, and wellness strongly reinforce this co-curricular dimension of character formation.
The other embodiment of our character program is academic. The new core curriculum in the College contains a series of courses which are intended to promote student reflection on character-related issues. These courses include:
1. FORMATION AND EDUCATION. This is a three semester hour course taken in the first semester of the freshman year. The overall aim of the course is to introduce the student to the intellectual dimension of each of the five formations. Through personal assessment, reading, discussion, and writing we try to get the students to reflect on what it means to have a spiritual life, to serve other people, to be both physically and mentally healthy, etc. A portion of the course is directly devoted to the topic of character, but issues of this sort arise throughout the semester. The aspects of character that we especially focus on are the importance of time-management, willingness to accept criticism, toleration of diverse opinions, and some of the social skills needed to be a good "citizen" in the wider College community.
2. PSYCHOLOGY AND CHARACTER FORMATION. This is a three semester hour course taken in the second semester of the sophomore year. The overall aim of the course is twofold: to bring the resources of developmental psychology to bear on the question of how character is formed; to help students understand their own development and the peculiar issues it may raise. In the version being piloted this semester, the course has a three part structure. Students begin by studying the basic developmental problems of late adolescence. Then they study certain common personal and family of origin problems (e.g., anger, anxiety, divorce, etc.). Finally, they look ahead to the issues raised by choice of a career, marriage, and parenting.
3. THE CHARACTER AND ETHICS SEQUENCE. This is a series of three philosophy courses appearing in the first semesters of the sophomore, junior, and senior years respectively. The aim of each of these courses is to familiarize the student with the key ethical texts, problems and positions of a particular period in the history of philosophy. Thus, "Character and Classical Ethics" deals with Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. "Character and Medieval Ethics" treats the Thomistic theories of natural law and virtue. The format for the third course "Character and Contemporary Ethics" will vary somewhat from the preceding ones. Instead of focusing on a set of crucial texts, it will focus on a crucial problem in contemporary ethics. The version to be offered for the first time in 1997 will focus on the problem of justice with readings being drawn from the work of Rawls, Nozick, Sandel, Walzer, etc. Familiarity with this debate about justice may enrich the students' experience in the social justice course.
4. THE SOCIAL JUSTICE COURSE. This course appears in the second semester of senior year. It is a team taught interdisciplinary course involving history, sociology, economics, theology, and philosophy. The course focuses on the normative and empirical complexity of the problem of poverty. It tries to provoke reflection at several levels. One level is that of the personal attitudes and experiences which students bring to their study of poverty. Another level concerns the nature of voluntary service and its motivations. Still another level concerns the extent of human rights and practical difficulty of securing such rights. Our overall aim is to convince the student that social problems require compassion, clarity, and imagination for their solution.
How is "Ethics and the Educated Person" assisting our efforts in this area? We have received funds from the Lilly Foundation to help us in two ways. First, we identified a need for faculty development. This includes such things as providing occasions for faculty to discuss and refine its ideas about character formation, inviting professionals in this area to address the faculty, and providing support for travel to other institutions with similar programs. Some of this work has already begun. For instance, the student life staff has presented its idea about character to the general faculty. We expect to hear a similar presentation from the staff of psychological services yet this spring. Professor Karen Kitchener addressed the faculty teaching colloquium last October. She spoke about the link between cognitive development and character, emphasizing the importance of promoting "reflective judgment." The directors of the Marietta College Leadership Program, which has a strong character dimension, recently described their program to our faculty. Second, we identified a need to develop a means of assessing the effectiveness of our character formation program. In part this is a response to a call from our accrediting agency to develop an overall assessment plan. But it is also a felt need within the institution. We cannot refine and improve this formation without some reliable measure of student development in this area. We would like to use the student self-evaluation as one context for this effort.
Last updated: 10 June 1996
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~poynter/eep/meinrad.html
Comments: pimple@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, The Trustees of Indiana University