Analysis of Character-related Research Trends according to School Level

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze whether there were differences in character-related research trends according to school level in order to find out the current status of character-related research, provide basic data for follow-up research, and to point out the direction of character-related research in the future. To this end, 1,057 papers on character published in Korea from 1995 to 2020 were used for analysis. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and using an <i>x</i><sup>2</sup>-test. The major findings of this study were as follows. First, most studies were conducted at all school levels from 2016 to 2019, followed by kindergarten and university (graduate school) from 2014 to 2015, and elementary and secondary schools from 1995 to 2009. Second, as for the research topic, many studies were conducted in the area of character education effect analysis and character education programs in kindergarten, while in elementary, secondary, and university (graduate school), character education effect analysis and theoretical basic research were conducted. Third, regarding the educational method (whether or not class time is used), studies using class time were high in kindergarten and university (graduate school), whereas there was no significant difference between the two in elementary and secondary schools. The significance of this study is as follows. First, this study is the first study to compare and analyze character-related research trends according to school level. Second, significant differences were found in thesis types, research years, number of researchers, research topics, educational methods, and research methods by school level. Third, this study can be used as the basis for future quantitative meta-analyses or qualitative meta-analysis studies. Finally this study is significant in that it found that character-related studies revealed that curriculum changes and educational policies are influental.