<![CDATA[Background. The growing global and national attention to character education, reinforced by India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 call for learner-centered pedagogy, has outpaced empirical evidence on which teaching approaches are most effective in cultivating character among prospective teachers. Purpose. This study examined the comparative effectiveness of digitally supported student-centered and teacher-centered instructional approaches on character education outcomes among prospective teachers in Punjab, India. Method. A quasi-experimental, mixed-methods design was employed involving 123 prospective teachers across four intact classes, assigned to student-centered (n = 63) and teacher-centered (n = 60) conditions. ANCOVA and MANCOVA tested effects on character formation across three dimensions-moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral action-complemented by semi-structured interviews. Novelty. Unlike prior studies reporting composite character scores, this study disaggregated character formation into theoretically distinct dimensions and explicitly engaged an unresolved methodological debate regarding cognitive-versus-behavioral measurement bias in character education research. Results.The student-centered group showed significantly greater gains in overall character outcomes, F(1, 120) = 88.02, p < .001, partial n² = .421, with the strongest effect observed for moral knowing (n² = .402). Conclusion. Digitally supported student-centered instruction shows promise for character formation in teacher education, though findings warrant cautious interpretation pending randomized, longitudinal replication with behavioral outcome measures.]]>
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