Secondary School Moral Discussion Programmes Led by Social Studies Teachers

Abstract

An experiment is reported on the effect of a moral discussion programme taught in the schools by regular classroom teachers. Number of discussions and type of teacher preparation were varied. Students’ moral judgment stage was assessed before and after the programme and teachers were observed throughout the course of the year. A substantial degree of moral judgment stage change was shown in some but not all of the classrooms. Three variables associated with likelihood of student moral judgment change were number of discussions, range of pre‐test moral judgment stage within the classroom, and teachers’ skills in eliciting moral reasoning from students during the discussions.     

Kohl berg's Cognitive‐Developmental Theory in Educational Settings: Some Possible Abuses

Abstract

Kohlberg's cognitive‐developmental theory provides teachers with a framework for understanding the change and development of moral judgment and decision‐making of their pupils. One major abuse, however, may be when teachers take the stage labels associated with the hypothesized stage levels of moral judgment as indicative of static student qualities or characteristics, by placing more emphasis on perceived and labelled qualities than on the actual moral reasoning of the student. This, it is suggested, together with some empirical examples, may obscure the developmental trend of the student's moral judgment or even affect the teacher's expectations and consequently student's performance, and fails to take into account such factors as environment and interpersonal interaction. A study is reported in which curriculum consultants exposed to moral development theory were tested to determine whether they would use Kohlbergian labels of stage content or actual moral reasoning when required to make assessments. Suggestions are put forward as to how moral development theory can be more closely linked to pedagogy.     

Developmental Level of Moral Judgment Influences Behavioral Patterns During Moral Decision-Making

Abstract

We developed and tested a behavioral version of the Defining Issues Test-1 revised (DIT-1r), which is a measure of the development of moral judgment. We conducted a behavioral experiment using the behavioral Defining Issues Test (bDIT) to examine the relationship between participants’ moral developmental status, moral competence, and reaction time when making moral judgments. We found that when the judgments were made based on the preferred moral schema, the reaction time for moral judgments was significantly moderated by the moral developmental status. In addition, as a participant becomes more confident with moral judgment, the participant differentiates the preferred versus other schemas better particularly when the participant’s abilities for moral judgment are more developed.     

Value Changes in Kibbutz Society‐‐educational implications

Abstract

This article reports two studies‐‐a longitudinal investigation of moral judgement and reported moral experience, and an outcome study on the impact of a moral intervention project with adult undergraduate students. In the first study, 29 middle‐class, primarily white, well‐educated adults, ranging in age from 18 to 80 were administered Standard Form Moral Judgment interviews 4 years apart and were asked to describe their own moral events that had occurred. The average moral judgement score on the hypothetical dilemmas was Stage Four. The reasoning in the spontaneously reported moral events was significantly lower, although the two scores were highly correlated. Difference scores between the two were not related to dilemma scores. While there were no significant gender differences in scores on the hypothetical dilemmas, there were in scores on spontaneous‐reported events favouring males. The ethical quality of the reported events could be easily categorised by traditional moral‐philosophic categories. About half the events contained traditional deontic moral content (moral right); the other half contained material defined as the moral good. The context of most events was interpersonal, as opposed to societal. The second study investigated the reported impact on mostly white, middle‐and upper‐class undergraduate students who participated in a mentor programme in an inner‐city high school, a programme designed to impact both moral thinking and moral sentiments (motivation). Thirty‐nine adults, ranging in age from 20 to 57 participated, of which 26 were female and 13 were male. In both short‐ and long‐term follow‐up surveys, most participants reported major changes in their thinking about and motivation to address social justice issues.     

The role of elevation in moral judgment

ABSTRACT

Elevation is the emotion elicited by witnessing acts of moral beauty and may be framed as the opposite of disgust. Two studies investigated the role of elevation in moral judgment and its relation to disgust. In Study 1 it was investigated whether elevation can attenuate the effects of disgust on moral transgression judgments. Participants were either induced to experience disgust (by giving them a bitter beverage), or to experience disgust and elevation simultaneously (by video induction). No effects of either emotion on moral transgression judgments were found. In Study 2 the nature of causal connectedness between elevation and moral virtue judgments was investigated by testing whether elevation amplifies moral virtue judgments. It was found that participants judged morally good acts as being more morally good when being elevated, suggesting that there is a bidirectional causal link between elevation and judgments of moral virtue.     

Piaget,Moral Development and the Curriculum

Abstract

In The Moral Development of the Child Piaget proposes a sketch of a developmental account of moral judgments, and the sequence of stages which he there proposes have been widely taken to provide a basis for any adequate developmental account. However, if Piaget's work on cognitive development is taken as providing a standard by which to judge such theories it is doubtful that moral development can be accounted for through the use of the equilibrium concept. The very notion of ‘a moral judgment’ with which Piaget works imposes severe restrictions on the adequacy of the theory, leading him necessarily to ignore important issues. Furthermore, there seems to be no underpinning available to secure the necessary order of the stages, and as a matter of fact some children seem to show evidence of a capacity to make advanced moral judgments at an early age. It is argued, therefore, that the search for developmental structures of this kind should be abandoned.     

Moral Development Among Mildly Mentally Handicapped School Children

Abstract

According to the cognitive‐developmental theory, intellectual development is best understood in terms of age‐related changes. This has been found to be a valid theory in the case of mentally subnormal subjects as well, although their development proceeds at a speed and up to a level different from their normal age‐mates. The same theory has been applied to moral development and describes it, likewise, as a stage‐like progress of moral reasoning with age. The present study tries to answer the following question: Does the moral reasoning of the subjects classified as subnormal change with age so that it can be said to develop? According to the results obtained (dealing with subjects nine‐, 11‐, 13‐, 15‐ and 17‐years‐old), the cognitive‐developmental hypothesis of moral development is only partially confirmed. Namely, there is a development from the less to the more mature forms of moral reasoning, but the course of that development is not entirely such as the theory assumes. Moreover, moral reasoning of the subjects in this study is more advanced than their intelligence level as expressed by the IQ score.     

Evaluating Comparative Judgment as an Approach to Essay Scoring

ABSTRACT

As an alternative to rubric scoring, comparative judgment generates essay scores by aggregating decisions about the relative quality of the essays. Comparative judgment eliminates certain scorer biases and potentially reduces training requirements, thereby allowing a large number of judges, including teachers, to participate in essay evaluation. The purpose of this study was to assess the validity, labor costs, and efficiency of comparative judgments as a potential substitute for rubric scoring. An analysis of two essay prompts revealed that comparative judgment measures were comparable to rubric scores at a level similar to that expected of two professional scorers. The comparative judgment measures correlated slightly higher than rubric scores with a multiple-choice writing test. Score reliability exceeding .80 was achieved with approximately nine judgments per response. The average judgment time was 94 seconds, which compared favorably to 119 seconds per rubric score. Practical challenges to future implementation are discussed.     

Kohlberg and Piaget: Aspects of their Relationship in the Field of Moral Development

Abstract:

Kohlberg's system of moral judgment development has some important links with Piaget's work on moral judgment, though Piaget's work is not the only influence on Kohlberg's ideas. Piaget's system of moral growth is briefly examined, and the extent to which subsequent research has validated it, is noted, thus placing Kohlberg in a historical context. The ways in which Kohlberg extends or departs from Piaget's system of moral growth are examined. The concept of stages and the nature and processes of stage development are discussed, and in this context the relationship between Kohlberg's moral development and Piaget's cognitive development is examined. It is concluded on the basis both of logic and evidence that the relationship, although complex rather than isomorphic, is likely to hold considerable potential for future research.     

Human Rights Education through the ‘Facing History and Ourselves’ Program

Abstract

This study examined the effects of the Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO) human rights program on moral development and psychological functioning. The FHAO curriculum significantly increased 8th grade students’ moral reasoning (Rest's 1979 Defining Issues Test) without adversely impacting on their psychological well‐being (scores on depression, hopelessness or self‐worth inventories). Girls were more empathic and had higher levels of social interest; boys had higher global self‐worth scores; there were no differences between boys and girls in their moral reasoning scores and no gender differences in the psychological impact of the course. This study adds to the literature which suggests that human rights education positively affects students’ moral development.     

Stages of moral judgment development: Applying item response theory to Defining Issues Test data

ABSTRACT

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) has been the dominant measure of moral development. The DIT has its roots in Kohlberg’s original stage theory of moral judgment development and asks respondents to rank a set of stage typed statements in order of importance on six stories. However, the question to what extent the DIT-data match the underlying stage model was never addressed with a statistical model. Therefore, we applied item response theory (IRT) to a large data set (55,319 cases). We found that the ordering of the stages as extracted from the raw data fitted the ordering in the underlying stage model good. Furthermore, difficulty differences of stages across the stories were found and their magnitude and location were visualized. These findings are compatible with the notion of one latent moral developmental dimension and lend support to the hundreds of studies that have used the DIT-1 and by implication support the renewed DIT-2.     

Beyond Justice

Abstract

The central argument of this paper is that it is inconsistent to both morally educate children and to punish them. This is because the aims of punishment, according to the traditional theories, are, in the case of children, incompatible with the aims of moral education. Finally it is suggested that as no obvious general justification of the punishment of children is forthcoming, therefore the onus of justification must rest with those who, in a particular case, wish to punish children.     

Hypothetical Moral Situations

Abstract:

Hypothetical moral situations are often used by teachers and researchers in order to simulate real‐life moral problems. This article draws some logical distinctions between different types of moral conflict and the different types of question that can be asked about them. It is suggested that this approach must have serious limitations if it is assumed that there is a direct and straightforward connection between hypothetical and real‐life moral judgments, as the former necessarily lack the situational features of the latter.     

he Effects of Transgressors’ Affective Reactions on Children's Moral Judgments

Abstract

The present study investigated the degree to which transgressors’ affective reactions influence children's moral judgments. Eighteen children at each of three different grade levels (first‐, second‐, and third‐grade) were required to make judgments of the goodness or badness of four different transgressors.The transgressors acted out of good or bad intent, produced low or high levels of damage and displayed the affective reactions of happiness, sadness or neutrality because of the outcomes they produced.

Results showed that the transgressors’ affective reactions significantly influenced the children's moral judgments. More importantly, the children excluded intention information when they evaluated transgressors who displayed reactions of happiness. But, they did not exclude intentions when they evaluated transgressors who displayed reactions of sadness or neutrality. A number of hypotheses were offered to account for the means by which reactions of happiness block children's use of intent information.     

Counterfactual choices and moral judgments in children

When making moral judgments of past actions, adults often think counterfactually about what could have been done differently. Considerable evidence suggests that counterfactual thinking emerges around age 6, but it remains unknown how this development influences children's moral judgments. Across two studies, Australian children aged 4–9 (N = 236, 142 Females) were told stories about two characters who had a choice that led to a good or bad outcome, and two characters who had no choice over a good or bad outcome. Results showed that 4- and 5-year-olds’ moral judgments were influenced only by the actual outcome. From age 6, children's moral judgments were also influenced by the counterfactual choices that had been available to the characters.     

The Impact of Instructional Design on College Students’ Cognitive Load and Learning Outcomes in a Large Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

The effective design of course materials is critical for student learning, especially for large lecture introductory courses. This quantitative study was designed to explore the effect multimedia and content difficulty has on students’ cognitive load and learning outcomes. College students (n = 268) were randomized into 1 of 3 multimedia groups: text + graphics (Group 1–TG); audio + text + graphics (Group 2–ATG); or video + audio + text + graphics (Group 3–VATG). Participants answered a demographic survey and pretests before viewing 2 food science supplemental lecture materials (i.e., water mobility and amino acid structures) and completing the cognitive load instrument and post‐tests within a noncontrolled setting. Cognitive load scores were tabulated and compared using a 3 × 3 ANOVA and Tukey post hoc analysis across multimedia groups and food science supplemental lecture materials. Based on the post hoc, students in Group 1–TG had higher intrinsic cognitive load scores than Group 2–ATG (ANOVA, P < 0.05). Cognitive load and post‐test scores were tabulated and compared using a spearman correlation across groups. In Group 1–TG, students that reported less intrinsic cognitive load had higher post‐test scores. Also, students that reported more germane cognitive load had higher post‐test scores. In Groups 2–ATG and 3–VATG, students that reported less extraneous cognitive load had higher post‐test scores (ANOVA, P < 0.05).     

Psychological and Moral Development for Teacher Education

Abstract

After a brief discussion on the need for more effective teacher education programmes in the United States, the article presents a first attempt to link moral and psychological education with a teacher training curriculum. Employing a sample of pre‐service teachers, the course in educational psychology was redesigned to deliberately teach counselling techniques as a means of stimulating ego and moral development. The results indicate positive shifts on both the Loevinger test of ego development and Kohlberg post‐conventional moral maturity using the Rest, Defining Issues Test. The relation between teacher training and development is detailed. It is strongly suggested that teacher education should adopt a developmental framework for both goals and instructional strategies.     

An Interpretation of Principled Morality

Abstract

The commonly used notion of principled morality is interpreted philosophically and psychologically. Five sets of philosophical assumptions embedded in this notion are identified, dealing with the purpose of morality, the place of reason in morality, the autonomy of the moral agent, the autonomy of moral discourse and the nature of moral principles. An attempt is made to make these assumptions more meaningful to the non‐philosophical reader by offering a phenomenological account of how they might be reflected in the real processes of moral judgment. The interpretation emphasizes the dynamic nature of principled moral judgment.     

The Self‐concept as a Moral Control

Abstract:

Groups of twenty children, aged between 6 years, 7 months and 11 years, 3 months, attending either a traditional Catholic school or a Freinet school were compared on judgments involving moral concepts. Subjects in the two groups were matched for age, IQ, sex, school grade, religious affiliation, fathers’ occupational level, number of siblings and birth order. Moral conflict stories differed in the presence or absence of authority figures and peers, and were set either in the home or the school. Children attending the Freinet school exhibited the more advanced moral judgments for all stories combined. Stories involving peers only elicited more mature judgments than those involving authority figures. Freinet schools encourage democratic group self‐discipline and provide many and varied role‐taking opportunities. The results suggest that such practices accelerate moral development.