Christianity, Character Education, and Academic Achievement

Introduction: Importance of the Topic

The link between character education and academic success has not been lost on researchers in recent years, as theories of educational approaches continue to be revised, revisited, or developed anew. Lickona (1993) broached the topic of character education to show how it is instrumental in the achievement of academic success, while Smith (2013) and Kristjansson (2014) offered their own secular takes on the concept of forming a student's character through the development of philosophical foundations in the student's consciousness. By delving into the issue of character formation, the concept of religion—and particularly Christianity—emerges as a variable that may also impact a student's academic success. Because Christianity is oriented toward reforming one's character, it presents itself as a factor worth understanding in order to better know its effect on educational outcomes. This topic is important because researchers like Regnerus (2000) have indicated that religion in a student's life can actually help to improve grades and academic performance. Understanding why this is so can have an impact on how teachers, parents, and all other stakeholders approach the subject of education.

Attitudes toward Christianity have changed over the centuries. In the Middle Ages in the West, Christianity was the guiding religion and its theological and philosophical foundations were used to form character. There was no disconnect between religion and academic achievement, as the two were correlated at the highest levels. Secular education did not begin to appear until the Reformation and Scientific Revolution brought about the so-called Age of Enlightenment, which introduced naturalistic principles into society and pushed religion to the margins of culture. Materialism and the ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality took hold by the end of the eighteenth century, and new philosophies—modern philosophies that promoted a more subjectivist approach to truth, learning, experience, reality, and history—became entrenched in the worldview of societies around the globe.

Today, education is an important part of every society, but there is a considerable achievement gap that has alarmed many stakeholders. This achievement gap can be defined in a variety of forms—for example, among students of varying socioeconomic backgrounds as well as among students of varying ethnic or national backgrounds. What causes this gap? As Ratcliff, Carroll, Jones et al. (2017) show in their year-long observational study of classrooms in America, students' self-control is just as important as teaching approaches in predicting achievement gaps. Self-control is a critical aspect of character formation, as Lickona (1993), Smith (2013), and Kristjansson (2014) illustrate, and it is also a variable that has been shown to be moderated by religiosity (McCullough & Willoughby, 2009; Laird, Marks, & Marrero, 2011; Sasaki, Mojaverian, & Kim, 2015). This indicates that Christianity could very well have a positive effect on education in at least some regard. This literature review assesses the effect of Christianity on education and the extent to which it can be gauged as a positive or formative factor in academic success.

Religion, Culture, and the Achievement Gap

Jeynes (2015) conducted a meta-analysis to identify the variables that are most significant in closing the achievement gap. The meta-analysis included 30 scholarly articles that focused on closing the achievement gap between students of various ethnic backgrounds. The factors found to be most significant were ones that went "beyond the bounds of the school" and reached into the realm of the sociological as well as the psychological. Jeynes (2015) showed that cultural factors are very important to how well a student achieves in school.

As religion plays a major part in developing a culture in most societies, the relationship between religion and academic success is one that has been examined among a variety of populations. The diversity of the findings indicates that the issue is complex and that while religion can be a variable in the strengthening of culture, not all religions or religious influences have the same effect. The study on the impact of religion on education in Rio de Janeiro showed that "different religious belongings of families of elementary school students in the Rio de Janeiro municipal network, among other family, school and social factors, are positively associated with the school trajectory" of the student (Carvalho & Ramos, 2017, p. 25). Carvalho and Ramos (2017) used a logistic regression model to measure more than 500,000 student performances with respect to the religious inputs of those students' family backgrounds. The researchers found that religion (Catholic vs. Evangelical vs. other Protestant denominations vs. non-religious) played a role in widening or lessening the achievement gap. Students who identified as Catholic demonstrated the greatest likelihood of the faiths sampled of outpacing the others in terms of achievement.

The study by Klanjšek, Vazsonyi, and Trejos-Castillo (2012) showed that among Muslims, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and "Bible Belt" Christians, the different impact that religion has on a young person depends upon the extent to which the religion is external versus intrinsic to the individual's life. In other words, the more immersed in the religious experience the person is, the more likely that person is to show success in the various aspects of his or her life. The researchers focused specifically on the role that various religions played in mediating behavior. They measured the correlation between religiosity and deviance in Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, and the United States and found that when religion was an intrinsic part of one's life, self-control was more likely to be present. As self-control correlates with academic achievement, this study suggests that religion does have a mediating effect, so long as it is internalized and not viewed as a means of oppression or external control.

However, not all researchers have arrived at the same conclusion. Henning, Krageloh, Thompson et al. (2015) examined whether religious affiliation had an impact on academic performance among New Zealand medical students. The researchers sampled 275 participants from the School of Medicine at a New Zealand university. They were grouped into three categories: Christian (104), Eastern religion (34), and non-religious (117). The participants responded to a World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire as well as the World Health Organization Spiritual, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs questionnaire. What the researchers found was that spiritual perceptions varied among the three groups, and that these expressions of spirituality did not necessarily translate into more or less academic achievement. However, the study did show that students who had spiritual beliefs affirmed that "having a belief system assisted them when coping with the academic learning environment"—and it also showed that spirituality was a predictor of hours devoted to academic studies (Henning et al., 2015, p. 3). What the survey of medical students in New Zealand failed to reveal was any correlation between Christian, Eastern, or non-religious beliefs and academic success. The study also differed in that the sample consisted of grown adults rather than young children, which could indicate that for adults the role of religion is less impactful in terms of educational commitment. Additionally, the sample consisted of students in medical school, which requires a great deal of commitment already, and so the impact of religion on the sample would likely not be as noticeable as it would be in a study where the sample consists wholly of younger students whose propensities have not yet become fully developed or oriented toward a specific objective.

Developmental Theories and Religious Coping

Developmental theories of education are helpful in understanding the role that religion might play in the academic life of students. Hearron and Hildebrand (2010) describe the constructivist theories of Piaget and Vygotsky regarding how children acquire knowledge. The constructivist developmental approach holds that sensory data is critical to children and that information is acquired through the senses as well as through the cognitive use of the mind. Piaget held that students acquire learning by a process of assimilation and accommodation, striving for a state of equilibrium as they hold the various bits of data they encounter in their minds. For Piaget, the learning theory that best described knowledge acquisition was cognitive constructivism. Vygotsky preferred a social constructivism theoretical approach, asserting that language and communication were essential elements of development, neither of which could be acquired without social interaction. Both Piaget's and Vygotsky's constructivist theories help to explain how children develop, with cognition and social interaction serving as complementary explanatory models for that development.

These developmental theories can be used to explain how religion facilitates coping as well. The study by Harris, Erbes, Winskowski et al. (2014) shows how religion acts as a factor in helping individuals who have experienced trauma to cope with their feelings and situation. Their study focused on church members with a history of trauma in order to distinguish social support from religious comfort and clearly differentiate the two. The study showed that religious comfort is a distinct variable separate from other supports when it comes to dealing with trauma. This study supports the findings of other researchers who show that religion plays a crucial role in the cognitive and social development of a child's life.

From a neurobiological perspective, the study is supported by Gilbert (2014), who showed that prayer can neurologically impact a person's brain. Gilbert's (2014) study on prayer as an intervention for individuals suffering from sexual addiction in Central Mexico showed that spirituality and religion can positively affect the neurobiology. Prayer can be seen as a way to develop the mind both cognitively—so as to reinforce behavioral patterns that support the overall goal being worked toward—and developmentally, so that the negative habit being overcome will be reduced in power over time. The spiritual component is also recognized by Gilbert (2014) as a real variable in how humans process, cope, develop, overcome, and confront obstacles to a better life.

Gilbert's (2014) findings are supported by the findings of Francis, Yablon, and Robbins (2014), who conducted a survey among 248 undergraduate students in Israel using the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism, the Oxford Happiness Inventory, and the short-form Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised to test whether there is a statistically significant association between religiosity and happiness. Their findings were positive and showed statistical significance, indicating that religion does play a role in helping an individual lead a happier, more meaningful life.

Likewise, the study by Drumm, Popescu, Cooper et al. (2014) found that the spirituality of Christian survivors of intimate partner violence showed significant resilience strategies for coping with experienced trauma. Drumm et al. (2014) analyzed more than 40 interview transcripts with Christian women to identify a patterned strategy based on religious belief for overcoming trauma. Their study supports the findings of Harris et al. (2014) and indicates that Christian belief is useful in helping victims cope with trauma. With respect to education, these strategies can be similarly helpful, as they enable the individual to focus on character formation in difficult times and develop the mind through cognitive and social methods, which align with the developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky (Hearron & Hildebrand, 2010). Drumm et al. (2014) show that Christianity is a positive factor in supporting resilience, and this same factor can be used to facilitate resilience among individuals who are attempting to cope with obstacles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Christianity has a positive impact on an individual's life—whether that individual is a working professional, a person suffering from trauma, a person struggling with addiction, or a student at any level of schooling. The effect of Christian belief on a person's mind, development, learning, and engagement has been identified in numerous studies. The implication for academic achievement is that students who have a Christian belief system in place are likely to embrace an ethic that enables them to overcome obstacles and focus on developing themselves so as to reach the ideal that their faith teaches them to pursue. As Christianity focuses on shaping the individual character of a person, the impact of Christian beliefs on a student can help form that student's character in an ethical way that is in line with the classical concept of growth and development.