Some Answers

 In my initial proposal, I had some questions I hoped I'd be able to answer at the end of the study. Here's what I've come up with...

What specific ethical principles can students apply to their (academic) lives?

Overall, I've been thinking of ways to intellectually pull all my readings back together to Aristotle. As I learned during the Ethics Institute, Aristotle felt that happiness was an end in itself. He stated  that happiness is an "exercise of virtue" that requires good moral character. That leads me to the MKA character standards. These guide students to make the right choices especially during hard and difficult times. Using self-control, students will make decisions that will benefit them long-term but not always short-term. The results of the marshmallow test reveals that people who can delay gratification end up being "happier" many years out. Finally, the performance character traits which can be linked to the MKA character standards are more about habits, things that Aristotle says we must practice in order to achieve happiness, like the archer who strives to hit the target. I look at it this way: if students can keep their eye on the prize, put off short-term "fun" for long-term gain (academic success) by practicing good habits (self-control, perseverance, grit, conscientiousness, growth-mindset), they can accomplish what Aristotle has set out for them and perhaps achieve happiness (in his definition, you can't say you were happy until the end of your life).

I suspect that students may not think that looking at the character standards will help them in their math class, for example, so perhaps making the explicit connection between the character standards and the performance character traits (habits) during the advisor group activity would be enlightening.

·  What specific character traits help students become successful?

You are happy when you have connectedness, autonomy, and competence

Connectedness is being engaged with your learning, your classmates, your teacher

Autonomy is choice – goal setting

Competence comes from performance character - practicing the habits

Character traits associated with academic success: (Seider, Tough, Duckworth, Dweck, Halvorsen)


perseverance
persistance
self-control
self-discipline
curiosity
conscientiousness
self-confidence
grit*
growth-mindset
engaged
mastery rather than performance based goals
resilience in the face of setbacks
 

 * People who are "gritty" are action oriented, don't complain, don't blame others for their mistakes, can delay gratification, exhibit self-control, work through challenges, are intrinsically motivated to push themselves