Moral Literacy in Historical Stories of National Heroes: Studies in Character Educations on History Learning at Surakarta High School

Abstract

A history usually presents a hero in the chronology of its story. Hero stories' contain
important values as a material of moral literacy for students. The potential heroes stories
for character education. Character education is a value education process which based on
the philosophy of humanistic education. In that context, the relevant learning model is a
constructivist model such as Discovery Learning, Problem-Based Learning, and Project-
Based Learning. By these models and based on Lickona's view about morality as the
reference of character education. Students will discover and understand the moral values
or concepts of the hero's story as a basis for taking certain moral attitudes and actions
through the process of internalization, i.e., the developmental changing of behavior which
is controlled externally by internally controlled behavior. The lecture model, as still
practiced by some teachers in history teaching practice in Indonesia, tends to be
indoctrinated and can undermine character education itself.