Character education in a Muslim school: A case study of a comprehensive Muslim school's curricula

Deteriorating social behavior, negative media influence and violence among adolescents have given cause to pause and assess character development for the youth of this country. The purpose of this case study was to examine how a Muslim school’s curricula implemented character education. This study used a qualitative single-case methodology to examine character education as it was experienced by the participants in a private Muslim school. Data were collected from participant interviews, document analysis, and observations of classrooms, daily activities and special events. Data were analyzed to determine how character education was defined by the school, the method of delivery for the character education initiatives and the implementation of character education in this Muslim school. Analysis was based on Character Education Partnership’s (CEP) Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education (2007). The results of the study revealed: (a) participants defined character education using varied traits, processes, and expected behaviors. (b) The school delivers its character education curriculum primarily through the Islamic studies division; an add-on delivery method. Still, there was evidence of partial integration of character education in the core courses and (c) based on CEP’s Eleven Principles four were present and five were partially present in the school’s character education initiatives. Findings also revealed that the school’s emphasis on values, morality and spirituality was instrumental in their teaching character. Findings suggest that if participants in the school community work together they might formulate a definition of character education based on common process and expected behavior and create a collaborative working relationship to implement a character education program. Finally, addressing the absent and partially absent elements of the eleven principles could enhance the school’s character education initiatives. The study provides a process by which religious schools could examine their character education programs. The criteria used to measure the use of character education elements are transferable to other settings; however, this method of study does not allow generalization of findings.

Possible climate change impacts on the hydrological and vegetative character of Everglades National Park, Florida

The increasing threat of global climate change is predicted to have immense influences on ecosystems worldwide, but could be particularly severe to vulnerable wetland environments such as the Everglades. This work investigates the impact global climate change could have on the hydrologic and vegetative makeup of Everglades National Park (ENP) under forecasted emissions scenarios. Using a simple stochastic model of aboveground water levels driven by a fluctuating rainfall input, we link across ENP a location's mean depth and percent time of inundation to the predicted changes in precipitation from climate change. Changes in the hydrologic makeup of ENP are then related to changes in vegetation community composition through the use of relationships developed between two publically available datasets. Results show that under increasing emissions scenarios mean annual precipitation was forecasted to decrease across ENP leading to a marked hydrologic change across the region. Namely, areas were predicted to be shallower in average depth of standing water and inundated less of the time. These hydrologic changes in turn lead to a shift in ENP's vegetative makeup, with xeric vegetative communities becoming more numerous and hydric vegetative communities becoming scarcer. Noticeably, the most widespread of vegetative communities, sawgrass, decreases in abundance under increasing emissions scenarios. These results are an important indicator of the effects climate change may have on the Everglades region and raise important management implications for those seeking to restore this area to its historical hydrologic and vegetative condition.

Goma curriculum, a character education paradigm: Composing a text for shaping classroom character culture

The written text, and approaches to reading it, serves well as an analogy for the classroom space as a "text" that teachers are able to compose; and students are able to read, interpret meaning(s) of, and make responses to and about (Rosenblatt, 1988). Researchers point to ways in which the classroom can be conceptualized as a text to be evoked, experienced, and read (Freire & Macedo, 1987; Powell, 2009; Rosenblatt, 1988; Spears-Bunton & Powell, 2009).^ The present study analyzed secondary data including: 10 transcripts of teacher talks and six self-reports retrieved from the program evaluation archives of DOR Foundation. The data described six teachers' classroom experiences subsequent to professional development centered on Goma character education curriculum that was used during a summer youth program located in South Georgia. Goma, an acronym that stands for Goal, Objective, Method, and Attitude, is a character education paradigm derived from The Inclusive Community Building Ellison Model, the theoretical framework used for this study. The Model identifies conflict resolution as one of its five foci (Hunt, Howard, & Rice, 1998). Hunt (2006) conceived Goma as part of a 7-Step unitary process, also named the 7-Step pathway, to demonstrate how conflict resolution is accomplished within a variety of contexts.^ Analysis of the data involved: (a) a priori coding of teacher talks transcripts using the components of the Goma 7-Step pathway as coding categories, (b) emergent coding of teacher talks transcripts for the types of experiences teachers evidenced, and (c) emergent coding of teachers' self-reports for categories of teachers' instructional activities. Results of the study showed positive influence of Goma curriculum on participating teachers and their instructional practices. Teachers were shown to have had cognitive, instructional, emotional, and social experiences that were most evident when they reported changes in their attitudes toward their students, themselves, and their instructional practices. The present study provided implications for classroom teachers wherein all aspects of teachers' instructional practices can be guided by principles of positive character; and can be used to help compose the kinds of "texts" that may likely contribute to a classroom character culture.^

Perceptions of character education in a Seventh-day Adventist school

Character education has been viewed by many educators as having significant historical, academic, and social value. Many stakeholders in education argue for character development as a curricular experience. While understanding the degree to which character education is of worth to stakeholders of institutions is important, understanding students, teachers, and administrators perspectives from their lived experiences is likewise significant. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of character education within a Biblical framework environment by examining the lived experiences of students, administrators, and teachers of a Seventh-day Adventist School. Phenomenology describes individuals' daily experiences of phenomena, the manner in which these experiences are structured, and focuses analysis on the perspectives of the persons having the experience (Moustakas, 1994). This inquiry was undertaken to answer the question: What are the perceptions of students, teachers, and an administrator toward character education in a Seventh-day Adventist school setting? Ten participants (seven students and three adults) formed the homogeneous purposive sample, and the major data collection tool was semi-structured interviews (Patton, 1990; Seidman, 2006). Three 90-minute open-ended interviews were conducted with each of the participants. Data analysis included a three-phase process of description, reduction and interpretation. The findings from this study revealed that participants perceived that their involvement in the school's character education program decreased the tendency to violence, improved their conduct and ethical sensibility, enhanced their ability to engage in decision-making concerning social relationships and their impact on others, brought to their attention the emerging global awareness of moral deficiency, and fostered incremental progress from practice and recognition of vices to their acquisition of virtues. The findings, therefore, provide a model for teaching character education from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective. The model is also relevant for non-Seventh day Adventists who aspire to teach character education as a means to improving social and moral conditions in schools.

Idleness and passion: Hamlet's tragic character in the light of stoicism and medieval Christian philosophy

This thesis explores the character of Hamlet in Shakespeare's same-titled work in the light of certain aspects of stoicism and medieval Christian philosophy. Throughout the course of the play we see Hamlet struggling with his thoughts. At first he deliberates without taking action as a consequence of his reasoning, but in the later stages of the play he gives in to passion, which ultimately leads to his own demise. The thesis gives an account of certain aspects of both philosophies that are displayed in the play and shows how those ideas influence the character of Hamlet and contextualize his personal tragedy. Hamlet fails to follow the philosophies that he praises and to grow as a character by overcoming his passions over the course of the play.

The theory of moral sentiments; or, an essay towards an analysis of the principles by wich men naturally judge concerning the conduct and character, first of their neighbours, and afterwards of themselves : to which is added a dissertation on the origin of languages

by Adam Smith, LL.D., fellow of the royal societies of London and Edinburgh, one of the commissioners of his majesty's customs in Scotland, and formerly professor of moral philosophy in the University of Glasgow

Genesis and character of thin-bedded turbidites associated with submarine channels

Acknowledgements We acknowledge the support of the PRACSS Joint Industry Project at University of Aberdeen, funded by BG Group, BP, DONG, RWE Dea, Petrochina, Statoil and Tullow Oil. We also acknowledge the entire crew of the Urania Research vessel which was used to acquire the CHIRP lines, bathymetric data and gravity cores from the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. Our colleagues Michal Janocko and Mike Mayall are thanked for the discussions and comments. Our colleagues Pan Li, Amanda Santa Catharina, Guilherme Bozetti and Matheus Silveira Sobiesiak are thanked for their assistance during field work where some of the ideas in this paper were synthesized. Finally we thank one anonymous reviewer and Brian Romans for their invaluable feedback which made some of the ideas introduced in this review much more succinct.

Effect of support redox character on catalytic performance in the gas phase hydrogenation of benzaldehyde and nitrobenzene over supported gold

Peer reviewed

The importance of character : virtue ethics and psychology

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The importance of character : virtue ethics and psychology

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Palliser Rockslide cosmogenic 36Cl exposure ages (raw data) and erosion effect on the cosmogenic

This paper presents the results of a combined study, using cosmogenic 36Cl exposure dating and terrestrial digital photogrammetry, of the Palliser Rockslide located in the southeastern Canadian Rocky Mountains. This site is particularly well-suited to demonstrate how this multi-disciplinary approach can be used to differentiate distinct rocksliding events, estimate their volume, and establish their chronology and recurrence interval. Observations suggest that rocksliding has been ongoing since the late Pleistocene deglaciation. Two major rockslide events have been dated at 10.0 ± 1.2 kyr and 7.7 ± 0.8 kyr before present, with failure volumes of 40 Mm3 and 8 Mm3, respectively. The results have important implications concerning our understanding of the temporal distribution of paraglacial rockslides and rock avalanches; they provide a better understanding of the volumes and failure mechanisms of recurrent failure events; and they represent the first absolute ages of a prehistoric high magnitude event in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Pivoting the player: a framework for player character research in offline computer role-playing games

This article introduces a theoretical framework for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Player Character Grid and its constituent Pivot Player Character Model, a conceptual framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although video game characters have been scrutinised from many different perspectives, a systematic framework has not been introduced yet. This study aims to fill that void by proposing a model replicable across the cRPG genre. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999) and is demonstrated with reference to The Witcher (CD Projekt RED 2007).

The spatial character of sensor technology

By considering the spatial character of sensor-based interactive systems, this paper investigates how discussions of seams and seamlessness in ubiquitous computing neglect the complex spatial character that is constructed as a side-effect of deploying sensor technology within a space. Through a study of a torch (`flashlight') based interface, we develop a framework for analysing this spatial character generated by sensor technology. This framework is then used to analyse and compare a range of other systems in which sensor technology is used, in order to develop a design spectrum that contrasts the revealing and hiding of a system's structure to users. Finally, we discuss the implications for interfaces situated in public spaces and consider the benefits of hiding structure from users.

Character, Audience Agency and Trans-Media Drama

Changes in the television industry with regards to the development of new media technologies are having a significant impact on audience engagement with television drama. This article explores how the internet is being used to extend audience engagement onto platforms other than the television set to the point where television drama should increasingly be reconsidered as trans-media drama. However audience engagement with the various elements of a trans-media drama text is complex. By exploring audience attitudes towards character in the British television series Spooks and its associated online games, this article argues that in an increasingly converged media landscape audiences transfer values between platforms. Consequently the audience's perception of control in relation to their engagement with a trans-media drama text such as Spooks becomes complicated with values associated with television proving key to their engagement with the same fictional world in the form of games.

Nice work if you can get it? The changing character of academic labour in Sweden and England

This paper considers recent attempts to introduce managerial reform in higher education. In exploring the issues the paper draws on an interviewing programme conducted with female and male academics in Sweden and England responsible for delivering change: heads of department, heads of division and principal lecturers. The aim is to examine the implications for the day-to-day work of academics arising from the reforms and to consider the gender implications. The paper conceptualises the areas of academic responsibility along the following dimensions identified by the academics themselves: dog work, tough work, care work, real work and nice work. In bringing into sharper focus the harsher realities of academe, and exploring the overlap and connectivity between gender and academic labour, it is argued that intellectual labour is hard work indeed, particularly for women.