Physical Education Teachers ’ Views about Character Education

The purpose of this study is to find out the views of teachers of physical education about how they define character education, whether they think national education curriculum and the curriculum of private schools are suitable for character education and whether they think character education can be applied in physical education lessons. Case report design was used in this study which was prepared with qualitative research method. The sample group of the study consists of 6 physical education teachers working in 3 secondary schools and 2 high schools of Kütahya city center which were determined with easily accessible case sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods. Individual interviews which lasted for an average of 15-20 minutes were conducted with physical education teachers within the context of semi-structured interview technique. The participants were informed that the interviews would be voice recorded and later their expressions would be written down to avoid data loss and after necessary permissions were taken, the interviews were recorded. Descriptive and content analysis methods were used to analyze the expressions which were converted into text. The results of the analyses showed that physical education teachers defined character education as changes that occurred in individuals’ behaviors first in the family, then at school and the education conducted to teach individuals socially accepted and correct behaviors. In addition, it was found that the teachers stated that the current curriculum of the country and also physical education curriculum were not suitable for character education; however, since it is a social lesson and since participants are continuously active and in communication, physical education lessons can be more effective than other lessons in terms of character development.


Introduction
For centuries, human beings have experienced great changes and developments.In addition to bringing great advantages, the resulting cycle of change also brings together negative massive consequences, the effects of which can be felt in almost every area.Countries, thus, the human kind have been influenced by these negations the most because the changes occurring in the socio-cultural life of an individual bring along physical, mental and moral corruption.As a natural consequence of this, generations are influenced and the states' long-term plans receive blows.Thus, the goal of raising intelligent and healthy individuals and the idea that developing mankind will contribute to fighting lots of negations in society accelerate strategies and works which directly aim to improve or develop individuals' character.Thus, with these practices, we are faced with the concept of character education.
The movement of character education is expressed as reactions to spiritual void that occurred after social and scientific transformations caused by the 21st century (Hymowitz, 2003, cited from Mullins, 2011).It is a wide umbrella term used by educators in developing good values and characteristics in young people (Jones, Ryan, & Bohlin, 1999).Benninga et al. (2006) define character education virtues of human relations such as respect, justice and tolerance; values of the self such as courage, self-discipline and ambition, or a combination of both.In addition, it is also viewed as an umbrella term which tells the efforts to teach citizenship values such as respect and responsibility, social and emotional learning, empathy and affection, tolerance and community service (Schwartz, Beatty, & Dachnowicz, 2006).In its most general sense, it is the common name given to the efforts of helping the new generation to gain basic human values, to create sensitivity to values and to turn them into behaviors through direct or indirect programs in the curriculum (Ekşi & Katılmış, 2011), it is the effort for individuals' being educated under the most difficult conditions (Agboola & Tsai, 2012).According to Elias (2010), character education creates a safer learning environment, decreases the level of violence, discipline problems and cheating, and associates ethical and moral values with each other for a humane environment (Demirel et al., 2016).According to Faturrohman (2013), character education focuses on basic human character derived from universal moral values.It originates from religion and it is called the golden rule.According to psychologists, there are some character values such as loving the creator and his creations, responsibility, honesty, being respectful and kind, being compassionate and helpful, cooperation, trust, creativity, hard work, justice and leadership, being good and moderate, tolerance, peace, unity and love.The practice of character education in schools should be based on these basic character values.In the future, these educational practices should be turned into more and higher values in line with needs, conditions and school environment (Mislia et al., 2016).
Character education is a priority as important as children's academic achievement and it is based on children's ethical, social and emotional development beliefs (Phanthachack, 2012).A conscious effort is required for the realization of virtues.It expresses school virtues such as respect and responsibility and encourages them openly whenever possible.It is important to think and discuss; however, it is behavior that should be emphasized and accepted as the ultimate measure of character (Lickona, 1999).In addition, character education is the education movement that supports students' social, emotional and ethical development.It is a proactive effort, that is, an effort to influence the individual, to install the core, ethical and performance values of care, honesty, effort, justice, resolution, responsibility, self-respect and respect for others.Character education brings long-term moral, ethical and academic solutions to issues that cause interest in societies and schools and teaches children how best they can be and how to do the best job (Character Education Partnership, 2017).Schaeffer (1999) emphasizes that schools' oldest duty, which is a part of their mission, is to encourage and promote character education (Lewis & Ponzio, 2016).Otten (2000) states that the responsibility in determining basic values to give in these educations and making students gain these values through experiences falls to schools.A common attitude should be shown about the characteristics to be taught and they should be presented in a whole learning environment such as sports center, canteen or cafeteria.In addition, individuals are asked to model these characteristics which are a part of the society (Demirel et al., 2016).Character education is beyond being a program prepared for the behaviors and achievement of children at school.It is also viewed as the installation of moral values by creating a safe atmosphere through solving special issues and problems of the society (Graff, 2012).Lake (2011) puts forward that increased violence and violent acts in schools revived the concept of good character.The most important partners for the solution of this negation are teachers, managers, other staff and parents (Temiz, 2016).
Teachers have the greatest influence on students' character following the parents (Arthur, 2011) because students spend a specific period of their day with their teachers and friends and take those around them, especially teachers, as role model.Thus, the first point to reach for character education is educational institutions and the teachers working there.Although there are limited studies for character education in our country, the values which are aimed to be given to students are presented among lesson units indirectly.In addition, this practice is mostly seen in theoretical lessons.However, such a situation is seen less in applied lessons such as physical education which provide social interaction and continuous communication that could be better for character education and the process is conducted with the individual efforts of teachers.Thus, the information obtained in the light of their experiences will make great contributions in developing educational strategies or program.Thus, when one wants to find out whether the curriculum especially the curriculum of physical education lesson is suitable for character development and whether it is possible to give character education in physical education lesson, the first place to refer to is teachers and their views on this.So the research is important in terms of determining the opinions of teachers who have a great influence on the students, educate the next generations and have a big role in the healthy progress of the nations in every area.In particular, the physical education course and the physical education teacher are very important in character education because of developing the individual as a whole.For this reason, study was conducted to find out the views of physical education teachers about character education.In addition, another purpose of this study is to attract the attention of education programmers and physical education teachers to the concept of character education in physical education.

Method
This is a qualitative research, the purpose of which is to examine the views of physical education teachers about the concept of character education, about the suitability of curriculums to character education and about whether character education can be conducted through physical education.Qualitative research is defined as a type or research which follows a qualitative process to present the perceptions and cases, the data of which are collected through qualitative data collection methods such as observation, interview and document analysis, in a realistic and integrative environment and it has designs such as creating hypothesis, case study and act research (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013).Phenomenology research design was used in the study.Phenomenology is a research method which has specific characteristics of a philosophical content.This method includes the analysis of the individual universe, that is, individual experiences, individuals' perceptions and the meanings they allocate to these (Baş and Akturan, 2013).

Study Group
6 physical education teachers working in secondary school (n=3) and high school (n=3).Three of them are female (age= 31, 34 and 37) and three of them are male (age= 33, 39 and 42) participants.It can be seen that their years of service differed between 3-19 years (female= 3, 4 and 14 years, male= 4, 15 and 19 years).Easily accessible sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, was used to choose the sample.This method saves speed and practicality since it chooses the situations which are close and accessible to the researcher (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013).

Data Collection Process
Semi-structured interview technique was used to evaluate physical education teachers' views about character education.While preparing the questions for teachers who participated in our study, existing information in literature was compiled and a question bank was created.For content and structure validity of the questions, the questions were checked by experts and the necessary edits were made and it was decided to ask 4 questions.The teachers were first informed that the interviews would be voice recorded, these records would be kept by the researcher and other people would not be able to reach them and later on, these recordings would be transcribed and analyzed.After a comfortable environment was provided and necessary permissions were taken, the interviews were made face to face with a voice recorder.The interviews lasted for an average of 20 minutes.The questions in the study are below: Question 1: Can you describe character education in short?Why do we need it as a society?Question 2: How suitable is our curriculum for character education?Which lessons can be effective in character education?
Question 3: What kind of practices are there in the curriculum of physical education and sports lesson for character education?
Question 4: What are your thoughts about the applicability of character education through physical education?

Data Analysis
The interviews recorded by the researcher were computerized.The teachers were coded as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 through Maxqda statistical program, the texts were analyzed descriptively and in terms of content.Content analysis was included to create categories in line with the teachers' views about character education and descriptions and direct quotations were included for reliability.

Results
Under this section, the answers obtained from questions asked to teachers are given in categorical charts obtained from the statistics program.The participants were asked 4 questions with semi-structured interview and descriptive and content analysis were used.The question "Can you describe character education in short?Why do we need it as a society?" was asked to the physical education teachers who participated in the study.The teachers first defined character and then stated their views about character education.Lastly, they expressed their ideas about why they thought the society needed character education.The definition of character formed by the answers of the teachers is given in Figure 1, while views about character education are given in Figure 2.
Mostly, tea family and most impo T1: Th in the c education or a sports branch, his academic achievement also increases…Since the child learns discipline through sports, he reflects this to other lessons, too… That is, through physical education, character education practices have a positive reflection on education.

Discussion
In this study which was prepared to analyze the thoughts of physical education teachers on character education, teachers stated that character is shaped within family and the attitudes and behaviors of individuals within the family have an important role in giving a specific shape to the individual's character.The teachers also expressed that after the family, individuals developed their character through the interaction and experiences they had with other elements that form the society the individual is in.Narvaez and Nucci (2008) stated that people are shaped with just or unjust, noble or rude norms that they get from culture, tradition, society or their social environment.In addition, according to teachers, the biggest influence on a person's character comes from school and friends after family.The fact that they are in a continuous interaction with the friends and teachers they spend the majority of their time with and choosing role models for themselves shape their characters.Teachers also stated that when it comes to character, the first thing that comes to mind is national and spiritual values, these values form the individual's character, Turkish people place a great importance on these values and complying with these values is effective in being accepted by the society.According to Aydın (2010), character starts with the birth of an individual and advances within a changing and developing process that lasts for a lifetime.In the socialization and character of an individual who gets his first values from his family, the family has an important place.Thus, the communication, behaviors and attitudes of the family with the child are very important in terms of socialization and character of the child (Okmen et al., 2009).
Teachers of physical education assess character education as shaping the innate abilities of an individual, adapting the individuals to the rules created by the society which are generally unwritten, changing or developing some characteristics by making individuals experience things within suitable environments and making necessary directions, making individuals stay away from harmful habits that may break their psychological structure or the educational process conducted to make them get rid of these.They advocate that this process continues for a lifetime and that it is in a continuous change.In addition, they state that first the family, then friends and school and teacher are influential on character education.According to Creasy (2008), character education is a teacher's way of speaking, behaviors tolerated by the teacher, actions he encourages and the expectations he transmits.It is very important for a teacher not only to include character education in daily lessons but also to be a role model for students as a good individual.He should show patience and courtesy to children and show them that they should not do anything that they wouldn't like others do to them.However, in a study by Gündoğdu (2010), it was concluded that although teachers gave very much importance to subjects about character education during their lessons, these attitudes and behaviors were not reflected on the students and they were in moderate levels (Gündoğdu, 2010).Skinner (2013) stated in his study that the teachers were silent about which character education was suitable or had to be applied for their classes (Skinner, 2013).Berkowitz (2005) mentions parent cooperation as another important side of character education.According to Berkowitz, although school is in a central position in developing students' characters, in terms of moral, behavioral or academic development, the greatest influence on the development of students comes from families, especially individuals' own families.Çengelci (2015) stated that the cooperation between school-family-society is one of the vital components of character education; character education should be included in all school programs and should be supported with extracurricular activities.Webber (2003) stated that while a great number of educators believed that forming a character was the job of parents within the family, a great number of parents believed that character had to be taught at school within the frame of a specific curriculum and developmental psychology experts advocated that successful development of children required a consistent teaching and support model at home and at schools.Thus, in line with the information in our study and the literature, it is thought that an effective cooperation of the family and school for character and character education will support the individual positively and increase the efficiency of character education.
Teachers mention that with the development of technology, changes have occurred in society, and as a natural consequence of this, negations have occurred.Especially the fast changes in family relations increase the conflict between children and parents and the intensity of these conflicts and serious problems occur within friends and character problems occur naturally.Çokdolu (2013) concluded that a positive change occurred in conflict and aggression states of students with character education program.Uysal (2008) concluded that a great majority of character education programs had a positive meaningful effect on students' behaviors and academic achievement.Üstünyer (2009) found that character education was an immediate need, families failed to give universal values to their children, and teachers also failed due to their intense workloads and low efficiencies.At this point, it is assumed that character education is a very big need in solving the problems that occur with the age of technology and creating social peace.
According to the teachers who participated in the study, our current curriculum is not suitable for character education because of students' individual characteristics, teachers' professional competence and working conditions, and some problems resulting from the strategies and plans of the Ministry of National Education.The fact that the Ministry takes the success in exams as a criterion forced students in a big race, students became stuck between school, courses and private lessons and they began not to have any time for themselves.In addition to all these, negative influences of technology also created anti-social individuals whose only pursuit is to study at their desks.Besides, due to their insufficiencies about character education or due to the fact that parents don't want teachers to intervene to their children caused teachers to retreat to a more passive position.As a result of the fact that school managers cannot provide a suitable environment and condition, teachers do not see character education as an applicable concept with the existing curriculum.School managers are the primary determinant and responsible person for the application of character education and creating a more ethical climate or school culture within the school (Ereş, 2015).However, unlike the teachers who participated in the study, Yıldırım (2007) conducted a wide study across the country in order to design a character education program model proposal and to design its applicability and the participants of the study found the principles, structuring, functioning and sample activities of the related educational model as highly applicable.
When the lessons that can be effective in character education were assessed in our study, it was found that almost all of the teachers thought that practical and social lessons such as physical education, music and art could be more effective, especially physical education lessons which contained one-to-one contact and communication, required spontaneous and fast decision making and disciplined individuals could be more useful with this education.They emphasized that theoretical lessons were not effective since they required being strictly adhered to the curriculum; however, counseling, classroom teaching and religious culture lessons influenced character education to a certain extent.Making the curriculum more suitable for character education and solving the problems so that the lessons mentioned by teachers can be used effectively in character education makes the possibility of increasing the efficiency of character education in school stronger.
Teachers of physical education who participated in the study stated that there were no practices directly aiming character education within the physical education curriculum and further emphasized that the teacher had to do something through his personal efforts.Teachers aim to teach students some values within the context of the activities of national holidays (October 29 republic day, April 23 national sovereignty and children's day, etc.) and try to support their characters.In addition, by means of some activities shown in fair play and the lesson of educational games, character education is taught indirectly.Çubukçu (2012) defines hidden curriculum as the attitudes and behaviors of teachers and administrators, their attitudes to students, cooperative and competitive aspect of education, school environment and the learning environment it creates, the teaching process being inquisitive or based on rote-learning, in short, the attitudes reflected on students at school and the behaviors students show as a result of their interactions.Thus, as a result of a study on the association between school atmosphere and character education program, Thompson (2010) advocated that students should be given a direct character education so that they can create a positive school environment and maintain this.However, the participants stated that some problems such as teachers' level of knowledge, lack of material and fixed curriculum can be effective in the absence of character education practices.Although there is no practice in physical education curriculum on character education, teachers stated that because of its characteristics such as communication, cooperation, physical contact, discipline and interaction, physical education lessons are applicable for character education.Teachers also predict that some problems such as teachers' insufficiency about the concept, physical conditions, lack of undergraduate education and difficulties experienced in our country can create problems.
As a conclusion, when physical education teachers' opinions about character education were examined, it can be seen that level of knowledge about the concept of character education is low and there is not any differences between experienced and non-experienced teachers.They have almost the same ideas about the character education.And according to the teachers, our national education curriculum is not suitable for character education due to problems experienced in our country in the field of education.In addition, it is thought that an anti-social youth is raised since students experience exam anxiety because they are considered as successful based on their grades, and due to psychological problems triggered by technological negations, and students experience problems in their character since they cannot focus on their personal cares.When the curriculum is analyzed on the basis of lessons, since there are no character education practices in physical education lesson, it is assumed that teachers try to make the students gain some characteristics through some activities within the lesson.

Suggestions
Some suggestions are presented below in line with the findings of the research which was conducted to find out physical education teachers' views about character education.

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There should be theoretical and practical lessons in undergraduate programs of pre-service teachers about character education.
• Training programs should be organized to increase physical education teachers' levels of knowledge about character education.

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In the National Education program, there should be sections directly related with character education.
• Planning should be made for character education and strategies should be developed.
• A unit should be formed within the Ministry of Sport for character education and the country's sport policy should be directed accordingly.
• Weekly hours of social lessons (physical education, art, music) and their weights within the curriculum should be increased.
• Within the content of the physical education lesson, there should be sections and activity examples related with character education.
• Studies should be conducted to resolve exam anxiety and course load.
• Students' opportunities to participate in social activities should be developed and the number of extracurricular activities should be increased.

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Parent training programs should be organized to make character education more effective.
• Suitable conditions should be created at schools for character education and everyone related should get in-service training.

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The efficiency and functions of the counseling course should be increased.