Ethos Education Winter 2013/4 | Page 30

positive education for the future formal agenda. I, the director of project, held regular meetings for CSCE members every month to reflect on the proceedings of the project as well. However, due to the method of participatory observations, a number of administrators, who were compulsory by the pressure of the principal and other colleagues, refused to accept critical thinking on moral and character education. Some other administrators, who had inflexible and traditional thinking on moral and character education, found it hard to transform their mind. The result indicated the importance of moral leadership in school and the need for it to be cultivated over a long period. Teachers’ professional development Indicator 3 stresses teachers’ professional development and encourages them as role models for students. Seven teachers of School X voluntarily participated in the CBSC project, which included two homeroom teachers, one PE teacher, one Music teacher, one Social Studies teacher, and two Chinese teachers. I held four workshops for CSCE members (including the staff ) to help them understand the principles and strategies of the project and discuss how best to implement the project into School X’s formal agenda. I held regular meetings for CSCE members every month to reflect on the proceedings of the project as well. In addition, I guided five graduate students and two volunteer teachers of School X in developing twentyfive teaching plans, each plan lasting approximately three to four class periods, and then providing the staff with this plan as a basis of instruction. I held several small meetings with teachers to discuss the suitability of these teaching plans and how to both use and revise them. Most of the staff indicated that they were quite successful in promoting moral and character education. The result showed that teachers do improve their professional development for moral and character education if they have enough support and training. 28 Resources integration Indicator 4 stresses effectively integrating various resources including human, material and financial resources from both in and outside the school for promoting moral and character education. School X received adequate financial aid (e.g. copying materials of teaching and learning; small gifts used to praise and reinforce students’ positive behaviour, transportation fare for experimental group visiting one elementary school) from the CBSC project and the Taiwan Ministry of Education (TMOE), both of which contributed to the implementation of the project. In addition, the CBSC project joined students’ parents in several aspects of the project. For instance, School X invited all parents to vote for the school’s core ethical values. Five parents cooperated with teachers to accompany students engaged in service-learning classes. Two parents, representatives of Parents Association (PA), were CSCE members and took part in regular meetings and workshops. In short, School X’s project integrated certain financial aids and parents resources; however, it did not offer any connection with its community because Taiwanese schools historically have no close relationship to their surrounding community. Formal curriculum The CBSC project