The Role of Christian religious studies in character formation of Secondary School Students

7/23/2019 The Role of Christian religious studies in character formation of Secondary School Students

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Historically, there has always been a close link between

religion and education. For example, the Roman education was

rooted in the ideals of the Roman people. It endeavored to

shape the youth in such as way that he/she was able to fit in

the Roman society (Shiundu and Omulando, 1992). In

traditional African communities, initiation ceremonies (like the

removal of some teeth, tatooing etc), rituals, beliefs, habits and

practices, among others, were both religious and educative in

nature. For example, during initiation, blood was left to flow

into the soil which was believed to unite the initiate with the

ancestors. The pain an initiate experienced during the

initiation ceremony and the subsequent instructions during

the seclusion period after the initiation were to instill, in the

prospective adult, the virtue of endurance during times of

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hardship while the instructions were to prepare him/her for

the adult life.

Education might be said to be concerned, in general, with

the formation of character. Certainly it is only in the last

hundred years that there has been any serious debate about

the legitimacy of the role of the school or college in character

education. Indeed for most societies, the purpose of the tribe,

community, family and the state, as well therefore as the school

systemwhen such formally emerged, was to provide an

environment for the cultivation of good character and the

nourishing of the common good. The range of contexts involved

in the formation of character illustrates the over-arching

comprehensiveness of the task, its inter-disciplinary nature

and the community-wide responsibility for developing an

individuals commitment to the task to be of good character.

Regarding the Nigerian situation, although indigenous

education varied from one community to another, the goals

were almost the same. Indigenous African Education was for

living. It was concerned with the systematic socialization of the2


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young generation into norms, beliefs, collective opinions of the

wider society, practical skills and the acquisition of knowledge

which was useful to the individual and the society as a whole.

Sifunas (1990) description of the role of Indigenous African

Education has a lot of religious connotation and that is why

religion and education could not be separated. The description

is a reflection of Mbiti (1969) who, in his bookAfrican Religions

and Philosophy, expresses the difficulty in trying to define

religion in the African context. He says: A man carries his

religion everywhere: to the fields when planting seeds; into a

funeral ceremony; into a beer party; and if he [she] is a

student, into the examination room; or into the House of

Parliament. Religion, therefore, indicates total view of life and

separation would mean overlooking the dynamics of life. Thus

in the African context, religion may be defined as a way of

looking at life (p.187) Many countries are trying to maintain

religious ideals under the umbrella of what is known as

Religious Education (RE), thus in the context of this study,

Nigeria Joins the rest of the world to give an education centered3


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on the attainment of the right ideals through Christian

Religious Studies (CRS).

Christian Religious Education has been viewed as one of

the means to restore moral and social order in the society. For

example, after a lengthy description of the moral decay in

Nigeria which is portrayed in rampant fraud, evidence of

corruption in high and low places, bribery, stealing and

robbery with violence, scandalous nepotism and political

patronage and abuse of power, excessive materials and general

indiscipline, Iheomia (1995) concludes by saying: in the final

analysis what matters most to a nations well-being is its

spiritual and moral health. Everything else which a nation

strives for depends on thiswhether it is national integration,

political stability, economic development or educational,

scientific and technological progress. Nigeria is a nation

morally and spiritually sick. A basic aim of moral education in

Nigeria schools must be to restore sanity to the nations way of

life through the entrenchment in peoples psyche such values

as honesty, discipline, respect and concern for others, justice4


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and devotion to duty. If formal and direct moral education were

to become a regular feature in the curriculum at all levels of

educational institutions, it could enable our schools, colleges

and universities contribute significantly to the moral health of

a nation (p.1).

Statement of the Problem

One of the objectives of Christian religious education and

moral education is the inculcation of the right attitude on the

individual, through effective instruction based on biblical

traditions and examples. Thus students of Christian religious

studies are taught the need of respecting their elders and being

obedient to instructions. Amidst all of these however, there

seems to be an increase on the rate of moral decadence on the

part of the young people who leave secondary school and are

still in secondary school. These trends have led to increased

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rate of indecent dressing, dishonesty, drunkenness, armed

robbery and truancy. It is against this backdrop therefore, that

this study is aimed at investigating the influence of Christian

religious studies on the character and moral life of secondary

school students in Ethiope East local government area of Delta

state and sought to answer this question.

To what extent has the teaching of Christian religious

studies in secondary schools influenced character formation?

Research Question

To guide this study, the following research questions were

raised.

1.What extent does CRS influence the moral life of

secondary school students?

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2.What is the relationship between the study of Christian

religious Studies and the development of self respect in

the lives of secondary school students?

3.What is the relationship between the study of Christian

religious studies and the development of moral virtues

amongst secondary school students?

4.What is the most influential societal virtue for character

formation portrayed in Christian religious studies?

Research Hypothesis

For the sake of this study, the following hypotheses were

tested.

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1.There is no significant relationship between Christian

religious studies and the development of self respect

amongst secondary school students.

2.There is no significant relationship between the study of

Christian religious studies and the development of moral

virtues.

Purpose of the Study

This study is driven by the following objectives.

1.To determine whether Christian religious study have any

relationship with the development of self respect amongst

secondary school students.

2.To determine whether Christian religious studies have any

relationship with the development of moral virtues.

3.To determine the most influential societal virtue for

character formation portrayed in Christian religious

studies.

Significance of the Study8


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The study of moral and religious education is of

paramount interest and importance in the maintenance and

sustenance of a stable and balanced society.Therefore, this

study when completed would be of significance to the entirety

of society irrespective of race, colour, social class or religion.

The study apart from contributing to the existing literatures in

the formation of a morally stable society, the study is at the

forefront of evaluating the impact of Christian religious studies

in the life of the society. Thus this study will be useful to

subject specialists in religious education as it will serve as a

means of appraising the extent to which the objectives of their

classroom contact has been met. Data generated from this

study will act as a point of reference to researchers,

government administrators and parents as to identifying

alternatives to solving the challenges of moral decadence in our

country.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

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This study focuses on the influence of Christian religious

studies on the moral and character formation of secondary

school students in ethiope east L.G.A. thus the study is limited

to a review of literatures on the place of Christian Religious

Studies in secondary school curriculum, the concept of moral

and character formation, determinants of moral and character

formation and an empirical investigation on the influence of

CRS on the development of self respect and moral values in the

society.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews literatures related to the study and

establishes a conceptual and theoretical framework for the

study under the following headlines.

Historical Origin of Christian Religious Education

Objectives of Religious and Moral Education

Religious Education

What is Morality?

Character Formation: The Moral Self

Limitations to Traditional Forms of Character Education.

Character and the Moral Self.

The limitations of Reliance on Individual responsibility.

Contemporary Debates on Character Education

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

Appraisal of Review

Historical Origin of Christian Religious Education

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Christian Religious Education in Nigeria began with the

advent of Missionaries and Mission agencies in Mid 1800s. It

was not infact deliberate. It was introduced in the form of

Evangelism and as part of western missionary enterprise5. In

other words, it was not altruism that made the Missionaries

introduce education in Nigeria. Prior to the coming of the

Missionaries, communities had their own traditional systems of

education and in some parts of the country; Islamic Religion

had already been entrenched. In trying to visualize the

cohabitation of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria, from a point

of view of Ecology of Religion in the etymological sense of the

word, their coexistence would naturally be gladiational, at best

adversarial for the following reasons:

Each religion has to come to a new environment in the

garments of the sending culture.

There is in every religion the human element which is the

vehicle of the divine. There is also the diabolical.

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Entry into a different religious worldview without love,

respect and humility, and abandoning ones critical faculty

often generates conflict (King, 1971).

Several factors and interplay of various motives were behind

the introduction of education in Nigeria by the various groups

and organizations. The Missionaries for instance, saw the

educating of the indigenous population as a means of

facilitating their conversion to Christianity. The Colonial

administrators saw in educating the local populace a means of

producing a literate being who would run errands for him as a

domestic hand messenger or orderly and at best a clerk. Both

approaches to education were based on giving to the African

what was considered to be best for him, and not necessarily an

educational system which was in accordance with his cultural

heritage and sociological environment and one that was aimed

at projecting and promoting the African Personality (Kaunda. in

Makulu, 1971).

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Protestant missions came into Nigeria ahead of Catholic

Missions, Even though the North and West of Nigeria were

under Muslim influence; the missions were still able to make

some inroads in the East and the South. Their aims and

objectives and strategies differed from each other. While the

Catholic missions sought to provide moral and religious

education (1971) and to bring Christian influence to bear on

pagan communities, the Protestant missions aimed at training

the young by giving them liberal education to create well

prepared, well instructed and proven congregations. For

Protestant missions, education and the building of schools,

hospitals and centers for elementary industrial training were

all integral parts of evangelism. The need for such services were

great and the potentials abundant, and this led to the rapid

emergence of several mission agencies overseas within a very

short period between the last decade of the 1700s in UK and

the early decades of 1820 in the US. The Church Missionary

Society was established in 1799, Baptist Missionary Society

established in 1792, London Missionary Society in 1795,14


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Edinburgh and Glasgow Missionary Society in 1796 all in the

United Kingdom. In the US, the US Wesleyan Missionary

Society was established in 1813 and the American Bible

Society in 1816.These all had similar practices which could be

summarized as follows:

Creating new communities of those converted by moving

out of the heathen environment to a Christian

homogeneous community

Building Mission Stations or compounds

Assisting the Missionary to replace the tribal chief by

making the most important building-the Mission House.

The next most important building was the Church

followed by the school in that order

The schools were generally boarding facilities supervised

by the missionary educationist or his wife.

The Mission Compound stood in stark contrast to the

surrounding community

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For the Tribesmen, association with Christianity offered

an attractive way of life and privileges such as education,

medical services and industrial training. Fascination for

the Whitemans knowledge and the promise of a better life

were more compelling factors for their conversion rather

than faith and understanding of Christian teachings.

While the motivation for education was evangelism for the

missionary, for the tribesmen, it was a way of entering into the

mysteries of western technological civilization. To this end,

education helped to facilitate the spread of European

civilization in Africa. Tribal institutions contrary to this were

discouraged or suppressed. There was a tendency to measure

every part of the African life by the European standards. To

avoid conflicts among the numerous Protestant missions in

some areas, certain agreements were reached by which

missions confined their work to homogeneous groups. As a

result, some tribes became fortunate depending on the

missions agency that covered their area since missions varying

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amount of both personal and material resources. Today such

tribes are still enjoying that advantage.

The issues of curriculum content and policy were extremely

in the hands of individual mission agencies until government

became interested in Education when they issued grants of 30

pounds in 1872, distributed among Anglican, Wesleyan and

Catholic missions in Lagos. In 1873 no grants were given out

but in 1874 the grant increased to 100 pounds to each agency.

By 1876 it had increased to 200 pounds for each mission

agency. Because he who pays the piper dictates the tune, in

1882, there was a promulgation of an ordinance by the British

Administration in Nigeria- the declaration of religious

neutralism in matters of education. There was also a

divergence of opinion on content and purpose of education.

While the government was trying to intellectualism, the

missions wanted spirituality. The schism which began to grow

wide eventually led to the formation of the Phelps-Stokes

Commission which visited Africa between 1922-1925. It was a

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major watershed in Africas educational policy. The commission

made a plea for religious and moral education as the basis for

lasting education. It stressed character training and other

major inputs itemized below:

Called attention to the need for clear objectives in

education to build effective systems of education as well

as the need to take into account childrens environment

and role in society.

The importance of language

Clarification of objectives of education to train masses

and to educate future leaders and train people to pass

conventional tests required by professional schools.

Adoption of education to conditions of life.

In 1952, there was a Cambridge Conference on African

Education and in 1961, the Addis Ababa Conference on the

development of Education in Africa held. There, far reaching

measures on African education were arrived at. In 1962, there

was another Conference for Higher Education in Africa, during

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which participants expressed the desire to exclude religious

education from secondary school curriculum. There has been a

lot of criticism of missionary educational activity in Nigeria, but

whatever the failings, we can still identify quite a good number

of major contributions made by these missionaries to the

growth and development of our societies and communities.

Among these contributions include:

Preservation through writing of major Nigerian languages-

Ibo, Yoruba, Efik, Nupe, Hausa, etc, thus creating

linguistic homogeneity. For instance, we have what is

called The union Ibo into which the Bible was translated

synthesized three major indistinguishable dialects. This

became a bond unifying the third largest West African

tribe. (Ayandele 1966).

They also facilitated the social and moral development of

the Nigerian people.

They made the administration to create law and order in

place of inter tribal wars and anarchy. They ensured the

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suppression of abominable crimes repugnant to Christian

morality, like Mary Slessor did in the abolition of killing of

twins in the Eastern part of Nigeria.

They also facilitated mobility by ensuring safety of travel

without the risk of being enslaved in Yoruba land or Ibo

land or elsewhere in Nigeria.

They also contributed to social and moral regeneration

through churches and schools as well as preventing the

demoralization of society

The objective of education for the missionaries was also to

discourage children from participating in their parents

pagan practices. Character training was emphasized along

with spiritual development. They were mainly interested

in primary education for converts. They felt that further

education would only make them opt for secular work to

improve them socially and morally. However, Christianity

could not be deeply rooted because the intellectual

development required to match the principles of the new

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faith was not available. Traditional morality was however

destroyed without an appropriate replacement.

Objectives of Religious and Moral Education

According to Purpel and Ryan (Nwaomah, 1998) there are at

least four major objectives or roles of Religious and Moral

Education in schools curriculum;

i. To develop moral responsibility and sound ethical and

moral behavior

ii. To develop the students capacity to discipline himself

to work, study and play constructively

iii. To develop a moral and ethical sense of values, goal and

process of free society and

iv. To develop standards of personal character and ideas,

i.e. to develop morally autonomous individuals who can

make up their minds on matters of moral principles

rather than being mere consumers of moral dicta

In his part, Wilson cited in Nwaomah (1998: 14-15) adds:

to wean them (students) away from false

methodologies and standards like reliance on the

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peer group, on authority or anti-authorities of also

ego ideas, e.t.c, in an age of moral vacuum or

anti-authoritarian trend, anxiety, neurosis,

alienation, drift and a sense of being lost. Religion

therefore provides something to hang on to.

Consequently, one of the major roles of Religious and

Moral Education in the Nigerian secondary school curriculum

is that of the moral development of the students. And the only

subject that could satisfy this is Christian Religious Education.

Religious Education

Religious Education is the term given to the education

that is concerned with the teaching of religion; this includes

the practices that influence peoples lives in every time and

every place. It involves the forming of every human being to be

a true child of God, a perfect man, in other words to be a

finished man of character.3 Religious education is chiefly

concerned with building the sense of Sacred in man, teaching

him of where he comes from, why he is here on earth and

where he is going. Therefore, it reveals to man what he must

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know and do about God, here below, in order to attain the

sublime end which is God. It is a life-long process which

involves fostering within every human being a growing

understanding of his Creator, and relationship with Him.

Again, it helps individuals to understand themselves as well as

their faith and tradition, and appreciates the faith and

traditions of others. It heightens each individual's commitment

to bringing the light of their faith to a discerning encounter

with the surrounding culture and thus working towards its

transformation.5 According to a definition given by the

Christian Council of Nigeria, Institute of Church and Society in

Ibadan in 1976. It is says: Religious Education is a process

which seeks to convey the truths of the Christian faith to

individuals so meaningfully that they will become Christian

disciples and be built up to do the will of God in every

relationship, at home, in the Church, in the society at large,

and within the changing situations of each generation.

What is Morality?

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A large part of the controversy surrounding moral or

character education has to do with how morality is to be

defined. In everyday discourse morality refers simply to the

norms of right and wrong conduct. At issue, however, is what is

meant by moral right and wrong, and whose criteria shall be

used to judge the wrongness of actions. As it turns out, this

diversity at the level of public opinion, has a corollary in the

underlying heterogeneity of the structures of the individual's

social concepts. Within the individual, concepts of social right

and wrong are not all of one type, but are organized within

distinct conceptual and developmental frameworks. In research

conducted over the past twenty years, it has been discovered

that individuals treat some forms of social behavior as moral

universals, other forms of social conduct as subject to

determination by local cultural or social norms, and still others

as matters of personal choice (Turiel, 1983). More specifically,

these conceptual differences emerge when formal criteria for

morality are employed which define morality as those

interpersonal behaviors that are held to be right or wrong24


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independent of governing social rules, and maintained as

universally binding (Turiel, 1983). Prescriptions which meet

these criteria are those which refer to actions, such as hitting

and hurting, stealing, slander, which have an impact on the

welfare of others. Accordingly, concepts of morality have been

found to be structured by underlying conceptions of justice and

welfare (Turiel, 1983). Morality, then, may be defined as one's

concepts, reasoning, and actions which pertain to the welfare,

rights and fair treatment of persons.

Morality (defined in terms of justice, welfare, rights) can

be distinguished from concepts of social conventions, which are

the consensually determined standards of conduct particular

to a given social group. Conventions established by social

systems such as norms or standards of dress, how people

should address one another, table manners and so forth derive

their status as correct or incorrect forms of conduct from their

embeddedness within a particular shared system of meaning

and social interaction. The particular acts in and of themselves

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have no prescriptive force in that different or even opposite

norms (e.g., dresses for men, pants for women) could be

established to achieve the same symbolic or regulatory function

(e.g., distinguishing men from women). The importance of

conventions lies in the function they serve to coordinate social

interaction and discourse within social systems. In keeping

with this definition, concepts of social convention have been

found to be structured by underlying conceptions of social

organization (Turiel, 1983).

Character Formation: The Moral Self

The preceding discussion has highlighted the basic

reasons why moral education must attend to issues of social

cognition and moral reasoning. Knowing right from wrong is

more than a simple process of being aware of specific social

rules, and doing the right thing is not a simple matter of

putting those rules into practice. Social contexts are not fixed

and, therefore, do not always lend themselves to habitual or

formulaic ways of responding. Moreover, extant social rules

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may themselves require changes to bring them in line with

morality. Reading and evaluating what is morally right,

therefore, entails judgment. Being a good person, however, is

more than a matter of understanding what is morally right.

In philosophy a distinction is made between deontic

judgments of what is morally right and aretaic judgments of

responsibility which involve a commitment to act on one's

deontic judgment. In everyday language we use the term

"character" to refer to the tendency to act in ways that are

consistent with what one understands to be morally right. A

person of good character is someone who attends to the moral

implications of actions and acts in accordance with what is

moral in all but the most extreme of circumstances. This

everyday usage of the term character captures an important

feature of what is ordinarily meant by a good person. The

question for us as educators becomes one of understanding

how these common sense notions of character map onto actual

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human psychology, and what aspects of the educative process

can contribute to character formation.

Limitations to Traditional Forms of Character Education.

Traditional character education, which had its way in the

early part of last century, had as its central aim fostering

formation of elements of the individual's personality and value

structure which would constitute socially desirable qualities or

virtues. In the late 1920s a major research effort was

undertaken by Hugh and Mark to identify the factors that

contributed to the formation of character. The design of their

research was based on the reasonable premise that the first

step should be to identify those individuals who possessed

moral virtues. What they had expected to find was that the

population of 8000 students they studied would divide up into

those who displayed virtuous conduct nearly all of the time,

and those who would not. To their surprise and

disappointment however, they discovered that few students

were virtuous, and that instead, most children cheated,

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behaved selfishly, and lacked "self control" a large amount of

the time.

Virtue, according to their data, seemed to be context

dependent as students cheated, or lied et cetera in some

situations and not in others. As Clark Power (1989,) noted:

Hartshorne and May concluded that there were no character

traits per se but "specific habits learned in relationship to

specific situations which have made one or another response

successful." The reference to habit by Hartshorne and May is

concordant with traditional views of character formation. Since

Aristotle, the development of virtue has been thought to emerge

out of the progressive building up of habits. Contemporary

character educators (Ryan and McLean, 1987; Wynne in Nucci,

1989) likewise rely heavily on psychological theories that

emphasize punishment and reward systems to reinforce desired

behavior, and systems of inculcation which are presumed to

instill values and virtues in the young. It is worth remembering

that in response to their findings, Hartshorne and May

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concluded that such traditional approaches to character

education through the use of didactic teaching, exhortation,

and example probably do more harm than good since such

practices do not take into account the practical demands of

social contexts.

In other words, such rigid instruction runs counter to the

evaluative and contextualized nature of moral life. By focusing

solely on efforts to instill proper values and habits, such

approaches fail to develop students' capacities to make the

social and moral judgments that contextualized actions

require. Moreover, these rigid approaches run counter to the

multifaceted and complex nature of human personality.

Research on personality conducted over the past 30 years

(Sarbin, 1986) has served to confirm the view of character

offered by Hartshorne and May by demonstrating that people

cannot be accurately described in terms of stable and general

personality traits since people tend to exhibit different and

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seemingly contradictory aspects of themselves in different

contexts.

Character and the Moral Self.

In Blasi's (Noam, 1993) work on the moral self, he makes

the point that morality may or may not be a central element of

the general narrative we construct about who we are. In other

words, morality may or may not be a salient issue in

constructing one's personal identity. The fact that virtually all

children construct basic moral understandings about fairness

and human welfare does not mean that being a person who

acts on that knowledge in relation to others is necessarily an

important part of how one self defines. For the adolescents

described above, or for some businessmen for that matter,

being moral may not be as integral to their self definition as are

other facets of their personal identities (e.g., gang member,

successful businessman). According to Blasi, the experience of

"guilt" or moral responsibility emerges in those situations in

which one acts counter to what one knows to be morally right

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only for those for whom morality is an integral part of personal

identity. In other words, from Blasi's work, we can infer that a

central feature of what we mean by moral character is the

degree to which being a moral person attains salience as a part

of one's self definition. Acting in consonance with one's deontic

moral judgments is for someone of "good" character important

for that person's sense of intrapersonal coherence in the vast

majority of contexts.

From an educational standpoint this means that

character formation is not a curricular issue in the usual sense

of a course or program designed to teach a particular content.

Character emerges from the more general individual

environment interactions from which students construct their

sense of themselves. There is no simplistic model or formula for

"building" character. And, as much as those of us who each

year brave Chicago's character building Winters would like to

believe, no specific set of experiences that lead to good or

strong character. Schools contribute to character to the degree

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to which they constitute environments conducive to more

general social and emotional development, and more

specifically moral environments in which students are treated

fairly and with respect, and which convey and enact through

teacher behavior and school policy a general climate in which

morality (as opposed to arbitrary adult authority) is valued.

The limitations of Reliance on Individual responsibility.

Much of what we see in present day society by way of

criminal activity, and juvenile crime in particular needs to be

understood as a rational response to objective social conditions

rather than simply a lack of morality or character of

individuals. A study which (Sapiro and Nucci, 1991) conducted

in Brazil of adolescents' and young adults' conceptions of

everyday forms of corruption is highly instructive. Nearly all of

their young subjects across social classes and economic levels

engaged in what they considered to be corrupt social practices

(e.g., paying a police officer to avoid a ticket, paying for

physician services without receipt to enable the physician to

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avoid taxes and charge a lower fee) at least some of the time.

When asked to evaluate these practices nearly all of the

subjects argued that they were wrong.

However, lower class subjects irrespective of educational

level were five times as likely as upper middle class young

people to state that engaging in such practices was justified in

the face of an overwhelmingly corrupt social system. In

contrast, upper-middle class university students were more

than twice as likely as lower class subjects irrespective of

educational level to argue that it was important not to engage

in such practices in order to offer individual resistance to the

corrupt social system and thereby change it. What is

instructive for us at the policy level is to recognize that these

observed class and educational differences in orientation to the

immorality of corrupt public behavior did not reflect a

difference in the morality of individuals (nearly all subjects saw

the acts as objectively wrong), but rather social class

differences in the sense of political and social empowerment to

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effect change in the objective social situation, and the belief on

the part of the poor and uneducated that such actions

constituted a rational form of self protection from victimization

by the general system.

Contemporary Debates on Character Education

Alan Lockwood (1997) has offered a tentative definition of

character education as a school-instituted program,

designed in co-operation with other community institutions, to

shape directly and systematically the behaviour of young

people by influencing explicitly the non-relativistic values

believed directly to bring about that behaviour. He assumes

that goals of moral education can be pursued, that behavioural

goals are part of character education and that antisocial

behaviour on the part of children is a result of an absence of

values. One might add too, that character education is not a

matter of changing behaviour but of bringing about certain

kinds of behaviour. It is not simply concerned with behaviour

control, but with personal transformation; it therefore includes

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education in schools, families, and through the individuals

participation in societys social networks.

Lockwoods definition of character as inculcating non-

relativistic valuesis a brave one in a constantly changing

pluralistic society, where it seems increasingly unreasonable to

believe that there could be agreement about a common set of

values. Suspicion is quickly aroused by any suggestion that

there could be underlying values which characterise the best in

human nature. Any such proposals are deemed problematic

and challengeable, provoking the question how do you feel

about it?, rather than is it true?Significant criticisms of

moral education have acknowledged these difficulties. David

Purple (1997), for example, attacks moral educators because

they do not examine the complexity of the social context that

underlies the social statistics to which they draw attention.

Moreover, he argues, according to what frame of reference do

they consider teen-age pregnancy to be a moral transgression?

Timothy Rusnak (1998) believes that most moral education is

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driven by fear when in fact there never was a golden age of

moral behaviour; every generation has had its own litany of

alarmas Harry McKown (1935) showed when he wrote of

America in the nineteen thirties. Terry McLaughlin and Mark

Halstead (1999) take issue with current practices of character

education in America, which, they claim, focus on a narrow

range of virtues, use traditional pedagogy and attempt to

demonstrate their effectiveness by the changed behaviour of

students.

Conceptual and Theoretical Framework

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Fig. 1.0 The combination model of Character formation

Source: Huit, 2004.This study is anchored by the systems theory which

believes that character and moral development in students or

young people is as a result of a resultant interaction of the

three components of the mind which is cognition, affect and

volition. The study is further anchored by an interaction

between values education, analysis, and moral development

approaches in the combination approach shown above. Thus

students put their thoughts and feelings into action in a variety

of social actions as suggested in theaction learning(e.g.,

Cottom, 1996; Gauld, 1993; Solomon et al., 1992) or service

learning (e.g.,Champion, 1999) approaches.

From the perspective of a systems view, which is most

compatible with the action learning and service learning

approaches to character education, we need to define character

development in terms of the three components ofmind:

(cognition,affect,volition) and the component ofbehavioras

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depicted in thesystems model of human behavior(Huitt, 1996).

The cognitive component of character consists of both a

knowledge base of right and wrong as well as the rational and

creative processes necessary to work with that knowledge base

to make sound moral decisions. There is a related value system

that defines what the individual holds in high esteem or to

which he or she is attached. These are the criteria that

students use to make moral or ethical judgments. Students

learn to value what is in their knowledge base; they will also

more deeply esteem what they critically and creatively think

about. These two components influence what students are

willing to commit to, what they are willing to set goals for, what

they are willing to plan for and put energy towards

accomplishing. As students make these commitments and

plans, it adds to their knowledge base and strengthens their

thinking skills and values.

These three components then influence the final

component, overt behavior. This behavior has two aspects:

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personal virtues such as being courageous and self-disciplined

and social virtues such as being compassionate, courteous,

and trustworthy. As students reflect on their behavior, it adds

to the knowledge base, strengthens their thinking skills, and

impacts their values. Of course, behavior can also be directly

influenced through the application of consequences as

described byoperant conditioning theory(Huitt and Hummel,

1997a) and through observation and modeling as described by

social learning theory(Huitt and Hummel, 1997b). The basic

principle of this model is that much of the knowledge and

values that students hold are implicit and have been obtained

though observation, modeling, and the application of

consequences. As important as it is to impact overt moral

behavior, it is equally important to help students make explicit

one's own knowledge base, value system, and the process of

committing and planning so as to make that behavior more

intentional.

Appraisal of Review

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This review started with an historical review of the origin

of Christian religious studies in Nigeria. It further discussed

the concept of morality and the moral self while establishing a

theoretical and conceptual model behind the study.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is discussed under the following sub

headings

Design of the Study

Population of the Study

Sample and Sampling Techniques

Instrument for Data Collection

Validity of the Instrument

Administration of Instrument

Method of Data Analysis

Design of the Study41


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The study adopted the descriptive survey research design.

Survey research is a method of collecting information by asking

questions, Sometimes interviews are done face-to-face with

people at home, in school, or at work. Other times questions

are sent in the mail for people to answer and mail back.

Increasingly, surveys are conducted by telephone. However, the

present study employed the face to face contact with the

respondents.

Population of The Study

The population of the study includes all students offering

Christain religious studies in Senior and junior secondary

Ethiope East local government area. This population is

estimated to be the entire population of students in public

secondary schools in the area given at 8,000 according to the

Data provided by the state ministry of Secondary and Basic

Education.(www.deltastate.gov.ng)

Sample and Sampling Techniques

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A sample of 200 students which comprises of 2.5% of the

total number of students was randomly selected from 10

schools across five locations in the area of study. Participants

were drawn from both senior and junior secondary schools

males and females alike.

Instrument for Data Collection

To guide this research, an instrument labeled Christain

religious studies and Character formation Questionnaire

(CRCFQ) was developed. This was used to elicit information

from the subjects of the study. The questionnaire was made up

of two sections; the first section is the bio data which consist of

items such as Name of school, gender, age, and Class. The

second section considered factors that dealt with the effect of

CRS on character and moral formation/development of

secondary school students. Respondents were free to agree or

disagree with the statements made on a continuum scale of

strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and strongly disagree.

Validity of the Instrument

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In the development of the research instrument, past

research questionnaires were analyzed, and ideas were

retrieved from them. To ascertain the validity of the

instrument, the instrument was given to the research

supervisor and after due consultation, it was ascertained valid

reflecting face and content validity.

Reliability of Instrument

In research, reliability determines the degree of

consistency to which an instrument measures what it is

expected to measure. To determine the reliability of the

instrument therefore, the test retest method will be employed. A

sample of 20 teachers in a different location of the study will be

sampled at an interval of two weeks. At the end of the sampling

process, their responses will be correlated employing the

Pearson product moment correlation.

Administration of Instrument

A total of 150 questionnaires will be administered personally

by the researcher. The researcher will also employ the aid of

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research assistants so as to aid the effective and quick

completion of the field work. The content of the questionnaires

will be explained to respondents. Completed questionnaires will

be collected on the spot and their responses compiled and

analyzed later.

Method of Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. Thus

frequency counts were done and the data represented in simple

percentages. Thereafter, the hypotheses were tested using the

chi-square statistics.

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CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

This chapter presents the outcome of the statistical and

data analysis of the study. It will follow a step by step recap of

the research questions followed by the test of hypothesis and

discussion.

Presentation of Result

Table 1: Gender Distribution of Respondents

GENDER FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

MALE 65 43%

FEMALES 85 57%

TOTAL 150 100

Table 1 shows that 65(43%) of respondents were males while 85(57%) of

respondents were females.

Table 2: Location of Respondents

GENDER FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

URBAN 75 50

Rural 75 50

TOTAL 150 100

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Table 2 shows that 75(50%) of respondents are from urban area while 75(50%) of

are from rural.

Table 3: Class Distribution of RespondentsGENDER FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

JSS 75 50%

SSS 75 50%

TOTAL 150 100

Table 3 shows that 75(50%) of respondents are in the JSS and SSS classes

respectively.

Section B: Test Variables

Answer to Research Question

Research Question 1:What extent does C.R.S. influence the

moral life of secondary school students.

This research question was answered by items 1-5 of the

research instrument as shown in the table below.

Table 4: Influence of CRS on Moral life

S/N ITEM SA

F (%)

A

F (%)

D

F (%)

SD F

(%)

1. it is right for one to askfor answers from friends

in difficult examination?

20(13) 30(20)60(40)40(27)

2. Is it right for a student

who is late to sneak into

the class if he will not be

caught?

15(10) 15(10)40(27)80(53)

3. Is it right to use ones

late relatives certificate

0(0) 0(0) 80(53)70(47)

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to work?

4. If you see a man that will

want to pay your school

fees and your father is

not willing, will you

agree?

100(67)50(33)0(0) 0(0)

5. In an examination where

you know you cannot

pass because you did not

read, would you cheat to

pass?

40(27) 45(30)35(23)30(20)

From the table presented above, all of the test items gave a

positive credence to the positive influence of CRS on moral life.

Item 1 of the research instrument indicates that 50(23%) of the

respondents affirmed to asking questions in exams against the

100(97%) that declined such acts. Item 2 which sought to know

if students will sneak into classrooms when they come lat

discovered that 0nly 30(20%) of the students affirmed to this

claim while 120(80%) declined such claims. Contrary to the

expectations however, item 5, indicated that 85(57%) of the

respondents agreed to cheating in examination halls against

the 65(43%) that declined such.

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Research Question 2:What is the relationship between the

study of Christian religious studies and the development of self

respect in the lives of secondary school students?



Table 5: Influence of CRS on the Development of Self Respect

S/N ITEM SA

F (%)

A

F (%)

D

F (%)

SD F

(%)

6 Parents who always

punish their children

should not be greeted in

the morning.

40(27)20(13)10(7) 80(53)

7. We should not run

errands for parents who

do not always help us.

45(30)64(43)41(27)0(0)

8. Parents who correct usharshly should not be

obeyed.

30(20)45(30)50(33)25(17)

9. We should not respect

teachers who have

offended us.

27(18)13(9) 69(46)41(27)

10 We should only greet

people that are kind to us.

28(19)10(7) 88(58)24(16)

From the table shown above, items 6 indicated students

feelings that parents who punish their children should not be

greeted with a 90(60%) decline and 60(40%) affirmation. Item 7

on the contrary showed that respondent feel errands should

not be run for parents who do not help them as 109(73%)

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affirmed to this and 41(27%) declining. On the other hand,

items 9 and 10 saw the respondents declining the claims that

teachers who offend them should not be greeted and that

kindness should only be extended to those who are equally

kind to them with a 110(73%) and 112(74%) decline

respectively.

Research Question 3:What is the relationship between the

study of Christian religious studies and the development of

moral virtues amongst secondary school students?



Table 6: Relationship between CRS and development of

Moral Virtues

S/N ITEM SA

F (%)

A

F (%)

D F

(%)

SD F

(%)

11 Is it good to love others

more than ones self.

48(32)64(43)24(16) 14(9)

12 Is it always good to say

the truth even if it will

cause ones life?

34(23)78(52)10(7) 27(19)

13 Is it good to exposesome sensitive parts of

your body?

0(0) 0(0) 40(27) 110(73)

14 If you broke your

mothers plate and you

know she will beat you

up, is it right to put the

blame on other

persons.

0 0 110(73)40(27)

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15 Is it right to deny ones

parent because of poor

financial status.

0 0 78(52) 72(48)

From the table above, item 11 shows that 110(75%) of

respondents believes it is good to love others more than ones

self against the 27(26%) that declined. In response to item 13

and 14 all of the respondents said that it is not good to expose

sensitive parts of ones body and denying ones parents due to

poor financial status.

Research Question 4:What is the most influential societal

virtue for character formation portrayed in Christian religious

studies?

S/N

16

ITEM FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

A Honesty 60 40

B Self respect 40 27

C Moral virtue 12 8

D Humility 38 25

Table 7: Most Influential Society Virtues Portrayed by

CRS

From the table shown above it shows that 60(40%) of

respondents believes honesty is the most influential virtue

while 40(27%) asserts self respect; 12(8%) believes moral virtue

and 38(25%) claims humility.

Test of Hypothesis

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Hypothesis one:There is no significant relationship between

Christian religious studies and the development of self respect

amongst secondary school students.

This hypothesis was tested using items 11-15 of the research

instrument as shown below.

Table 8: Test of Significant Relationship of CRS and the Development of Self

Respect.

S/N T!" #greed Disagreed $%Cal $%

Crit. D& Decision

'' Is it good

to love

others

more than

ones self.

112 38 484.34 9.48 0.05 Reject Nll

!"#othesis

'% Is it al$a"s

good to sa"

the trtheven if it

$ill case

ones life%

112 38

'3 Is it good

to eose

some

sensitive

#arts of

"or 'od"%

0 150

'( If "o

'ro(e "ormothers

#late and

"o (no$

she $ill

'eat "o

#) is it

right to #t

the 'lame

on other

#ersons.

0 150

') Is it right to 0 150

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den" ones

#arent

'ecase of

#oor

financial

stats.!*pected

&re+uenc,

44 10*

From the table above, the X2calculated is greater than the X2

critical thus the null hypothesis is rejected which implies that

there is a significant relationship between CRS and the

development of moral virtue

Hypothesis Two:There is no significant relationship between

the study of Christian religious studies and the development of

moral virtues.

+his h"#othesis $as tested sing items *,10 of the research instrment as

sho$n 'elo$.

Table -: Test of Significant Relationship of CRS and the Development of "oral

irtues.

S/N ITEM Agreed Disagreed X2Cal X2Crit. DF Decision

6 -arents

$hoal$a"s

#nishtheir

childrenshold not'e greeted

in the

morning.

60 90 96.44 9.48 0.05 Reject Null

Hypothesis

7. e sholdnot rnerrands

for

#arents$ho do

109 41

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notal$a"shel# s.

8. -arents$ho

correct s

harshl"shold not

'e

o'e"ed.

75 75

9. e sholdnot

res#ectteachers

$ho have

offendeds.

40 110

10 e sholdonl" greet

#eo#lethat are

(ind to s.

34 112

Expected

Frequency

64 86

From the table above, the X2calculated is greater than the X2

critical thus the null hypothesis is rejected which implies that

there is a significant relationship between CRS and the

development of moral virtue.

Discussion of Findings

This study focused on the influence of Christian religious

studies on the moral life of secondary school students in

Ethiope East local Government Area of Delta state. The study

therefore made its generalizations based on the analysis of data

generated from the field work.

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The demographic data presented shows that 65(43%) of

respondents were males while 85(57%) of respondents were

females. Also, 75(50%) of respondents are from urban area

while 75(50%) are of rural origin the data also showed that

75(50%) of respondents are in the JSS and SSS classes

respectively. In answer to research question one which sought

to know the extent to which learning of CRS influences the

Moral life of students found out that all of the test items gave a

positive credence to the positive influence of CRS on moral life

except item 5. Item 1 of the research instrument indicates that

50(23%) of the respondents affirmed to asking questions in

exams against the 100(97%) that declined such acts. Item 2

which sought to know if students will sneak into classrooms

when they come lat discovered that 0nly 30(20%) of the

students affirmed to this claim while 120(80%) declined such

claims. Contrary to the expectations however, item 5, indicated

that 85(57%) of the respondents agreed to cheating in

examination halls against the 65(43%) that declined such. The

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implication of this is that CRS influences the moral life of

secondary school students to a great extent.

In answer to the second research question which asked if

CRS influences the development of self respect amongst

students shows that items 6 indicated students feelings that

parents who punish their children should not be greeted

with a 90(60%) decline and 60(40%) affirmation. Item 7 on

the contrary showed that respondent feel errands should not

be run for parents who do not help them as 109(73%)

affirmed to this and 41(27%) declining. On the other hand,

items 9 and 10 saw the respondents declining the claims

that teachers who offend them should not be greeted and

that kindness should only be extended to those who are

equally kind to them, with a 110(73%) and 112(74%) decline

respectively. A test of the significant influence however of

CRS on the development of self respect indicates that the X2

calculated is greater than the X2critical thus the null

hypothesis is rejected which implies that there is a

significant relationship between CRS and the development of56


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moral virtue. This observation is in agreement with the

opinions of Wilson as cited in Nwaomah (1998) that one of

the major roles of Religious and Moral Education in the

Nigerian secondary school curriculum is that of the moral

development of the students; and the only subject that could

satisfy this is Christian Religious Education.

The third research question sought to know if there is any

relationship between CRS and the development of moral

virtues. The data presented in table 6 above, indicates in

item 11 that 110(75%) of respondents believes it is good to

love others more than ones self against the 27(26%) that

declined. In response to item 13 and 14 all of the

respondents said that it is not good to expose sensitive parts

of ones body and denying ones parents due to poor financial

status. In the same vein, a test of hypothesis also showed

that there is a significant relationship between CRS and the

development of moral virtues thus giving credence to the

earlier claims made by the study in answer to research

question one. This observation may also have risen due to57


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the high level of peer interaction that occurs during school

hours and learning thus bringing to affirmation the old aged

saying that a man is a product of not only what he hears but

also of the environment in which he or she lives.

In answer to the fourth research question, the study

found out that 60(40%) of respondents believes honesty is

the most influential virtue while 40(27%) asserts self

respect; 12(8%) believes moral virtue and 38(25%) claims

humility. From this therefore, it implies that honesty and

humility is the greatest moral virtue influenced by CRS in

the lives of secondary school students.

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CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Summary of Study

This study focused on the influence of Christian religious

studies on the character and moral life of secondary school

students. The study stated as its research objectives the

determination of the extent to which CRS influences the moral

life of secondary students, the development of self respect and

moral virtues. In a bid to get a clearer picture of the concept

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under study, a thorough review of related literature was done

and a survey research method was employed sampling the

opinions of 150 secondary school CRS students in Ethiope east

LGA of Delta state. The study however, asked four research

questions and tested two hypotheses. Based on the

observations made during the field work, the following can be

summarized as the major finding s of the study.

1.There is a significant relationship between CRS and

the moral life of secondary school students amongst

secondary school students.


the development of moral virtues amongst secondary

school students.


the development of self respect amongst secondary

school students.

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4.Honesty and Humility is the most influence moral

Virtue influenced by CRS in the life of secondary

school students.

Conclusion

Based on the observations made above, this study wishes

to conclude that the teaching of CRS in secondary schools have

contributed greatly and is still contributing to the attainment of

a morally just society.

Recommendations

Based on the conclusions made above, the study wishes

to make the following recommendations:

1.Christian Religious Studies should be made compulsory

at all levels of learning so as to promote and sustain the

ideals and gains observed by this study.

2.Students should be encouraged to take seriously

Christian religious studies education in other to sustain a

good future.

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APPENDIX I

CHRISTAIN RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND CHARACTER

FORMATION QUESTIONNAIRE (CRCFQ)

Dear Respondent,

I am carrying out a research on the influence of CRS on

character formation of Secondary school students. Please

kindly fill the questionnaire and be rest assured that your

responses will be used for research purposes only.

Okomeh, Omamokeh

Researcher.

SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

Gender:Male ( ) Female ( )

School Location: Urban ( ) Rural ( )

Age:10-14 ( ) 15-18 ( ) Above18 ( )

Class: JSS( ) SSS ( )

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SECTION B: TEST VARIABLES

INSTRUCTION

Please tick SA (Strongly Agreed), A (Agreed), Disagree (D)

Strongly Disagree (SD) in all of the following statements. Be

aware that your responses will e graded in a continuum scale

of 4, 3, 2 and 1, With SD having the least score of 1.

In your opinion what is your view on the following statements

about Christian religious studies.

Importance of CRS

S/N Item SA

A D SD

1 CRS helps in modeling young people

toward been responsible

2 CRS have contributed to my knowledge

about GOD

3 CRS have helped me in identifying the

right role model for life

4 CRS helps in the development of spiritual

values.

CRS and SELF RESPECT

S/N ITEM SA A D SD

6 Learning CRS have helped me to always

tell myself the truth about life

7 I have learnt not to tell lies through CRS8 I learnt not to masturbate through CRS

10 I have learnt to obey instructions

through CRS

11 Through CRS I have learnt to dress well

all the time

12 I learnt how to give a helping hand to

someone through CRS

CRS and Moral Virtue

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S/N ITEM

11 CRS taught me to be obedient to my

parents and seniors

12 CRS encourages me to greet my elders

13 I have learnt that fornication is bad

through CRS

14 CRS have helped me to identify the right

value in the society

15 CRS is essential for the attainment of

humility in life

16 CRS have helped me to always tell the

truth.

16.in your opinion which is the most influential societal

value influenced by CRS

1 Honesty

12 Humility

13 Obedience

14 Faithfulness to duty

15 Diligence

The Role of Christian religious studies in character formation of Secondary School Students

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