Evaluating the Character Education Program: A Questionnaire Study

1. Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the character education program at an institution using questionnaire instruments. The evaluation process assists in understanding the effectiveness of the program and its impact on the students. The different types of questions included in the questionnaire will be discussed in detail to obtain an understanding about the questionnaire’s reliability and validity in measuring the students’ knowledge and skills related to the goals of the character education program. Furthermore, the data analysis and presentation section will provide insights about the students’ responses to the questions included in the questionnaire. Lastly, based on the findings of this study, recommendations will be given to improve the character education program.

2. TheoreticalBackground

The term ‘character education’ is defined as “the deliberate effort to develop virtue in young people” (Lickona, 1999, p. 4). Several scholars have proposed their own definitions of character education. For instance, Lewis (1991) defines it as “theplanned shaping of moral habituation and motivation” (p. 22). According to Battistich et al. (1997), it is “a process that helps children develop a strong sense of self, a deep respect for others, and high aspirations”(p. 1). Character education has been increasingly gaining popularity over recent years as there is a growing concern about the problems associated with youth such as drug abuse, delinquency and violence (Battistich et al., 1995). In order to address these issues, schools have started to implement character education programs with the aim to develop responsible citizens who possess positive character traits such as honesty, empathy and respect (Battistich et al., 1997).

3. Literature Review
3.1 Reliability

There are different types of questions that may be included in a questionnaire for character education program evaluation. These include true-false questions and scalar questions. The true-false questions are those where respondents are required to mark whether the statement is true or false. An example of a true-false question is ‘The character education program has helped me become a better person’. On the other hand, scalar questions are those where respondents are required to rate their answers on a scale from 1-5 or 1-10 with 1 being strongly agree and 5 or 10 being strongly disagree. An example of a scalar question is ‘To what extent do you agree that the character education program has helped you become a better person?’

Both types of questions may be used as reliable instruments to assess the students' attainments towards the goals of the program. This is because they both yield quantitative data that can be easily analyzed using statistical methods. In addition, both types of questions provide an opportunity for respondents to give their honest opinions about the program as they are not required to write long paragraphs about their thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless, it is important to note that both types of questions have their own advantages and disadvantages which should be taken into consideration when choosing which type of question to use in the questionnaire.

Advantages of true-false questions:
• They are easy for respondents to answer as they only require them to mark whether the statement is true or false
• They are less time-consuming for respondents as compared to scalar questions

Disadvantages of true-false questions:
• They do not provide an opportunity for respondents to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings about the program
• The responses may be biased as some respondents may tend to mark all the statements as true or false regardless of whether they actually agree or disagree with the statement

Advantages of scalar questions:
• They provide an opportunity for respondents to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings about the program
• The responses are less likely to be biased as compared to true-false questions

Disadvantages of scalar questions:
• They are more time-consuming for respondents as compared to true-false questions
• The data may be harder to analyze as compared to true-false questions

3. 2 Validity

Validity is concerned with whether the questionnaire measures what it is supposed to measure. In other words, it indicates whether the questionnaire is able to accurately assess the students' knowledge and skills related to the goals of the character education program. There are different types of validity which include content validity, face validity, predictive validity and concurrent validity. Out of these, content validity is the most important as it indicates whether the questionnaire items are relevant to the goals of the character education program. This can be ensured by including items in the questionnaire that are directly related to the objectives of the program. For instance, if one of the objectives of the program is to develop responsible citizens, then items in the questionnaire should be included that assesses whether students have become more responsible since participating in the program. Another way to ensure content validity is by conducting a pilot test of the questionnaire before administering it to the actual respondents. This will give an opportunity to identify any errors in the questionnaire and make necessary revisions.

Face validity is concerned with whether the questionnaire appears to measure what it is supposed to measure. In other words, it indicates whether the items in the questionnaire are clear and easy to understand. This can be ensured by using simple language in the items and avoiding jargon. In addition, face validity can be increased by conducting a pilot test of the questionnaire as this will give an opportunity to identify any items that are unclear or confusing and make necessary revisions.

Predictive validity is concerned with whether the results of the questionnaire can predict future behavior. For instance, if high scores on the questionnaire indicate that a student is likely to exhibit positive character traits such as empathy and respect, then this would suggest that the questionnaire has good predictive validity. However, if high scores on the questionnaire do not predict future behavior, then this would suggest that it has poor predictive validity.

Concurrent validity is concerned with whether the results of the questionnaire correlate with other measures of knowledge and skills related to character education. For instance, if high scores on the character education program evaluation questionnaire correlate with high grades in a class on responsible citizenship, then this would suggest that it has good concurrent validity. However, if there is no relationship between scores on the character education program evaluation questionnaire and grades in a class on responsible citizenship, then this would suggest that it has poor concurrent validity.

4. Methodology

The questionnaire for this study was developed by the researcher. The items in the questionnaire were based on the objectives of the character education program. In order to ensure content validity, a pilot test was conducted with 10 students who had participated in the program. These students were asked to rate the items in the questionnaire on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. Based on the results of the pilot test, some items were revised and included in the final version of the questionnaire.

The final version of the questionnaire consisted of 20 items, 10 true-false questions and 10 scalar questions. The true-false questions were used to assess the students’ knowledge of the program objectives, while the scalar questions were used to assess the students’ skills related to the program objectives. The questionnaire was administered to 100 students who had participated in the character education program. The students were given a period of two weeks to complete the questionnaire and return it to the researcher.

5. Data Analysis and Presentation

The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The responses to the true-false questions were coded as 1 for true and 0 for false. The responses to the scalar questions were coded as 1 for strongly agree, 2 for agree, 3 for neutral, 4 for disagree and 5 for strongly disagree. The frequencies and percentages were computed for each item in the questionnaire. In addition, mean scores were computed for each item in the questionnaire.

6. Conclusion and Recommendation

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that both true-false questions and scalar questions are reliable instruments for assessing the students’ knowledge and skills related to the goals of the character education program. However, scalar questions are more likely to yield valid results as they provide an opportunity for respondents to elaborate on their thoughts and feelings about the program. Therefore, it is recommended that scalar questions should be used in future studies on character education program evaluation.

FAQ

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