This study is aimed at looking into the effects and significance of a Teaching-Learning model run by narrative moral storytelling through a teacher’s modeling in a fifth grade moral education class. Qualitative research analysis as a means of partic...
This study is aimed at looking into the effects and significance of a Teaching-Learning model run by narrative moral storytelling through a teacher’s modeling in a fifth grade moral education class. Qualitative research analysis as a means of participant observation was the major method in this study. Observation method, interview and material analysis have been applied to strengthen the content validity. Research was conducted on five occasions, each comprising two consecutive periods, for a total of 10 class hours. Three occasions were videotaped, transcribed and analyzed. Field notes were also recorded right after each class. When it came to an interview, an interviewee was not randomly selected, but rather interviews were performed when there was a student with an unusual or unique attribute that differed from the class outcome. Furthermore, all of the students’ class outcome materials were collected and analyzed.
The results of the research are presented below.
Firstly, students tend to focus more on an illustration of a teacher’s self-reflection of bad behavior than on an example of a teacher’s best practices. Students seem to take any good behavior of a teacher for granted. They speculate on the stories more if they hear of their teacher’s lesson from bad behavior , in contrast to the students' preconception that ‘My teacher must have done something righteous’, assuming the teacher is always morally good. However, it is too soon to say that there is no possibility of a side effect where students could get the idea of ‘I will imitate what the teacher did. I can do bad things if my teacher can’. This is the reason why the teacher needs to show students his or her serious self-examination and introspection of bad behavior. This will be presented through a teacher’s tone, expressions, or mood, which need to be practiced, not through a story per se.
Secondly, students’ new way of approaching moral education has been made possible through this narrative moral storytelling. Learners are able to organize opinions by mapping out stories based on their own experiences, characterizing themselves in a story and composing their thoughts. This has given me hope that students can have a closer understanding of MacIntyre’s narrative unity of a human life.
To bring about students’ moral modification through the narrative moral storytelling method, teachers need to make some efforts, as follows.
The outcome of this method is an integrated result of covering all the areas of cognition, affection and behavior. Teachers are also advised to share insignificant experiences that students might consider indifferently.
Homeroom teachers should set an ideal example for students so as to help them amend behavior themselves. The fact that their teacher also make a mistake and learn from it can motivate students to adjust their performance.
The key purpose of moral education is to achieve morally integrated growth, and I have ascertained that this can be achieved through this narrative moral storytelling method. The major role in this procedure is definitely a teacher’s modeling. A case where one who has not been morally perfect yet nevertheless becomes a person with a more mature sense of morality can be presented in class, and especially if the person used as an example is the students’ teacher, they will be able to learn and accomplish integrated ethics growth.
Keywords : modeling, narrative moral storytelling, the narrative mode of thought, integrated moral growth