„Colleges can do more for students”
Duke University in Durham, North Carolina (USA), has long run a campus program to support students in moral reflection and in developing personal integrity. But this type of education remains notably absent in most schools of higher learning.
Audiostream:
Academics, of course, are the core reason for college or university. Duke doesn’t neglect that side of learning. And yet, according to a new survey, more than half of all faculty in higher education say it’s important that undergraduates develop moral character and enhance their self understanding.
A survey, conducted among 421 institutions by an ongoing project at the University of California at Los Angeles, reveals a big disconnect between teachers and students that may explain why so few schools of higher education spend much effort on character education.
Connecting moral reasoning to spiritual values is often essential in character education. But their professors remain shy about giving them that. Less than a third of professors say colleges should facilitate a student’s spiritual development, while a similar survey of students found nearly half say it is important that colleges encourage their personal expression of spirituality.„It would appear that there is much more that colleges can do to facilitate students’ spiritual development”, says Alexander Astin at UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, which conducted the survey. Colleges need not resort to proselytizing, but schools such as Duke have found they can have more than honor codes or elective courses in ethics. A student’s spiritual growth can be supported by such activities as writing self reflective essays or in community service related to their studies. Many colleges are introducing ”service learning”, or community work that allows students to experience the ethical or moral dilemmas that they will face in their careers. (The Christian Science Monitor)
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