The effect of personal orientations toward intergroup relations on moral reasoning

This article examined how the group membership of the person being judged influenced the level of moral reasoning. Nearly 200 ordinary Italians were given two measures of moral ingroup inclusiveness (the Bogardus social distance scale and a self-categorization measure) and the short form of Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT). The protagonists in the dilemmas were either Italian (ingroup member) or Romanian (outgroup member). Overall, the post-conventional score (P score) was related to higher inclusiveness. However, respondents with a narrow moral ingroup scored lower on post-conventional reasoning when the protagonists were Romanian (outgroup members) than when they were Italian. By contrast, those respondents with an inclusive moral ingroup obtained identical P scores on both types of dilemmas. Inclusiveness of the moral ingroup also mediated the relation of political affiliation and post-conventional reasoning.     

The impact of education level and type on moral reasoning

The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning when facing dilemmas has been widely acknowledged. In the context of the criticism levelled at the Irish higher education system for failing to fulfil the role of intellectual leader and moral critic within the public domain, this paper examines the impact of education level (both undergraduate and post-graduate) and type (arts or technical/profession-based) on moral reasoning using 311 Irish participants from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. An enhanced understanding of the impact of education on moral reasoning will facilitate the development of educational initiatives aimed at augmenting moral reasoning in higher-level students.     

Good and evil at school: Bullying and moral evaluation in early adolescence

We investigated how adolescents (sixth-graders, N = 357) morally evaluated hypothetical bullying and defending protagonists and whether these evaluations related to behavior in bullying as nominated by peers. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) resulted in four factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical bullies: Evil soul, Contempt, Cowardice, and Deviance, and five factors for the evaluation of the hypothetical defender: General admiration, Courage, Cool, Empathic care, and Fair justice. Corresponding scales were constructed. The findings showed that bullying positively correlated with evaluating the hypothetical bullies using Cowardice while victimization positively correlated with evaluating the hypothetical defender in terms of General admiration, Empathic care, and Fair justice. MANOVA for each of the two sets of the evaluative scales indicated that behavioral status (bully, victim, defender, or uninvolved) had a significant effect on the moral evaluation of hypothetical bullies, and no significant effect on the moral evaluation of the hypothetical defender.     

Taxing times: an educational intervention to enhance moral reasoning in tax

This paper outlines the development and implementation of an online educational intervention designed to enhance moral reasoning in higher level tax students. Before decisions are made about how to behave ethically, cognitive moral reasoning takes place. The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning has been widely acknowledged. The literature contends that moral reasoning might be enhanced through certain forms of intervention studies. An online educational intervention designed to enhance moral reasoning in tax was developed and empirically tested for effectiveness through the use of a pre- and post-test and focus group feedback gathered from students. Students' contributions to ethical discussions were analysed to determine their perceptions of salient issues concerning ethics in tax. This paper will inform future educators and researchers designing effective ethics interventions.     

Oppositional defiance,moral reasoning and moral value evaluation as predictors of self-reported juvenile delinquency

This study investigated the relationships among oppositional defiant attitudes, moral reasoning, moral value evaluation and self-reported delinquent behaviour in adolescents (N = 351, M_AGE = 13.8 years, SD_AGE = 1.1). Of particular interest were the moderating effects of age, educational environment and gender on the relationship between moral reasoning and delinquency. The results indicate that oppositional defiance was a strong positive correlate of delinquent behaviour, particularly in late adolescence. Furthermore, moral reasoning was modestly and negatively related to delinquency, but only for males. No moderating effects for educational environment were observed. Moreover, moral value evaluation was uncorrelated with delinquent behaviour when controlling for other sociomoral processes. These findings invite further research on the relationship between attitudes and behaviour, with respect to causal links and practical applications within behavioural interventions.     

Scaffolding computer-mediated discussion to enhance moral reasoning and argumentation quality in pre-service teachers

This study investigated the effect of scaffolding computer-mediated discussions to improve moral reasoning and argumentation quality in pre-service teachers. Participants of this study were 76 teaching education students at a Turkish university. They were divided into three groups: (1) a computer-supported argumentation group; (2) a computer-mediated discussion group; and (3) a control group. Participants in the computer-supported argumentation group were instructed in argumentation, and were provided with note starters and graphical argumentation tools. The computer-mediated discussion group, however, was engaged in unstructured interaction on the Moodle forum, a free popular learning management system having a threaded discussion forum. The control group did not receive any instruction and neither did they participate in any discussions. As for the results, the computer-supported argumentation group outperformed the control group, but not the computer-mediated discussion group on DIT score and argumentation quality. Thus, it was concluded that both giving instruction on argumentation and appropriately designing the interfaces of computer-mediated discussion environments can enhance argumentation quality in students’ writings and also their moral reasoning.     

Recovering the role of reasoning in moral education to address inequity and social justice

This article reasserts the centrality of reasoning as the focus for moral education. Attention to moral cognition must be extended to incorporate sociogenetic processes in moral growth. Moral education is not simply growth within the moral domain, but addresses capacities of students to engage in cross-domain coordination. Development beyond adolescence in moral thinking is in two forms: (1) the gradual application of morality in broader adult contexts, and (2) the result of social discourse and progressive readjustments at the individual and societal level of views of the morality of societal practices. Postconventional moral reasoning is not a rarified stage of moral cognition, but an orientation and set of discourse skills potentially available to all normally developing adult moral reasoners.     

Moral reasoning about school bullying in involved adolescents

The aim of the present study was to investigate how bullying incident participant roles and moral reasoning relate to each other in adolescents. To do so, we examined sociomoral judgments about hypothetical bullying incidents and moral disengagement in adolescents identified as bullies, defenders of the victim and passive bystanders. Six-hundred and twenty-six high school students (13- to 15-years-old) took part in this study and 131 were assigned a specific bullying incident participant role through peer nomination. Findings reveal that defenders of the victim show greater and more uniform moral sensibility than did both bullies and passive bystanders. Sociomoral reasoning helped differentiate between both bully subtypes (bully-leaders and bully-followers) and passive bystander beyond displaying greater moral disengagement than defenders did.     

Measuring development of environmental awareness and moral reasoning: A case-study of a civil engineering course

ABSTRACT

Environmental awareness and ethical moral reasoning are important aspects of the engineering profession. Yet, engineering programmes have been struggling to teach these topics and measure the effectiveness of these educational interventions. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of two independent measures of environmental awareness and moral reasoning. We conducted pre-and post-test in two groups (experimental and control). Our sample was 84 students in the control group and 152 students in the experimental group. Data were collected with a survey. Results suggest the instruments were effective in measuring changes in scores, although they presented some limitations. Based on our results, we discuss implications for education practice and policy.     

Self-regulated learning and executive function: exploring the relationships in a sample of adolescent males

This study investigated relationships between SRL and EF in a sample of 254 school-aged adolescent males. Two hypotheses were tested: that self-reported measures of SRL and EF are closely related and that as different aspects of EF mature during adolescence, the corresponding components of SRL should also improve, leading to an age-related increase in the correlation between EF and SRL. Two self-report instruments were used: the strategies for self-regulated learning survey (SSRLS) and the behavioural rating instrument of executive function (BRIEF). Strong correlations between the measures of EF and SRL were found, especially in areas associated with metacognitive processes. Correlations between EF and SRL were found, with weaker correlations between behavioural regulation and SRL were found to be weaker for the younger participants in the sample while the relationship between EF and SRL appears to grow stronger during the initial years of high school even though self-reported levels of EF along with motivation for SRL and important components of SRL such as goal setting and planning were found to decrease with age. Decreasing levels of motivation for learning during adolescence are speculated to moderate the deployment of SRL and EF in a school context.     

高校德育的文化观照

文化的本义是以文化民,其作用是对人自己的自然属性和本能行为进行自律和改造;高校学生思想道德素质的提高必须有文化素质的支撑。道德教育不是单纯的认知问题,没有情感体验和内心认同感的道德律令的作用是极其有限的。文化素质是成就道德人格的基础。“两课”教学、专业课教学以及学生的课余生活要有高雅文化的引入和渗透,让学生在人文灿烂的环境中受到良好的教育。     

Understanding the role of dispositional and situational threat sensitivity in our moral judgments

Previous research has identified different moral judgments in liberals and conservatives. While both care about harm/fairness (‘individualizing’ foundations), conservatives emphasize in-group/authority/purity (‘binding’ foundations) more than liberals. Thus, some argue that conservatives have a more complex morality. We suggest an alternative view—that consistent with conservatism as ‘motivated social cognition’, binding foundation activation satisfies psychological needs for social structure/security/certainty. Accordingly, we found that students who were dispositionally threat-sensitive showed stronger binding foundation activation, and that conservatives are more dispositionally threat-sensitive than liberals. We also found that in a heightened threat situation liberals (especially social liberals) showed increased binding foundation activation. These results support the view that the binding foundations function differently in our moral cognition than the individualizing foundations.     

道德发展认知理论对当前学生道德发展中知行矛盾冲突解决策略的启示

面对学生道德发展中知行脱离的问题,道德发展认知理论尤其是柯尔伯格的三水平六阶段以及在此基础提出的道德教育模式为解决此类问题起到了指导作用。柯尔伯格的道德发展三水平六阶段：前习俗水平,包括服从与惩罚道德定向阶段和工具定向阶段;习俗水平,好孩子道德定向阶段和维护权威与秩序的道德定向阶段;后习俗水平,包括社会契约的道德定向阶段和普遍原则道德定向阶段。两种道德教育模式：道德讨论模式和公正团体模式。     

Complicating moral messages through multimodal composition: wrestling with revenge and racism

This study is an exploratory analysis of the multimodal composition practices of adolescents and young adults in a free after-school drop-in programme called the Workshop, and the moral development opportunities afforded by these practices. Pasupathi and Wainryb’s [(2010). “Developing Moral Agency Through Narrative.” Human Development 53: 55–80. doi:10.1159/000288208] theory of narrative moral agency is invoked to interpret participants’ compositions. Through a process of multimodal design, participants illustrated the cognitive process of reconciling one’s moral beliefs with actions in the real world. Switching between modes of expression allowed the focal participants to showcase their nuanced moral positions on justice-related issues, such as complicating a desire for revenge with advocating for peace. The literary, technological, and performance opportunities of the Workshop serve as an example for how social, aesthetic, and moral goals can be achieved in classrooms and contribute to students’ moral agency.     

Taking the relational structure of fractions seriously: Relational reasoning predicts fraction knowledge in elementary school children

Understanding and using symbolic fractions in mathematics is critical for access to advanced STEM concepts. However, children and adults consistently struggle with fractions. Here, we take a novel perspective on symbolic fractions, considering them within the framework of relational structures in cognitive psychology, such as those studied in analogy research. We tested the hypothesis that relational reasoning ability is important for reasoning about fractions by examining the relation between scores on a domain-general test of relational reasoning (TORR Jr.) and a test of fraction knowledge consisting of various types of fraction problems in 194 s grade and 145 fifth grade students. We found that relational reasoning was a significant predictor of fractions knowledge, even when controlling for non-verbal IQ and fractions magnitude processing for both grades. The effects of relational reasoning also remained significant when controlling for overall mathematics knowledge and skill for second graders but was attenuated for fifth graders. These findings suggest that this important subdomain of mathematical cognition is integrally tied to relational reasoning and opens the possibility that instruction targeting relational reasoning may prove to be a viable avenue for improving children’s fractions skills.     

Longitudinal study of levels of moral reasoning of undergraduate students in an Irish university: the influence of contextual factors

This paper reports a longitudinal study of levels of moral reasoning in a convenience sample of Irish undergraduate university students, using the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2). The study was timely, as higher education institutions are becoming increasingly interested in the promotion of social capital and the development of the whole person. A total of 259 students completed the DIT2 at the beginning, mid-point and conclusion of their degree course. As with similar international studies, increases in levels of moral reasoning over time were statistically significant. However, Irish students' DIT2 scores were markedly lower than their international peers with 62% of graduating students at the pre-conventional and conventional stages. The paper suggests some context-related explanations for the under-performance of Irish students including the instrumentalist nature of Irish post-primary education, the prevailing culture of consensualism, authoritarianism and anti-intellectualism, the conflation of religious and moral education and the emphasis on economic outputs and contractual accountability.     

浅析道德判断中的认知与情绪归因

皮亚杰是首位系统研究儿童道德认知的心理学家,科尔伯格在继承皮亚杰研究的基础上,提出了道德判断的相关理论。他们的研究重点都集中在认知这一因素对道德判断的影响。近年来有研究者通过多项实验证明情绪在道德判断中同样发挥着重要的作用。     

Adolescent moral judgement: A study of UK secondary school pupils

Despite a recent world‐wide upsurge of academic interest in moral and character education, little is known about pupils’ character development in schools, especially in the UK context. The authors used a version of the Intermediate Concept Measure for Adolescents, involving dilemmas, to assess an important component of character—moral judgement—among 4053 pupils aged 14–15. Data were generated in 33 UK schools of varying types between February 2013 and June 2014. Results showed that compared with US samples, the pupils’ scores were, on average, low, suggestive of tendencies towards ‘self‐interest’, ‘not getting involved’ and ‘conformity/loyalty to friends’. Judgements varied by subscales assessing ‘action’ and ‘justification’ choices; pupils more successfully identified good actions than good justifications, but generally struggled more to successfully identify poor actions and poor justifications. Highest scores were for a dilemma emphasising ‘self‐discipline’ and lowest for ‘honesty’, with ‘courage’ in between. Overall average results were significantly and positively associated with being female, having (and practising) a religion and doing specific extra‐curricular activities. Differences in schools were also noted, although the kinds of school (e.g. public/private, religious/secular) were unrelated to student scores.     

The effects of IMPROVE on mathematical knowledge, mathematical reasoning and meta-cognition

The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of IMPROVE, a meta-cognitive instructional method, on students' mathematical knowledge, mathematical reasoning and meta-cognition. Participants were 81 students who studied a pre-college course in mathematical. Students were randomly assigned into one of two groups and groups were randomly assigned into one of two conditions: IMPROVE vs. traditional instruction (the control group). Both groups were exposed to the same learning materials, solved exactly the same mathematical problems, and were taught by the same experienced teacher. The IMPROVE students were explicitly trained to activate meta-cognitive processes during the solution of mathematical problems. The control group was exposed to traditional instruction with no explicit exposure to meta-cognitive training. Results indicate that the IMPROVE students significantly outperformed their counterparts on both mathematical knowledge and mathematical reasoning. In addition, the IMPORVE students attained significantly higher scores then the control group on the three measures of meta-cognition: (a) general knowledge of cognition; (b) regulation of general cognition; and (c) domain-specific meta-cognitive knowledge. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Neural correlates of moral sensitivity and moral judgment associated with brain circuitries of selfhood: A meta-analysis

The present study meta-analyzed 45 experiments with 959 subjects and 463 activation foci reported in 43 published articles that investigated the neural mechanism of moral functions by comparing neural activity between the moral task conditions and non-moral task conditions with the Activation Likelihood Estimation method. The present study examined the common activation foci of morality-related task conditions. In addition, the study compared the neural correlates of moral sensitivity with the neural correlates of moral judgment, which are the two functional components in the Neo-Kohlbergian model of moral functioning. The results showed that brain regions associated with the default mode network were significantly more active during morality-related task conditions than during non-morality task conditions. These brain regions were also commonly activated in both moral judgment and moral sensitivity task conditions. In contrast, the right temporoparietal junction and supramarginal gyrus were found to be more active only during conditions of moral judgment. These findings suggest that the neural correlates of moral sensitivity and moral judgment are perhaps commonly associated with brain circuitries of self-related psychological processes, but the neural correlates of those two functional components are distinguishable from each other.