In this episode of Transformative Principal, host Jethro Jones welcomes Dr. Melinda Bier, the Theresa M. Fisher Endowed Professor for citizenship education at the University of Missouri St. Louis. They discuss the character education program, the impact of a national cohort, and faculty changes during the pandemic. They also delve into the design of the new cohort at UMSL, the importance of practical learning, and the integration of character education and social emotional learning into school leadership.

• Having a national cohort, online only program
• Really interesting what people learned from each other
• The design of the program
• Adaptive to the needs of students
• Urban university with a history
• Loss of faculty members
• Modeling is an important part of our theoretical basis
• Next cohort - character development, social-emotional learning, and leadership
• Faculty team to walk through this with people. 
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• Character Education is a focus on the whole person
• Adults need to model the behaviors they want to see in the kids. 
• Kids need opportunities to experience all the virtues. 
• Use your power for the common good. 
• Kids get gains in academics when you start with character. 
• Schools have changed a lot over the last few years. 
• Dissertation in Practice is a different kind of dissertation
• Retrospective pretest. 

About Mindy Bier

Mindy Bier is currently the Teresa M. Fischer Endowed Professor for Citizenship Education at University of Missouri, St. Louis. Mindy’s expertise spans the fields of Character Education, teacher preparation and professional development, and the design and use of instructional technology for enhanced teaching and learning. She has extensive experience in the adoption of K-12 educational innovations, providing and managing professional development for geographically and culturally diverse teachers, and in the philanthropic sector. Mindy is the principal investigator for a series of cross-disciplinary service learning projects that address the social determinants of health disparities called Youth Empowerment in Action (YEA!)

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