As part of efforts to cultivate people with desirable character traits, this study analyzes the influence of a well-organized character education program on Children’s personalities. To this end, the following research question was established.
57...
As part of efforts to cultivate people with desirable character traits, this study analyzes the influence of a well-organized character education program on Children’s personalities. To this end, the following research question was established.
57 Children from S Kindergarten located in C city in Gyeongnam Province took part in this study as the experimental group. More to the point, the group consisted of 17 three-year old Children, 20 four-year old Children, and 20 five-year old Children. Meanwhile, 57 Children from JKindergarten were selected to serve as the comparison group. Here again, the group consisted of 17three-years old Children, 20 four-year old preschoolers, and 20 five-year old Children.
The actual research period lasted for seven months and two weeks, or from the second week of March 2008 to the last week of October 2008. During this period, the experimental group took part in integrated character education in the form of a character education program called The Good Tree Character School (joeunnamuseongpumhakgyo).
The character growth checklist developed as part of the good tree character school was used as a research tool. The survey on which the analysis was based was coded using SPSS 14.0. An independent t-test was also conducted in order to analyze whether the character education program had a significant influence in terms of improving Children’s personalities.
In this regard, this study reached the following conclusions:
The character education program was indeed found to exercise a positive influence on the development of Children’s personalities. A closer look at the results of the analysis of the character index revealed that the Children in the experimental group tended to exhibit higher scores in terms of such traits as a positive attitude, expression of joy, caring for others, appreciation, and responsibility. Meanwhile, no significant differences were uncovered between the two groups where the listening to others trait is concerned.