Date of Award

Spring 2020

Document Type

Thesis

Primary Advisor

Professor Lisa Ciganek

Abstract

Character education is an important part of school curriculum, but it is not always taught intentionally. This thesis outlines the benefits of character education, the various character education curriculums, and teacher’s self-efficacy for teaching character education. The study was conducted in Lakeland, Florida through an online survey. Participants were first year teachers and current student teachers. Each teacher answered questions regarding their confidence teaching various character traits. Teachers agreed that the most difficult part about teaching character education is helping students understand the importance of their values in their individual lives. Overall, respect and responsibility were the character traits that teachers felt most confident teaching and fairness and citizenship were the traits that teachers felt least confident teaching. College and professional development courses that address specific areas of character education should be offered to increase teacher self-efficacy for teaching character education. Further research could include how beneficial professional development and college courses are to increase teacher’s self-efficacy for teaching character education and how teacher social and emotional well-being correlates with their ability to teach character education.

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