A participatory model of character development is demonstrating that character education is most effective when it engages the whole school community.
Henry May, Nicole Bruskewitz and Coschool are implementing the PRIMED model for character education to offer socio-emotional trainings to leadership teams, staff, and students at schools in Bogotá, Colombia.
With funding from TWCF, a project from Coschool is incorporating principles of character education into schools in Bogotá, Colombia.
The training Coschool facilitates is based on the PRIMED model for character education, developed by Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz. The PRIMED model integrates evidence-based principles of character virtue development, grounded in decades of research on educational psychology and moral development.
Its six pillars, Prioritization, Relationships, Intrinsic Motivation, Modeling, Empowerment and Developmental Pedagogy, form a framework that emphasizes diversifying the classroom through relationship management between students and teachers.
“We train school leaders to understand the principles of character education and we enable them to start bringing character education into the school in many different dimensions,” says May.
Children in less economically developed countries face continuous challenges within their education system. Poor resource allocation and low teacher retention, along with an outdated curriculum create more difficulties with developing children within the classroom.
Innovators in the field of character education, like Coschool, are facilitating socio-emotional training that may help transform the future of education systems around the globe.
Coschool partnered with Dr. Berkowitz to pilot an English-language version of PRIMED with leadership teams from eight bilingual private schools in Bogotá, and is now demonstrating that PRIMED can be implemented effectively in Spanish by local facilitators.
Top Insights + Successes from the implementation of PRIMED
School leadership teams are placing a strategic emphasis on character education, embedding it into their core vision, mission, and school improvement plans. This prioritization reflects a commitment to fostering well-rounded development, to ensure that character growth is valued alongside academic achievement as an essential component of student success.
The participatory model of character development implemented by PRIMED schools demonstrates that character education is most effective when it engages the whole school community. Coschool found that by actively involving parents, teachers, students, leadership, and staff in discussions about values, virtues, and school culture, these schools foster a shared commitment to character growth. This inclusive approach also reinforces the importance of character as a collective responsibility, creating a more cohesive and value-driven school environment.
Though the PRIMED program focuses on school principals and leadership teams, training of teachers and staff, including support staff such as the janitorial team, has been key to schoolwide transformation observed in Coschools’ Latin American schools as well.
“Character education is not another thing on our plate. It is the plate.” This expression, often exclaimed by Dr. Berkowitz, inspires Nicole Bruskewitz, Director of Education at Coschool. Bruskewitz emphasizes the pivotal role that character education plays in shaping individuals. “Developing individuals with a clear sense of self-efficacy should not be an addition, but the foundation upon which other aspects of education are built," she says. "These values also signify the transformative process that is education. This transformation takes place when there’s a shift in mindset made by adults, teachers, and supporters to recognize nurturing character development as the core of personal and academic growth."
From a student perspective, this approach enables agency for the students to understand what character strengths are. “I think for the students, they start to develop a vocabulary about what character is,” says Bruskewitz. This understanding equips students with tools to navigate and discover ways to flourish.
The success of the PRIMED model in Bogotá highlights the potential for character education frameworks to be scaled across diverse educational contexts. Future research should examine the long-term outcomes of such initiatives, particularly their effects on student academic performance and socio-emotional well-being. Additionally, this model’s adaptability for nationwide adoption by governmental agencies presents significant opportunities for policy development in educational reform.
