AUGUST 2017 BLOG

IT’S ABOUT SKILL DEVELOPMENT!

A “skills” quote:

“Expressing care for another is not an innate ability present more naturally in some people than others, but rather a skill that can be taught and nurtured through a supportive educational environment.”

-Scotty McLennan, Dean for Religious Life, Stanford University (bold is mine)

A “skills” memory:

”I loved playing baseball. Our city had open try-outs for minor league teams. On day four, one of the coaches said to me, ‘Son, we can’t have players on this team without skills in every area.’ I had ‘grit’ but couldn’t hit. I also had ‘perseverance’ so I became a teacher, a principal, a dean.”

(The question of how skillfully is open to debate.)

At our Character Matters Conference (June 2017), sitting with a few teachers over our delicious box lunches, we started talking about “21^st Century Skills” and the “new” character education movement – the focus on the social-emotional needs of students. I expressed the opinion that I thought the programmatic/instructional emphasis was on the emotional side of the SEL (follow the money) with some, but not too much, attention helping students develop their “social skills.”

As I noted in my 2013 blog , “The Skills Game” recent employee surveys showed that employers are looking for certain qualities in employees such as listening and communication skills, adaptability, creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills, goal setting skills, and competence in reading, writing, and computation skills. It has been reported that 85% of those who lose jobs do so because of inadequate social skills.

It seems to me that social skill development should be an essential part of schools’ character education initiatives (with character strengths and emotional skills as the other two).

A survey conducted through Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, asked the question: What are the best skills for kids to have these days?

The responses:

90% – Communication

86% – Reading

79% – Math

77% – Teamwork

75% -Writing

74% – Logic

58% -Science

25% – Athletics

24% – Music

23% -Art

Social skills include habits and attributes that some call “Habits of the Heart.” This includes providing instruction and practice in helping students to be respectful, be responsible, be honest, be trustworthy, be caring, be courageous, be courtesy, be compassionate, and be fair.

These learned skills are coupled with “Habits of the Mind” – being a critical thinker, appreciating the importance of knowledge and learning, learning how to learn, practicing self-discipline, making ethical decisions, learning to problem solve, controlling anger and emotions, resisting peer pressure, and thinking before acting.

The third skill set is often labeled, “Habits of the Hands,” which includes knowing and practicing the Golden Rule, being of service to others, and becoming an active, participating citizen.

In my research for this blog, I found a program developed by Stephen Elliott (Vanderbilt Peabody education and psychology researcher) and co-authored with Frank Gresham, of the newly published The Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP).

They identified the top 10 skills that students need to succeed based on surveys of over 8,000 teachers and over 20 years of research in classrooms across the country. The skills are:

• Listen to others.
• Follow the steps.
• Follow the rules.
• Ignore distractions.
• Ask for help.
• Take turns when you talk.
• Get along with others.
• Stay calm with others.
• Be responsible for your behavior.
• Do nice things for others.

They report: “In our research, we found that elementary kids and teachers value cooperation and self-control. When we teach and increase those behaviors, we reduce problem behaviors and maximize learning time…. “

“If we increase social skills, we see commensurate increases in academic learning. That doesn’t mean that social skills make you smarter; it means that these skills make you more amenable to learning.”

More information about the SSIS Program can be found at: http://www.PearsonAssessments.com.

Another discovery – a web site, called SKILLSYOUNEED (https://skillsyouneed.com), which provides information and resources for each of the following category of skills: Personal, Interpersonal, Leadership, Learning, Presentation, Writing, Numeracy, and Parenting skills.

As a reminder, I published two blogs on this topic that may be worth your review:

1. “The Skills Game: Who’s on First? What’s on Second? How’s on Third!” [Published by SmartBrief-Education, 11/12/2013]

2.  “The Skills of Question-Asking,” [February 2015 Blog]

And finally, think about this each month during the new school year:

“Children who scored high on social skills were four times as likely to graduate from college than those who scored low.”

Teaching Social Skills to Improve Grade and Lives, David Bornstein, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/24

Question/Comments: deroche@sandiego.edu

                             WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED “LEADERSHIP?”

                                          Edward DeRoche, Director

                                   Character Education Resource Center

                                              deroche@sandiego.edu

Character is the center pole, the core of leadership effectiveness.                                                                 —–Zenger and Folkman (The Extraordinary Leader)

In May, I read an article that asked the question, “Is Your School Better Because You Lead It? (ASCD, V 74, N8 May 2017).

Good question. But what’s the answer?

The answer is captured, I believe, in these additional questions: What is leadership? One has to know what it is before deciding its value.

What is leadership in a school setting? Does the culture of an organization (business, non-profit educational) determine or influence the style or behaviors of its leaders?

Are there differences (traits/habits/behaviors/styles) between male and female leaders in and out of schools settings??

Because of space, I want to focus on what leadership is because it helps lay the groundwork for examining the other questions.

What do we mean when we talk about “leadership?” Depends on who you ask and what you read.

I have had a long-term interest in presidential leadership, so let’s start there. It is common for historians and others to rank presidents based on the effectiveness of their leadership. Rankings are based on a variety of leadership factors. Two examples.

Fred Greenstein (“The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Clinton”) offers six qualities related to the leadership styles and performances of presidents — public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence.

Historian Robert Dallek (“Lessons from the Lives and Times of Presidents”) describes seven factors that distinguish effective and ineffective presidential leaders — vision, pragmatism, charisma, consensus, trust, judgment, and luck.

In 2000, I published an article in the Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development (September 2000, Vol. 39, Issue 1) titled, “Leadership for Character Education Programs.” My list for school or programs leaders suggested that school and program leaders should be visionaries, missionaries, consensus builders, knowledge sources, standard bearers, architects, role models, communicators, collaborators, resource providers, and evaluators.

The Turknett Leadership Group offers a “Leadership Character Model” stating that “Leadership is about character – who you are not what you do.” The model includes three core qualities as the keys of “leadership character:”

(1) Integrity — honesty, credibility, trustworthy. “Without integrity, no leader can be successful.”

(2) Respect — empathy, lack of blame, motivational mastery, humility. “Respect helps create a culture of partnership and teamwork.”

(3) Responsibility — self-confidence, accountability, focus on the whole, courage. “Great leaders accept full responsibility for personal success and for the success of projects, teams, and the entire organization.”

Recently, P.B Stark (https://www.pertstark.com) wrote about the “10 C’s of Great Leadership.” His ten included: character, communication, care, compassion, connectedness, commitment, conviction, competence, courage, and confidence.

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist at Rutgers University and author of Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence, adds the ability to identify and monitor emotions — “your own and others” and “to manage relationships. He writes that the qualities (competencies) associated with “emotional intelligence” distinguish the best leaders and include:

(1) Self-Awareness –Realistic self-confidence: You understand your own strengths and limitations; you operate from competence and know when to rely on someone else on the team. Emotional Insight –-You understand your feelings. Being aware of what makes you angry, for instance, can help you manage that anger.

(2) Self-management –Resilience: You stay calm under pressure and recover quickly from upsets. You don’t brood or panic. In a crisis, people look to the leader for reassurance; if the leader is calm, they can be, too. Emotional balance: You keep any distressful feelings in check — instead of blowing up at people, you let them know what’s wrong and what the solution is. Self-motivation: You keep moving toward distant goals despite setbacks.

(3) Empathy–Cognitive and emotional empathy: Because you understand other perspectives, you can put things in ways colleagues comprehend. And you welcome their questions, just to be sure. Cognitive empathy, along with reading another person’s feelings accurately, makes for effective communication. Good listening: You pay full attention to the other person and take time to understand what they are saying, without talking over them or hijacking the agenda.

(4) Relationship Skills–Compelling communication: You put your points in persuasive, clear ways so that people are motivated as well as clear about expectations. Team playing: People feel relaxed working with you. One sign: They laugh easily around you.

So what is leadership? James MacGregor Burns says” When you deal with human beings in leadership situations, you deal with what is essential to the study of leadership, namely, moral and ethical issues. Through the study of lives, one finds out how individuals have confronted specific actions and decisions relating to leaderships positions.

Note carefully what Burns says in his quote—leadership is about moral and ethical issues-thus about the character of the leader.

Graduation Speech— “Four Keys to Success”

June Blog-deroche@sandiego.edu

Graduations—I’ve been to over fifty and gave a few high school speeches. Many years ago, I gave the “Four Keys” speech. Here is the scene, as I remember it.

A small rural high school. It took longer to drive from home to the school and back than the ceremony itself. Not wanting to go that distance by myself, I invited my family to go with me (my wife and four kids).

I sensed little enthusiasm for this trip. So using one of the politicians’ favorite techniques—the quid pro quo (they call it the “pay-off”), I made the case: “We won’t be there more than two hours and if they pay me, I will take you to dinner and a movie.” They bought it.

We loaded the four kids into our station wagon (pre-SUV) and off we went with snacks and games. By unanimous decision, they decided to remain in the car during my speech. At that time there were no iPads, iPhones—no Internet. They read a book. They talked to one another. They played games. One of our favorite car games is what we called “What is it? Who is it?”—one of our strategies to get the kids into the news of the day.

I gave my twenty-minute speech. In less than two hours, I‘m walking through the parking lot and I hear this loud voice yelling from our car, “Did they pay you?” I smiled, held the envelope overhead and waved it, and off we went to eat and see a movie.

I still have the “Four Keys to Success” speech because I got it published. So, absent of some really relevant stories and a few pithy quotes that I used in the speech, let me outline what I told the students about the “Four Keys to Success”—competence, values, teaching, and responsibility.

I defined each starting with competence. I offered them a few examples suggesting that competence in something—in athletics, in academics, in arts and music, in mechanics, etc.—is a good start on the road to being successful.

I pointed out that in the real world competence is not enough. It has to be complimented and underscored by values (today we call these virtues and character strengths). I talk about trust, compassion, and courage. I told the students that a life worth living is built around positive relationships.

I shared this quote with them and recommended that they start off each day with the “I WILL’s.”

I will do the best I can today!

I will treat people as I want to be treated!

I will contribute to the groups that I belong to!

I followed with a description of the remaining two keys—teaching and responsibility. I noted that they will find out in the course of their lives that they will be teachers (modeling)—what they say, teaches; what they do, teaches; how they interact with others, teaches.

Then I explored the idea of responsibility (respect is implied) noting the three Ps—Personal responsibility, Professional responsibility, Public responsibility. I defined each one with a short story or an example. I suggested that successful people carry out their responsibilities by getting involved in things—by volunteering, by teaching others, by donating their time and talent to help others in their community and among their friends. I offered this quote:

“This is success: to be able to carry money without spending it; to be able to bear an injustice without retaliation; to be able to keep on the job until it is finished; to be able to do one’s duty even when one is not watched; to be able to accept criticism without letting it whip you.”

 I ended the speech by saying: “On the key chain that you will carry around with you after today, remember that there are at least four keys on it that will open up doors or start your engines—they are competence, values, teaching, and responsibility. I wish each of you a great deal of success.”

Now it’s June 2017 and I have been introduced to new ideas about what success is all about by reading Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

She writes about finding one’s potential at school, in the family, and in one’s profession. She said in a recent interview:

“A fixed mindset is when people believe their basic qualities, their intelligence, their talents, their abilities, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount, and that’s that. But other people have a growth mindset. They believe that even basic talents and abilities can be developed over time through experience, mentorship, and so on. And these are the people who go for it. They’re not always worried about how smart they are, how they’ll look, what a mistake will mean. They challenge themselves and grow.”

Great stuff to add to each student’s key chain.

 Success can lead to the greatest failure, which is arrogance and pride.

Failure can lead to the greatest success, which is humility and learning.

– David Brooks, NYT Columnist

~Ed

See my full speech here:

                                                May 2017 Blog  

            A CHARACTER EDUCATION FRAMEWORK: AN EXAMPLE

Many schools and school districts use “VAMP” to frame their character education programs. VAMP is an acronym for the “Virtues- A- Month Program.” VAMP helps all school personnel, students, and parents/guardians focus on a specific virtue. VAMP encourages everyone to be on the same page in the teaching, learning, and practicing of that particular monthly virtue.

In schools and school district across the country there are variations to the ”Virtues- a –Month” framework or in this case the Cobb County’s “Virtues-a -Week” pattern. For example, many teachers have lessons and activities that encourage students to study and celebrate that month’s holidays or recognition days. For this month that would probably include Cinco De Mayo, National Teacher’s Day, Mother’s day, and Memorial Day.

Edward DeRoche, Ph.D., Character Education Resource Center, Director, University of San Diego —-deroche@sandiego.edu

April 2017 Blog

Ed DeRoche, Director, Character Education Resource Center

Department of Learning & Teaching, University of San Diego

                        QUESTION-ASKING: A Few Experiences

People will tell you that you have to know math to be a scientist, or physics or chemistry. They’re wrong….Sure, it helps, but there will be a time for that. What comes first is a question, and you are already there. It’s not nearly as involved as people make it out to be.—Hope Jahren (2006), Lab Girl, New York: Knopf, (p.4).

I am a question-asker. All you have to do is ask family members about my “warm and friendly” ways of asking them questions and my shock, at times, about their answers.
Those I have worked with over the years will tell you somewhat the same thing. Last month lunching with two colleagues, they both recalled my habit of saying, “Look just don’t bring me the problems and questions. Also bring me some answers and solutions.”                                                                                                                                        I have three opinions about question asking. One I call the “ownership” — what you ask, you own. The second is the “knowledge expansion” — the more you know, the better the questions; the better the questions the more you will learn about something (including behavior and emotions). The third is my “partnership opinion” — the more you engage others in asking questions and seeking solutions, the better the results—team questions lead to varying viewpoints and wide –ranging responses.

One of the strategies I have taught is called: “Give It Five.” When you have a problem, an issue, a dilemma, a crisis, and/or a conflict, something that requires analysis—lay your hand on it and GIF

I used this strategy when I was a teacher and principal. When a conflict or some other issue occurred between or among students, I would sit them down (now called a ‘time-out’) and ask them to GIF. I did this either by having the involved students write about it and share what they wrote (improved their thinking and writing skills).

Many times I suggested that they talk to one another (no cell phones or texting opportunities in those days.) They had to look at one another-eye to eye – and discuss the incident in a “kind and respectful way”(character development) using the fingers on one of their hands to guide the conversation of a GIF sheet I gave each of them.

            What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen?

            Who was involved? Why did it happen?

            The palm: How? How are we/you going to solve this problem so that

            it doesn’t happen again?

I think you can see in this and similar strategies that the “exercise” helps students develop their empathic and social skills — active listening, compromise, self-control–as they deal with everyday life in and out of school.

I used GIF many times as a junior high school social studies (civics, current events, citizenship) teacher. To keep my students interested, motivated, and informed my textbook was the daily newspaper. I liked using newspapers so much, I wrote a book about it—Project Update: The Newspaper in the Elementary and Junior High School Classroom.

Generally, we would find articles, editorials, feature stories and “give them five.” After discussion, students would, in their own words, write a summary using the 5 W’s and the H—Who? What? When? Where? Why? & How?

One more strategy using the “hand” for teaching your students the character trait—Caring. Give each student a handout with a copy of a hand on it. Or give them a blank sheet of paper and have them trace their own hand.

Ask them: Think of five ways you could be more helpful to one another. Write out one suggestion on each finger of the hand on your paper using no more than 2-3 words per finger. Next, draw a symbol that is an example of caring on the palm of the hand. Have the students share their work and discuss their symbols. Create a bulletin board labeled CARING HANDS.

I need to make a comment here so that you will understand and appreciate that there is much more to questions asking then I have written about in this blog. You have heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy and his work on levels of questions–

Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation

A.D. Fredericks writes: The six levels of questions are appropriate for all grade levels…. Perhaps most important, students tend to read and think based on the types of questions they anticipate receiving from the teacher. In other words, students will tend to approach any subject as a knowledge-based subject if they are presented with an overabundance of knowledge-level questions throughout a lesson. On the other hand, students will tend to approach a topic at higher levels of thinking if they are presented with an abundance of questions at higher levels of thinking. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Success as a Teacher © 2005 by Anthony D. Fredericks.

https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-methods/new-teacher/48445.html   TeacherVision.com

PERFORMANCE & MORAL CHARACTER

March 2017 Blog

Edward DeRoche

Three questions: Did you know that there are two types of character- moral character and performance character? Do you know why the two matter? Do you know what schools can do to foster moral and performance character?

I came across the idea of two types of character after reading Lickona and Davidson’s book, Smart & Good High Schools: Integrating Excellence and Ethics for Success in School, Work, and Beyond (www.cortland.edu, 2005). The authors write that performance character is the pathway to excellence and moral character is the pathway to ethical behavior.

Both are captured, according to the authors, in the “8 Strengths of Character: (1) Lifelong learner and critical thinker; (2) Diligent and capable performer; (3) Socially and emotionally skilled person; (4) Ethical thinker; (5) Respectful and responsible moral agent; (6) Self-disciplined person who pursues a healthy lifestyle; (7) Contributing community member and democratic citizen; and (8) Spiritual person engaged in crafting a life of noble purpose.

In 2007, an article appeared in Education Week, November 14, authored by Davidson, Lickona, and Khmelkov. 2007) in which they make the case that “students need performance character (initiative, self-discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and the like) to do their best academic work; (and) … moral character (respect, fairness, kindness, honesty, and so forth) to build the relationships that make for a positive learning environment.”

Several months ago, I came across a “position paper,” published in 2008, by the Character Education Partnership, now called “character. org.” Why I just found it is anyone’s guess.

The paper is found here and titled “Performance Values: Why They Matter and What Schools Can Do to Foster Their Development.” (http://www.character.org) The paper describes the “role of work in a life of character.” The authors explore the answer to the question: “Where do we learn to care about the quality of our work and to develop skills to do it well?” Their answer: “To a large extent in school.”

They discuss the role of work, the idea that we need to expand our views of character; they examine the research and then conclude with ten practices that will “shape a school and peer- group culture.”

I like the view that moral and performance character are “mutually supportive.”

“The moral aspects, besides enabling us to treat each other with fairness, respect and care, ensure that we pursue our performance goals in ethical rather than unethical ways…. The performance aspects of our character…enable us to act on our moral values and make a positive difference in the world.”

The caveat! Dr. Thomas Lickona, Professor of Education, Emeritus and Director, Center for the 4^th and 5^th Rs at SUNY- Cortland is a developmental psychologist and educator who has spent more than four decades helping parents and schools foster good character in youth.

Dr. Lickona will be present on this topic at CERC’s summer conference on June 22, 2017 (charactermatters2017.eventbrite.com)

The title of his presentation is “Moral Character, Performance Character, and Social-Emotional Skills:

Why Kids Need All Three—and How to Foster Their Development.”

                         Can’t wait—I have questions!

~Ed

Qualities of Character and Leadership

February 2017 Blog

Edward DeRoche

In this blog, I want to look at the qualities of presidential character and leadership as noted by scholars in the field and relate them to my experiences with character educators.

There are four presidential birthdays this month – George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. We celebrate Presidents’ Day on Monday the 20^th (another three-day weekend of sales and bargains!).

Several years ago, I wrote an article, published in the San Diego Union–Tribune (February 20, 2006), celebrating Presidents’ Day. The article focused on the character strengths and leadership styles of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom exemplified most or all of the qualities that follow.

Historian Robert Dallek (Frontline, PBS.org) suggests five qualities of successful presidents:

• vision –a clear idea of where he will lead the nation;
• realist or pragmatist with a sense of optimism;
• a national consensus;
• a personal connection with the people;
• credibility – earned trust.

Implied in Dalleks’s five qualities is what Zenger and Folkman (The Extraordinary Leader) call “character”…”the core of leadership effectiveness.”

Princeton University professor Fred Greenstein (The Presidential Difference) offers six qualities related to the leadership styles and performances of presidents. Note the additional qualities of “cognitive style” and “emotional intelligence.”

• public communication
• organizational capacity
• political skill
• vision
• cognitive style
• emotional intelligence

 Daniel Goleman, (Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence), calls for leaders to identify and monitor their emotions — “your own and others. ’’ He highlights self-awareness, self-management, empathy (cognitive and emotional), and relationship skills as the keys factors to emotional intelligence.

If historians studied the work of character educators, what qualities might they discover about these leaders?

 The first, I think, is that they would use the word missionaries in the most positive sense of the word. Go back five or six decades – track the character education thrust in this nation and those leading it. You will see why I suggest the word missionary. I fought the temptation to name names and efforts. I may save that for a future blog.

 Another quality that I have witness is that past and current character educators are a knowledge source and provider.

 They know and understand the history, the stories, the successes and failures of efforts to implement character education in schools and address the moral and ethical development of the young. They know about best practices. They are tuned-in to the commercialism that has developed around character education. They have access to and willingly share information about programs, curricular, and instructional materials. They clearly understand and provide the major resources needed for the character education program development, including teacher training, curriculum, special projects, student needs, parent initiatives, and evaluation efforts.

A third quality, as I see it, is that character educators are communicators, collaborators, and consensus- builders.

Character educators are the voices for their programs. They keep parents, the public, the press, and their colleagues informed of the efforts to achieve the goals of the program. They understand that effective internal and external communication helps build confidence, engender support, and encourage participation.

My experience with character educators is that they value collaboration – helping stakeholders clarify roles and responsibilities, encouraging them to build trusting relationships, enabling them to celebrate achievements and willingly correct mistakes.

As consensus-builders, character educators bring state mandates, education codes, virtues that emanate from our founding documents, and values identified by other schools and school districts to inform the discussion.

Historians would discover that character educators are stand-bearers. They bear witness to the proposition that there is more to educating children and youth than learning subject matter and increasing test scores. They value standard-driven character education programs that are comprehensive and well organized, that promote standards for the character education curriculum, and they favor partnership standards that will offer parents and others with full-service opportunities to help meet students’ physical, social, and emotional needs.

Another quality – character educators are researchers and evaluators. I have yet to meet a character educator who is not interested in the effectiveness of their efforts. They want to know what’s working and not working and why? They value, understand, and use research. Their questions: How does this research inform our practices? What is the best way to share the research with others?

What strikes me about their interest in evaluating character education programs and personnel is their thrust to create a culture of data-driven improvement. One recent example – several inquiries about using student survey data to better understand students’ in and out of the classroom experiences and behaviors.

Like most effective leaders, character educators have a vision about the future, about possibilities, about what might be for educating children and youth, about the balance between testing and teaching, about being smart and good. They ask themselves: who are we (character and values), how do we perform (skills and talents), and how shall we lead (sharing, partnerships, team-building).

As one writer put it: “One of the secrets of leadership is to see where the parade is headed and rush in front of it before it gets there. “

Effective presidents and character educators do this.