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

True Grit

not the movie... but Angela Duckworth did mention it in this talk. I'm really excited about how often she is popping up in my study.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/grit/angela-duckworth-grit.html
I also found her Grit Test- 12 questions - perhaps I can use some of these for the PGP questions.
http://theyoungmarketer.com/2013/01/12/determine-your-grit-score/

Here is a link to Duckworth talking about Dweck's growth mindset as one strategy for helping make kids "grittier"
http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html

And finally, the most up-to-date article I have found so far from Duckworth since most of her initial work on grit is from 2007-09. This is from April 2013.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/april-13/true-grit.html

Teaching Character in Schools

I'm thinking right now about the goal setting and planning pieces set up in Success, but I came across this article related to the book I'm reading by Paul Tough. Here's the link.
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Departments/Book-Reviews/2013/Winter/Content-of-their-character.aspx
 Also, the first page of the KIPP school webpage lists the 7 character strengths incorporated into the school. These came from the work that Peterson did. Duckworth worked on an evaluative tool for teachers to use.http://www.kipp.org/our-approach/character


In addition to a review of Tough's book, another book called Character Compass*, is reviewed in this article. I found the author, Scott Seider, giving a talk on the book online and here's my takeaway from that-

Seider set out to see whether good character can be taught.

He examined three schools but focused in his talk on two of the three.  He said that Roxbury Prep and Boston Prep both had character education in their mission statements. Roxbury’s focus was more on performance character and Boston Prep’s was more on moral character. 

He found that students in all the schools show an increase in the key measures- integrity, perseverance, connectivity, empathy. Seider indicated that success is directly related to how students identify themselves. For example, if they say “I’m the kind of person who…” doesn’t cheat, then they don’t cheat. He calls this schema building, the way a volleyball player sets the ball – a person “sets” who they are over time. He indicates part of the success may be because the schools he studied have character education that is part of the thread of "who" the school is, rather than having character education handed to them from an outside source (like the government). Within the classes at all of the schools, there are ethics classes where students are actively engaged in discussing daily school issues- cheating, bullying, responsibility using practical examples and a common language.

There's a good bit here that sounds like the MKA ethics classes so I feel really confident about what our school is doing to teach character. 

*How Powerful School Culture can Point Students Toward Success
---Here's my final thought for now- when I look at the subtitle of Seider's book, I wonder if we have the school "culture" that's needed- in other words, how do other things that make up our culture clash with the character education going on in Ethics classes?

The importance of Choice:

A common theme that I've encountered in my reading so far revolves around the importance of choice and the role that choice has in success and happiness. In Dan Pink's book, Drive, he talks about the powerful role autonomy plays in motivating workers. (remember the FedEx days, when employees get to work on whatever they want?) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzHgN7_Hs8) In the Ethics Institute, we heard about three intrinsic needs that all people have- they are: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. This is the idea that people need to choose and organize their own experiences. In Success (chapter 5), Halvorsen states that it is important to create a feeling of choice even if it is unrelated to the learning. For example, students can choose their own seat, what color paper they want to use, and the order they may want to complete assignments or tasks. She cites a very powerful example from the study at the nursing home (p.118) in which the mortality rate of patients was cut in half just by incorporating simple "choices" into the lives of the elderly patients. They were allowed to choose their activities and were given the responsibility of taking care of a plant. What do I take away from this chapter and example? Choice creates meaning in our lives. It is critical, therefore, that as teachers, we create as much autonomy and choice as possible in our classrooms to leverage motivation, success, and meaning.

Small Bits of Happiness

I've signed up for Gretchen Rubin's "Moments of Happiness" daily email and will be collecting my favorite quotes here. I'm thinking of ways I can use these in school. Perhaps I could share one each time my advisor group meets. If I ask the girls to keep journals, maybe they will collect their favorites.
I think this is a really tough one and an idea that would create a lot of discussion.
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."
- Bertrand Russell

Gretchen also seems to have a picture to go with her quotes. I took this one recently so I've decided to include it here. I'm wondering if a collection of photos could be a jumping off point for discussion? As suggested in the Ethics workshop, keeping a "happiness portfolio" is a reflective activity for everyone.

Still in Ethics Day 2- ask students to write in the margin of their notebook: 2-3 critical things from the notes taken in class today. Review those on an ongoing basis. This is a reflective tool that can be used to reach their goal of engagement!

Starting my Blauvelt Blog today...
I am at Day 2 of the Ethics Institute, Introductory Strand.
We wrote an Enduring Understanding and Essential Questions using Backwards Design which I have not practiced actively for a while.

Here is my start at one- help from Karen made me see that I wanted to use the word engagement rather than focus...

Students will understand that…

Engagement increases a student’s knowledge and enhances the experience of all students in the class.

---- How am I going to engage with my learning?

How does it feel (describe) when you are fully immersed/engaged in an activity?

Why is it important to be engaged in class?

How does one student who is not engaged affect another?

How do you teach this the first time?

I'm thinking of putting it into the WELCOME sheet –

First day activity could be to answer the first question- could write on an index card or Moodle journal– this would also serve as a get-to-know-you ( gives you a window into what interests the student has, how they engage with things they like, etc) 

(see first-day activity)

The question: how am I going to engage with my learning? can be applied in all contexts... when reviewing for an assessment, when entering the lab, when solving problems in small groups in class. This can hopefully be a natural question to ask over time so students don't roll their eyes at the question.