The ＣＭＳＥ, in cooperation with the Center for Character and Citizenship at Missouri, embarks upon the development of a tool to measure the impact of moral education
The CMSE has started a two-year collaborative project with the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the aim of which is to develop a tool for the measurement of the impact of moral education – more specifically, the impact of moral science classes on the character of individual students. The finished version of this tool is intended to be capable of evaluating the full range of the students’ moral identity and moral internalization, as well as their moral performance. Several virtues have already been selected in connection with the tool’s development, and the preliminary work on it will be undertaken at Reitaku. The results will then be passed to the Center for Character and Citizenship at Missouri. There, thanks to the initiative and strong support of Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, Sanford N. McDonnell Professor of Character Education, UM System Thomas Jefferson Professor, Center for Character and Citizenship, the next stage will commence. Work will be done on how best to utilize the measurement tool and how to interpret the results, on the nature of the selected virtues, and on the various impacts of moral education.
This catalyst for this project was a visit by President Nakayama and Prof. Mizuno to the Center for Character and Citizenship at Missouri between the 8th and 10th of April this year, when a MOU between Reitaku University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis was drawn up.
Thanks to the hospitality and kindness of Prof. Berkowitz, the visitors were also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit two model schools, Ridgewood Middle School and Saint Louis Charter School, which have been selected as National Character Schools as a result of the very positive evaluation of the excellence of their character education program.
Academic Papers & Books
- A Japanese translation of “Aristotelian Character Education”, was published
- The ＣＭＳＥ, in cooperation with the Center for Character and Citizenship at Missouri, embarks upon the development of a tool to measure the impact of moral education
- President Nakayama is honoured with an invitation to the inaugural conference of the Jubilee Centre, Birmingham University, England
- Publication of the Japanese translation of Happiness and Virtue Beyond East and West – Toward a New Global Responsibility.
- Professor Nobumichi Iwasa received The Kuhmerker Award from the Association for Moral Education
- Presentations on the Japanese moral philosophy at the symposium of morality and social responsibility, in Boston University
- Lectures given by President Nakayama of Reitaku University at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) on the results of a joint project with Boston University
- Report on a Symposium Held at Boston University
- Research activities
- The 1st Open Forum of the Center for Moral Science and Education
