Teacher Competencies in Character Strengthening for Early Childhood

Abstract

Character education is very basic education for young children to instill moral values to prevent unacceptable behavior. Children can absorb good character if they are in a supportive environment, for this reason, schools should understand and implement character education in the learning process. This research aims to see how teachers apply the character values of responsibility, honesty, discipline, love and affection, caring, courage, independence, hard work, cooperation, courtesy, justice, self-control, and tolerance. This survey method research uses two types of mixed data (Mixed method) with data collection techniques through observations, types of tasks, and performance assessments. The respondents for this research were 49 teachers involving 112 children. The results of research with a regression model of 0.7895 shows that the variables Responsibility, Honesty, Discipline, Caring, Courage, Independence, Hard Work, Cooperation, Politeness, Fairness, Self-Control, and Tolerance can explain the diversity of children's characters by 78.95%. while the rest is explained by other variables outside the model. Character values can be taught optimally in the school environment based on the teacher's ability to implement them. Through character education at school, children can also instill a positive outlook on life.
 Keywords: Teacher competency, Character Strengthening, Early Childhood