Teacher Character Strengths and Talent Development

Abstract

Students are the nation's asset or natural resources who need to be educated to achieve their optimal level of development. They need to be properly nurtured to allow holistic development in all domains namely; physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual. This is crucial for the building of a strong and respectful nation and its civilization. Teachers are entrusted to educate students. Educating is more than just mere teaching. It is necessary for teachers to possess good characters to be supportive and accommodative of their students' learning needs, and to nurture students' intra and interpersonal skills the crucial elements in developing gifts into talent as proposed by the Differentiated Model of Talent Development (DMGT). This paper discusses teachers' characteristics and the underlying character strengths. Character strengths are positive psychological ingredients, which influence thinking, feeling, and behaving. A qualitative survey was carried out via face book social network, to capture respondents' reflections on their teachers' characters that have affected them positively. The respondents were university students and graduates from many different fields of studies. They were from prestigious schools where only academically talented students were selected to enroll. They were invited to response to this posting; "Dear friends, please feed me with some data from your own reflection. What teachers' characters have affected you positively? Thank you for sharing". Thirty one people had responded to the posting. Their responses were analyzed to identify themes that described their teachers' characters, which had affected them positively. Three most frequent character strengths identified by the respondents were; wisdom and knowledge, humanity, and transcendence.

Instrumen Evaluasi Karakter Mahasiswa Program Pendidikan Guru Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini

“…Menurut Raka (2011) terdapat beberapa kebiasaan baik sebagai indikator kekuatan karakter, yaitu: (a) kejujuan, (b) rasa tanggung jawab, (c) semangat belajar, (d) disiplin diri, (e) kegigihan, (f) apresiasi terhadap kebhinekaan, (g) semangat berkontribusi, dan (h) optimisme. Majid et al, (2014) Karakter yang dimiliki oleh seorang calon guru adalah karakter yang baik mengacu pada kualitas guru seperti sifat mental dan etika yang komplek yang dipengaruhi dengan nilai-nilai. Enam karakter yang harus dimiliki seorang guru adalah kebijaksanaan, dan pengetahuan, keberanian, kemanusiaan, keadilan, kesederhanaan, dan transendensi.…”

Character Strengths and Life Satisfaction of Teachers in Ghana

“…The actions and inactions of teachers may influence their students and thus knowledge of teachers' character strengths that can influence their thinking, feeling, and behaving (Majid et al, 2014) and by extension that of their students are important. It is therefore anticipated that the findings of the present study will be an initial step towards knowing the prevalence of the character strengths in teachers in the study area.…”

“…First, it helps us identify the "signature strengths" (best and most likely expressed strengths) of teachers and thus help us emphasise the development of critical ones among them as well as train the teachers to work on their less developed ones in order to enhance their effectiveness. Majid et al (2014) argue that teachers should possess good character since they do not only just teach students to acquire information but are responsible for their holistic development in the physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual domains.…”

Talent Development in Emerging Economies Through Learning and Development Capacity Building

“…Teachers not only impart knowledge but also help students learn how to become lifelong learners. It is therefore necessary that teachers possess good character traits to be supportive and accommodative of their students’ learning needs and to nurture students’ intra- and interpersonal skills that are crucial in developing talent (Majid, Ali, & Alias, 2014). The challenges facing the teaching sector in Kenya include teacher shortages, low morale, poor working conditions, teacher migration, poor remuneration, and poorly trained/qualified teachers.…”