Symposium at the Castle of Smolenice

At present, we witness many challenges and expectations in the field of school education. Our schools are currently at the centre of fundamental changes and innovations, which concern, among other things, the content and processes of education, school management, and new didactic approaches by teachers.

A challenge, a demand for quality ethical and moral education, which would enable an authentic moral development of students focused on good character, emerges along with many other important topics.

Naturally, such a challenge is not related only to individual students, it may be understood in the context of overall setting of school as a community or as a part of the search for meaningful education by teachers and teacher communities.

It is obvious that an actual shift toward a more meaningful school is possible only thanks to a common vision and synergy of teachers.

The Symposium will the following three essential topics:

1. Moral reflection amid ethical education;
2. Experiences with character education at schools;
3. Instructional reflection in teacher communities.

Juan P. Dabdoub will present a paper titled 'The PRIMED model as design principles to promote virtuous character development', in collaboration with Marvin berkowitz and Aitor R. Salaverría. The PRIMED model consists of six principles on how educational communities can be strategically and intentionally designed to nurture the development of character in students. Even though PRIMED explicitly talks about character, the concept of virtue and virtue development is not explicitly addressed. This paper presents the PRIMED model and its design principles and studies if they can connect with Neo Aristotelian virtue theory and practice by contributing to create optimal conditions to nurture the development of virtuous character in all the members of a community.

For more information, please go to: School of character