Calling for character education: promoting moral integrity in early childhood education in Jordan

Resumo

The study aimed to provide insights into the moral integrity of children in one Jordanian school in Amman. In the absence of values, the situation in Jordanian schools continue to deteriorate ethically, there is an increase in cheating, bullying, and vandalism. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the effectiveness of a character education program that was implemented in one private school on 6-7-year-old children (N-47). The study measured the improvement in children’s moral integrity in four different dimensions (empathy, honesty, respect and courage). A tool was developed to measure children’s moral integrity (CMIS) through comparison of pre and post data. The results indicated a significant increase in all dimensions of the moral integrity scale in the post test in favor of the experimental group. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the post test in the moral integrity overall scale according to gender. Recommendations and implications for future research were presented.