Theory of Change
This curriculum has been created for students in secondary education and specifically focuses on the development of reflective strategies that will help them become “good workers.”
The curriculum does not assume that students come to their educational experiences as blank slates. Instead, the activities herein build upon the myriad of character strengths (and obstacles) that each student brings to the learning experience. In addition, education of course does not occur in a vacuum, and character growth occurs within and in interaction with a variety of settings and developmental, contextual experiences. Given this, the ways we envision the Good Work curriculum will impact students are predicated on the belief that students enter their classrooms already having learned certain patterns of behavior and character and that each student’s contexts for learning and behaving may be slightly different. We represent this in the diagram below as the baseline character box.
The main way that we hope this curriculum will impact students is through personal and ethical reflection upon the elements of good work (regarding how to be an ethical, engaged, and excellent worker). We therefore leverage introspective and ethical reflection frequently throughout the lesson plans, as we believe reflective practice is the most critical activity for the development of habits and skills inherent in doing good work. We represent this in the diagram below as the reflection (personal & ethical) box.
The primary goal of this curriculum is to help students understand the meaning of good work and to develop the habits, skills, and character strengths of good workers. By continually reflecting on work-related situations, students will cultivate habits of moral character, become sensitive to ethical dilemmas in the future, and be motivated to act and know how to do so appropriately when encountering such situations. Similarly, personal reflection on one’s values will assist students in the formation of a sense of a long-term, purposeful vocation. Given this, we represent reflection leading directly to ethics and engagement in the model above. Because both ethical work and engaged (purposeful) work have been associated with the production of excellent (high-quality) work, the model illustrates both ethics and engagement as factors leading to excellence.
Finally, many elements of character are associated with positive life outcomes, including aspects of flourishing such as positive mental and physical health, happiness and life satisfaction, and positive social relationships. Ethics, engagement, and excellence, which lead to positive outcomes in working life, are therefore linked to flourishing, the final piece of the model. We are hopeful that students who engage with this curriculum will reflect, grapple, and become sensitive and motivated to behave as a good worker and ultimately achieve a flourishing life.