Wheel One: Academic Domain

The first Wheel of Success focuses on the values, attitudes, mindsets, and skills that each and every student reaches their intellectual and academic potential. Educational outcomes embodied in the academic dimension of CHARACTER COUNTS! addresses all essential dimensions of the Common Core standards on cognitive and intellectual development.

The objective of this aspect of CHARACTER COUNTS!:

  • Achieve college and career readiness goals
  • Improve performance on standardized tests
  • Implant a love of and commitment to lifelong learning and self-improvement
  • Increase high school graduation rate and percentage of students who pursue advanced education
  • Promote a commitment to academic integrity to prevent cheating and plagiarism
  • Instill a growth mindset that increases persistence in the face of difficulties, confusion, and failure
  • Develop progressively complex cognitive and critical thinking skills
  • Improve proficiency in decision making and problem-solving
  • Stimulate creativity

To help them achieve these goals, teachers are given the guidance (through the Model Standards of Academic, Social, Emotional and Character Development) as well as special character education training and learning tools and strategies including classroom and school wide experiential activities, school and community improvement projects, discussion and essay prompts, curricula integration, and recognitions. Specifically CHARACTER COUNTS! promotes five academic outcomes:

  1. Motivated and Committed Learners. Students are curious, love learning and are committed to personal growth through lifelong learning and self-improvement.
  2. Confident and Diligent Learners. Students adopt a growth mindset and the ability and commitment to learn from mistakes and persist in learning effort despite difficulties and failure.
  3. Responsible, Engaged, Autonomous and Connected Learners. Students place a high value on education as a means of improving their lives and they take responsibility for their own education by being full engaged in all aspects of the learning process (e.g., attendance, attentiveness, and participation). They are versatile, self-directed and connected learner capable of resourceful and discerning research.
  4. Knowledgeable, Logical, Critical and Creative Thinkers. Students demonstrate and continue to develop progressively complex critical thinking and learning skills including the ability to acquire, retain, understand, apply, and analyze information (knowledge) and use such knowledge to create and innovate. They are perceptive and observant and demonstrate a well-developed ability to concentrate on their learning objectives. Students also demonstrate intellectual independence, openness, integrity and humility in the pursuit of wisdom.
  5. Effective problem-solvers and Decision-Makers. Students demonstrate proficiency in solving problems and making rational (i.e., logical and well-reasoned), effective and ethical decisions in pursuit of the best possible result.

Academic Domain

This domain is concerned with instilling educational and academic knowledge and values and developing in each student the cognitive abilities, learning skills, and personal traits that will help them: 1) succeed in school (including college or other post-secondary education), 2) succeed in the workplace, 3) Live happy, worthy and fulfilling personal lives, and 4) become engaged, responsible and productive citizens.

 

ACADEMIC DOMAIN – EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
A1. Motivated, Committed Learners A1. MOTIVATED AND COMMITTED LEARNERS. Students
value education and are eager, committed learners who: 1) love learning as a
source of personal enjoyment and growth; 2) believe that learning and
education will enrich and improve their personal lives; and 3) are motivated
to do well in school, graduate, and seek higher educational opportunities.

A1.1. Curiosity

A1.2. Personal Growth and Lifelong Learning

A2. Confident, Diligent Learners Students
demonstrate self-confidence in their ability to learn what they need to know
and to develop the personal attributes they need to succeed in school and the
workplace.

A2.1. Growth Mindset

A2.2. Learning From Mistakes

A3. Responsible, Engaged, Autonomous,
Connected Learners. Students accept and demonstrate personal
responsibility for their education by becoming autonomous (self-directed)
learners fully engaged in all aspects of the educational process and firmly
connected to the school community.

A3.1. Dedication to Education.

A3.2. Full Engagement in Learning Process.

A3.3. Self-Directed Learners

A3.4. Resourceful, Discerning Research

A3.5. Versatile Learners.

A3.6. Connection to School Community

A4. Knowledgeable, Logical, Critical, Creative
Thinkers. A4. KNOWLEDEABLE, LOGICAL, CRITICAL, AND
CREATIVE THINKERS. Students demonstrate progressively complex cognitive
abilities to become knowledgeable, logical, critical, and creative thinkers,
especially in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

A4.1. Acquire, Remember Knowledge.

A4.2. Understand Knowledge

A4.3. Apply Knowledge 

A4.4. Analyze, Evaluate (Critical Thinking)

A4.5. Create, Innovate (Synthesis)

A4.6. Concentrate

A4.7. Perceptive, Observant

A4.8. Openness

A4.9. Intellectual Integrity

A4.10. Intellectual Independence

A4.11. Intellectual Humility

A4.12. Pursuit of Wisdom

A5. Effective Problem Solvers and
Decision-Makers. Students understand that their competence
and character will be judged in terms of the choices they make. They
demonstrate the ability to employ critical and creative thinking skills to
solve problems and make rational, ethical, and effective decisions that produce
the best possible result.

A5.1. Rational Decision Making.

A5.2. Ethical Decision Making.

A5.3. Effective Decision Making.


A5.4. Best Possible Result.