Character And Citizenship Education Case Study

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Character and Citizenship Education: Are these lessons effective?
1. Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) serves as a platform for teachers to facilitate purposeful discussions with students to help them clarify, understand and learn about moral and citizenship values and competencies which will equip them for life’s challenges and experiences. 2. For many years now, the CCE programme has been implemented in all schools in Singapore; however, its effectiveness in education has been debated (Singteach.nie.edu.sg, 2014; Alfiekohn.org, 2014). 3. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the CCE curriculum is not effective in fulfilling its aim of nurturing values, competencies and dispositions in students to aid them in becoming people …show more content…

As Dr Vilma has aptly explained, “Character cannot be taught but “caught” through the experience of doing and then reflecting on your experience” (Educating Values-driven Citizens, p.8, 2012). In dedicating specific periods in the time table for CCE, students become aware that teachers intend to impose values on them to emulate. When the objectives are made explicit, students will either outright reject the concepts being taught, or exhibit the desired qualities and characters for the sake of doing so, but not practice it outside the school compound. 8. Related to this, Kohn (1997) has claimed that the techniques of character education may succeed in temporarily buying a particular behaviour, but they are unlikely to leave children with a commitment to that behaviour, a reason to continue acting that way in the future (p. 11). The teacher in the discourse of CCE will be seen as one who is vested with the role of being a character model that amalgamates good character with good citizenry qualities. Hence, teachers should do their part and practice constant modelling of the behaviours we seek to cultivate in our students, so that they become accustomed to moral conduct, and over time, the values will be deeply ingrained in all that they …show more content…

Establishes the context by situating the discussion (debate on the effectiveness of CCE lessons) and cites evidence of the existence of a debate (Alfiekohn.org, 2014; Molnar, 1997)
3. States the purpose of the paper and the thesis statement (demonstrate that the CCE curriculum is not effective in fulfilling its aim)
4. Makes a claim that the CCE curriculum / lesson delivery is ineffective
5. Explains the claim (schools are engaged largely in exhortation and directed recitation)
6. Provides examples (teaching strategies such as storytelling, role play, experiential learning, classroom discussions and reflection) with linked elaborations to further explain the claim
7. Cites evidence from Dr Vilma (Educating Values-driven Citizens) to support the argument
8. Cites evidence from Kohn (1997) to support the argument
9. Acknowledges an opposing argument (CCE is effective)
10. Cites evidence from Minister of Education to support the opposing argument
11. Addresses the opposing view (when students are given the avenues to define their personal value systems, evoke affective responses to situations and comprehend different relationships, it encourages students to correct faults and emulate goodness)
12. Reiterates the thesis and sums up the points

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