Animated Vignettes in Character Education

Namik Top
It is obvious for many people that to ensure a safe school environment for students,
it is needed to realize the early detection of problematic behavior through school
violence prevention or reduction programs. J. Bowen, Jenkins, and Clark (2004)
express that "[Five] to 16% of children in the United States are identified with some
form of behavior or mental disorder" (p. 28). Moreover, when these problematic
behaviors occur within class, it could be harmful for other students listening and
trying to focus on that class. Disruption, disregard, and aggression within the
classroom are some of the most frequent disciplinary referrals in elementary
schools (Algozzine, Christian, Marr, McClanahan, - White, 2008). These problem
behaviors could influence the relationship between students and teachers
(Henricsson - Rydell, 2004). Teachers reported negative opinions about children who
have externalizing problem behaviors. Parents also reported these negative
relationships between teachers and students (Pace, Mullins, Beesley, Hill, - Carson,
1999). In addition, Freeman et al. (2006) stated that if problem behaviors are not
addressed properly, it is possible that students model them as a pattern.
The importance of character education programs
There are some programs that are called character education for detection of
problematic behavior and school violence prevention or reduction. Was, Woltz, and
Drew (2006) underscored the need for character education programs through
utilizing statistics concerning school violence, absence, and dropout percentages.
Bohlin, Farmer, and Ryan (2001) utter that in the US, there is a rising demand in
schools to provide effective character education, whose purpose is to increase
moral values, respect, citizenship, social skills, etc.
One of the most significant goals of character education programs is to decrease
the bullying and peer-victimization that pervade many schools (Batsche - Knoff,
1994). Hence, character education programs should be taught effectively to prevent
behavior problems and help students solve their own problems, since effective
character education programs can alter the climate of a school by influencing the
behaviors and attitudes of the students. That is, when appropriately implemented,
character education programs encourage a positive school climate, thus improve
academic performance and learning (Sherblom, Marshall - Sherblom, 2006). In
addition, Leming (1993) expressed that "teachers in the program classrooms
reported a statistically significant two-and-one-half times reduction in problem
behavior in students" (p. 68).
The need for computer-based animated vignettes
In order to cope with the aforementioned problems such as bullying, victimization,
unwanted behaviors within schools, etc., character education institutions can hire
more teaching staff, or teachers can work more than they have done before.
However, neither hiring more staff nor working harder is an appropriate solution to
help students deal with the problems encountered in schools, because students
should learn to cope with the problems by themselves. Thus, they need to have the
self-confidence and self-esteem to overcome inappropriate behaviors. It means that

the implementation of the character education programs is crucial in terms of their

effectiveness.
In this respect, there could be some efforts to facilitate social competence within
the classroom and to lead to positive behavioral outcomes (Kam, Greenberg, Kusche, 2004). Therefore, as an alternative solution, computer-based animated
vignettes utilized in character education programs such as Clover, which "is a
multimedia tool that empowers students to construct their own animated vignettes
that meaningfully express personal experiences" (Baily, Tettegah - Bradley, 2006, p.
802) can be part of these efforts to solve students' problems in moral and social
situations by stimulating them to engage in problem solving (Bailey et al., 2006).
It is important for these programs to be computer-based, since, as Bers (2001)
underscored, computers are influential tools for self-exploration. Computers are also
beneficial for children in terms of socialization. Heft and Swaminathan (2002)
mentioned in their study that children could interact with one another because
instructors want them to work in pairs. This provokes them to ask questions to each
other to solve problems. Furthermore, in the study done by Nastasi and Clements
(1992), it was revealed that a computer-based program, Logo, could foster cognitive
development by stimulating cognitively-based resolution of cognitive struggles.
Definitions of animated vignettes
Tettegah and Anderson (2007) describe Animated Narrative Vignettes (ANV's) as
"concrete examples of people and their behaviors, and stories about individuals,
situations, and structures that can make reference to important points in the study
of perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes" (p. 51). Some researchers, Zhou et al. (2003)
define vignettes as ''emotion-evoking stimuli presented via audiotapes, videotapes,
or realistic enactments that aim to make participants believe that the events and
people involved in the stimuli are real, not hypothetical." As understood through the
definitions, animated vignettes are related to either behaviors or real visual events.
Therefore, animated vignettes may be utilized in character education classes to
make them more effective to reduce behavioral distortions.
Animated vignettes in character education
Bailey et al., (2006, p. 796) pointed out that when technology education is
integrated within learning activities that are meaningful to students, it could be
more effective. Therefore, they aimed to seek to link the delivery of technology and
character education through the utilization of animated vignettes. In this process,
students can gain and exercise technological skills and learn how to figure out
concepts within a learning activity that is important to them while also building the
vignettes via computers (Bailey et al., 2006, p. 796). Vignettes have been utilized to
instruct Mathematics and Science, management skills, problem solving, and
character education (Bailey et al., 2006,p. 797). In the sense of character education,
Vignettes are typically used to facilitate some techniques, such as reflection, roleplaying, problem solving, and ethical thinking and positive social behavior among
students (Bailey et al., 2006,p. 797).
So far, this paper has discussed the importance of character education programs,

the need for animated vignettes, and their definitions. Next, this paper will present
the effectiveness of animated vignettes and how they can facilitate learners to
recognize and reduce problem behaviors.
The effectiveness of animated vignettes
Vignettes are beneficial and effective as a teaching instrument; this is because they
can provide real representations of situations, helping students solve problems
(Bailey et al., 2006). In the article of Bailey et al., (2006), it is sought to link
technology and character education through constructing and utilizing animated
vignettes. Researchers illustrate that animated vignettes could be more beneficial
when they provide three important features: meaningfulness, personal experiences,
and having a dialogue.
a) Meaningfulness
Thanks to these computer-based animated vignettes, students will be able to learn
via some activities that are meaningful to them. To provide effective character
education, vignettes can be used as a significant tool (Bailey et al., 2006, p. 796).
For example, in the study implemented by Tettegah and Anderson (2007), animated
vignettes were used for gathering data. Vignettes showed an interaction between
two children - "Scott, a 9-year old Caucasian boy, and Jamilah, a 9-year old African
American girl; or Jamal, a 9-year old African American boy, and Erin, a 9-year old
Caucasian girl) - and one teacher (Ms. Litts), and one parent (Mr. Young)" (Tettegah Anderson, 2007, p. 52).
The vignettes were counterbalanced to determine if responses given by pre-service
teachers are different from one another about the race of the victim and
perpetrator. A child told the animated vignette; thus, the characters in these
vignettes symbolized real people in real life. Ms. Litts (the teacher) was working
with the class on a supportive learning activity, such as making paper puppets or
building bridges. However, there was no difference between activities in terms of
vignettes. That is, the same performances were represented in each vignette. In
these processes, making paper puppets or building bridges, the teacher wanted
students to work each other, like "Scott with Jamilah in the puppet making activity
or Jamal with Erin in the bridge making activity, depending on the vignette"
(Tettegah - Anderson, 2007, p. 52). In each scenario, the boy (Scott or Jamal) told
the girl (Jamilah or Erin) that they did not want to be in the same group with the
girls because of their skin color. They added that their skin color might influence
them. After that, the girl's fathers reported the event to the teacher, Ms. Litts, and
the teacher was surprised, since they had talked about Martin Luther King Jr., which
she believed was relevant to the topic.
After watching the vignette, participants were asked how they would respond if they
were in the teacher's position, and they wrote down their responses. In this
example, participants were asked to put themselves into another person's position
through animated vignettes. As a consequence of the study, participants could
place themselves into another character, and could try to consider helping their
children solve the prescribed problems.

b) Personal experiences
As a solution, computer-based character education programs could be effective if
animated vignettes are "based on personal experiences rather than on artificially
constructed circumstances" (Bailey et al., 2006, p. 794). Students can improve both
self-awareness and interpersonal skills by practicing some skills shown in vignettes.
That is, they can also incorporate theory and practice in a personally related way
(Barter - Renold, 2000). Thanks to this process, students are able to engage in their
own ethical and social thinking. This allows students to become more engaged in
their own moral and social thinking (Tappan, 1991).
To illustrate, consider this example: in the study implemented by Tettegah (2005),
there was a real experience of a father, daughter, classmate, and teacher
developed in the animated narrative vignettes and told by a real person. After
viewing the vignettes, the educators wrote some responses for problem solving to
questions like, "Who does the participant express empathy with? In whose position
does the respondent imagine himself?" (Tettegah, 2005, p.383). Thanks to these
questions, teachers could better understand peer conflicts related to classroom
education. Responses were to involve educators and students in sharing with others
to help them to be aware of conflicts that are both peer and teacher-related
(Tettegah, 2005, p.383).
c) Dialogue opportunities
Through using animated narrative vignettes, it is possible to have a dialogue that
will allow educators to talk over and also foster a better understanding of bullying
and victimization (Tettegah, 2005). Computer-based animated vignettes are
beneficial tools for discovering relationships between people (Fong - Woodruff,
2003). For instance, well-known educators are brought together to discuss issues
about oppression and discrimination in their classrooms through cultural portals. In
these meetings, they try to figure out how to cope with the problems in the
classroom and within the school's social environment. Using computer-based tools
to find the cause of complex behaviors in the class is very useful (Tettegah, 2005).
Although this seems to affect students' problem behaviors indirectly, it may be
effective in comprehending the problems and discovering some solutions to reduce
problem behaviors.
Conclusion
Implementing computer-based programs to help recognize and solve problematic
behaviors could be very beneficial to many schools. As emphasized above,
researchers have shown that there are problematic behaviors observed in schools.
Therefore, character education programs could be effective to reduce and solve
these problems. Making the programs more beneficial as a means of computerbased animated vignettes helps students notice and reduce problems. They can be
more effective if they are meaningful to students and if students can put
themselves into the real characters in the vignettes to recognize the problems. The
personal experiences underscored in the vignettes trigger students' awareness
through practicing the skills showed in the vignettes. And the vignettes can assist in
generating a dialogue between educators and students to understand the issues

and help develop some solutions together.

Namik Top is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas
A-M University.
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