We equip educators to create learning environments that reliably foster Christian virtues, forming students of character who are empowered to be a force for good in the world. With intentional classroom design, research-backed interventions and empirically validated assessments, we believe that every college student can grow in virtues that enable them to more fully embody God’s love for all creation in the classroom and beyond.
Our work focuses on seven primary virtues: faith, hope, love, courage, justice, wisdom and temperance – often known as the three theological and four cardinal virtues. While these virtues are universally celebrated, our definitions are explicitly informed by Christian theological reflection. Christian virtues orient us towards the love of the trinitarian God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and all of God’s creation. This orientation not only honors our theological context, but also contributes to a shared understanding of virtue. It is a constellation of habit-like traits, so deeply formed that they transcend situation and context. Christian virtues ultimately facilitate consistent Christ-like character and active participation in God’s good work in the world.
Implementing Virtue Based Education
Our science-backed approach draws on decades of work in Clinical and Personality Psychology which has identified five primary modalities by which personality and behavior are most likely to change. Applying these modalities to virtue cultivation, our resources offer immediate access to assignments and co-curricular initiatives designed to maximize character growth in our seven primary virtue domains. If you want to learn more, our workshops can teach you how to leverage this framework for the virtues you emphasize in your classrooms or at your institution.
Measuring Virtue and Character Climate
Tracking character growth is critical for evaluating and refining efforts to cultivate virtue in Higher Education. We provide researchers and administrators with tools to measure virtue at both the individual and group levels, assessing how curricular and co-curricular activities and institutional culture shape growth. Some of our measurement tools assess Faith, Hope, Love, Courage, Justice, Wisdom and Temperance directly. Others assess general character climate on college campuses or take a mixed-methods approach to capturing the potency of virtue content in individual courses.
At Classrooms that Cultivate Character, we believe that virtue development is a shared responsibility. By bringing together professors and researchers, we create a network of educators committed to shaping students’ character alongside their intellectual growth. Explore our resources, connect with like-minded scholars, and join the movement to infuse Christian virtues into higher education.
