Turkish Preservice Science Teachers’ Informal Reasoning Regarding Socioscientific Issues and the Factors Influencing Their Informal Reasoning

The purpose of the study is to explore Turkish preservice science teachers’ informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues and the factors influencing their informal reasoning. The researchers engaged 39 preservice science teachers in informal reasoning interview and moral decision-making interview protocols. Of the seven socioscientific issues, three issues were related to gene therapy, another three were related to human cloning, and one was related to global warming. The data were analyzed using an interpretive qualitative research approach. The characteristic of informal reasoning was determined as multidimensional, and the patterns of informal reasoning emerged as rationalistic, emotive, and intuitive reasoning. The factors influencing informal reasoning were: personal experiences, social considerations, moral-ethical considerations, and technological concerns.     

WHY ARE NONPROTOTYICAL EVENTS So DIFFICULT, AND WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL-DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY?

The findings of Turiel, Hildebrandt, and Wainryb's study of reasoning and judgement on nonprototypical issues that seem to span domains are discussed. Opinions were obtained from high school and college students on 1-4 nonprototypical issues (abortion, pornography, homosexuality, and incest), and compared with judgments and reasoning on 2-3 moral issues (killing, rape, and theft), and 1-3 personal issues (nudity at a public beach, smoking marijuana, and men wearing makeup). Those evaluating the nonprototypical issues negatively were placed in 1 group, and those positively in another group. The goal was to determine how opposite positions on nonprototypical issues related to judgments and reasonings on moral and personal issues. 5 explanations are given for nonprototypical thought which are based on Turiel and the author's constructs. 1) Issues like abortion and pornography are of a type where moral principles clash and lead to different judgments, and thus, require higher level moral principles. 2) The greater cognitive complexity of these nonprototypical issues yields domain differences which are manifestations of a decalage in judgement. 3) Nonprototypical issues may be ambiguous as to their proper moral, conventional, or personal category. Judgments are predictable once the proper category is made. Categories may be complex or ambiguous. 4)Ambiguity involves rational determinism, where reasoning on nonprototypical issues derives from the reasoner's understanding and interpretation of the situation, "social construals." 5)Complexity involves different supraordinate structures within which , e.g., morality and social convention operate. The results indicate that judgments on nonprototypical issues could not be predicted on moral or personal positions. The importance of this finding about how group and individual differences cannot be explained is in its exploration of the limits of moral theory and the preeminent need to place moral theory in a broader and deeper supraordinate context. Discussion is directed to fundamental organization of moral and social thought within which a developmental progression must operate, and a more comprehensive approach to the development of social thought. The research defines morality in the context of universal, rational, and absolute thought, which appeals to the author.     

Moral reasoning patterns and influential factors in the context of environmental problems

This study investigated pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) moral reasoning patterns and the factors underlying these reasoning patterns. Local and non-local environmental dilemmas were used to examine moral reasoning patterns. An explanatory design was used with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, which was subsequently refined using qualitative interview data. For the quantitative part of the study, PSTs were asked to comment on four local and non-local environmental dilemmas (i.e. deforestation, e-waste, oil spills, and global warming). The responses were categorized as ecocentric, anthropocentric, or non-environmental reasoning. The findings showed that the participants’ moral reasoning focused on both ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives, with a few displaying non-environmental reasoning. Concern for environmental problems was related to perceptions of whether the issue was directly related to nature, and was independent of whether the issues were local or non-local. The Moral Decision Making Interview protocol was used in the qualitative part of the study. Analysis revealed that the participants’ moral decisions were based on their resolutions in situational context and their concerns showed variations in their moral reasoning due to different factors like, effect on human life, formal principles, notion of rights, moral emotions, potential harm to others, and popular culture.     

Development of the Physical Educators’ Judgments about Inclusion Instrument for Japanese Physical Education Majors and an Analysis of their Judgments

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Physical Educators’ Judgments about Inclusion (PEJI) survey for analysing the judgments of Japanese (361 male, 170 female) physical education teacher education majors. A secondary purpose was to examine group differences in judgments as a function of gender and past experiences. Data were collected and psychometrical properties of the PEJI were assessed using a maximum-likelihood extraction method. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in salient loadings for all items on three hypothesised dimensions, resulting in 47% explained variance for measuring judgments about: Inclusion versus Exclusion, Acceptance of Students with Disabilities, and Perceived Training Needs. Supported by the three interpretable factors that emerged, construct validity evidence is presented. Although most of the physical education teacher education majors sampled had yet to teach students with disabilities, they had formed preliminary judgments about doing so.     

Moral Reasoning and Homosexuality: The acceptability of arguments about lesbian and gay issues

In the political arena, lesbian and gay issues have been contested typically on grounds of human rights, but with variable success. Using a moral developmental framework, the purpose of this study was to explore preferences for different types of moral arguments when thinking about moral dilemmas around lesbian and gay issues. The analysis presented here comprised data collected from 545 students at UK universities who completed a questionnaire, part of which comprised a moral dilemma task. Findings of the study showed that respondents do not apply moral reasoning consistently, and do not (clearly) favour human rights reasoning when thinking about lesbian and gay issues. Respondents tended to favour reasoning supporting existing social structures and frameworks, therefore this study highlights the importance of structural change in effecting widespread attitude change in relation to lesbian and gay rights issues. The implications of the findings for moral education are also discussed.     

Patterns of informal reasoning in the context of socioscientific decision making

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a theoretical knowledge base through research by examining factors salient to science education reform and practice in the context of socioscientific issues. The study explores how individuals negotiate and resolve genetic engineering dilemmas. A qualitative approach was used to examine patterns of informal reasoning and the role of morality in these processes. Thirty college students participated individually in two semistructured interviews designed to explore their informal reasoning in response to six genetic engineering scenarios. Students demonstrated evidence of rationalistic, emotive, and intuitive forms of informal reasoning. Rationalistic informal reasoning described reason‐based considerations; emotive informal reasoning described care‐based considerations; and intuitive reasoning described considerations based on immediate reactions to the context of a scenario. Participants frequently relied on combinations of these reasoning patterns as they worked to resolve individual socioscientific scenarios. Most of the participants appreciated at least some of the moral implications of their decisions, and these considerations were typically interwoven within an overall pattern of informal reasoning. These results highlight the need to ensure that science classrooms are environments in which intuition and emotion in addition to reason are valued. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 112–138, 2005     

A social learning explanation of moral development

This paper presents a social learning explanation of moral development. From a social learning perspective, children abstract an array of generative rules which guide moral judgments and behaviors. Unfortunately, this social learning position has been misunderstood. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to clarify these misunderstandings and to discuss the educational implications of a social learning approach to moral development.     

The effects of instructional intervention on improving proportional,probabilistic, and correlational reasoning skills among undergraduate education majors

The main purpose of this study was to test the effect of instruction to improve the reasoning skills of undergraduates majoring in the field of education. The results of this investigation demonstrate the lack of proficiency in formal reasoning by undergraduate education majors in the areas of proportional, probabilistic, and correlational reasoning. However, after receiving three specifically planned interventions, students in the experimental group showed improvement in all three areas of reasoning (p ≤ 0.05). Also, it was noted that students with science and/or math in their backgrounds performed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) better in all three areas of reasoning on both pre‐ and post‐tests than did students with no science or math in their backgrounds. This study is among the first to show that background knowledge obtained from college level science and math courses correlates with better reasoning skills. Data from this study also demonstrated that interventions focusing on probability and proportionality improved the correlational reasoning skills of students. The results of this investigation indicate that deficiencies in reasoning abilities in the areas of proportionality, probability, and correlational reasoning can be successfully addressed even with limited classroom intervention. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 981–995, 2000     

Conversing on ethics,morality and education

In philosophical use, ‘ethics’ and ‘moral philosophy’ are more closely synonymous—one deriving from Greek, ethikē and the other from Latin moralis. In typical social science paradigms, there generally prevails a consensual sense of contemporary everyday use of ethics, except where earlier usage sustains discourse in terms of morals—as with moral psychology. This article takes a recent publication in this journal by Patrick Welch to propose a ‘conversation’ between theoretic and empirical approaches to ethics and morals. This is illustrated using works by Joseph Ratzinger to suggest a natural law approach that brings together premises and empirics in ethical and moral discourse and action. This kind of integration helps the discovery and owning of truth that is ‘not of one’s own making’. Such a synthetic approach is especially relevant to raising student identity with ethical/moral issues and in assisting their building of psychological structures and processes that support education in ethical/moral reasoning and action.     

Judging plagiarism: a problem of morality and convention

This paper considers the problem of plagiarism as an issue of morality. Outrage about student plagiarism in universities positions it as dishonesty and a transgression of standards. Despite this, there has been little work analysing the implications of positioning plagiarism as a moral matter in the making of judgments about plagiarism and academic dishonesty. This paper sets the scene by reviewing research about the characteristics of students who cheat and analysing student and lecturer differences. It then discusses perspectives from moral behaviour, moral philosophy and moral reasoning. The paper concludes that emotion and reason are brought to moral judgments, and so makes a case for those who are making judgments about plagiarism to reflect on whether they are faced with a matter of morality or convention. Greater awareness of the domains of convention and morality, the issues of justice and care, the roles of emotion and reason and what is involved in making judgments, will open ways of understanding reactions to plagiarism so that better ways to deal with accusations and make judgments can be developed.     

Vocational training and moral judgement: are there gender-specific traits among apprentices in commercial business?

Since Carol Gilligan (1982) presented her conception of “two morals”, several empirical studies have been carried out to verify her assumption that the moral reasoning of men and women generally follows different principles. These research findings led to an examination of gender-specific traits in a sample of insurance apprentices. The data suggest that Gilligan’s assumption cannot be upheld although the detailed analysis of moral reasoning and the conditions of its development seem to be gender-biased. Gender differences in moral judgments should not be dealt with as a matter of the quality of moral reasoning (“different voice-hypothesis”), but rather as a matter of perceiving social role concepts in a deciding situation (“different role-hypothesis”). Thus, the intra- and interpersonal differences in moral judgment found in this study might not be explained by the internal structure of “moral competence” alone. To a certain extent they are also caused by the interaction among the social situation, the individual’s personal and moral self, and moral competence.     

关于加强高师续本科学生思想道德教育的思考

高师续本科是指在师专的基础上通过培训 ,为基础教育培养德育合格和学历合格的人才。为此 ,必须加强思想道德教育 ,并把它放在学校工作的首位 ,在实践中不断探索思想道德教育的方法 ,解决当前思想道德教育在学校中存在的不足     

Exploring the use of Web 2.0 technology to promote moral and psychosocial development: Can YouTube work?

This paper explores the use of the video sharing site, YouTube, as a platform for enhancing moral and psychosocial development through increased awareness of moral values and models of moral behavior. The research involved a qualitative design whereby video snippets illustrating moral issues were identified from YouTube. These video snippets were analyzed in terms of their viewership, the moral dilemma and the levels of moral judgment that they presented. The comments made by viewers in response to the video contents were then captured and their contents analyzed for evidence of moral reasoning and ego (psychosocial) development. The findings showed that the video sharing websites such as YouTube offered opportunities for moral issues to be featured, shared and discussed at a global level, as well as moral judgments and ego development to be made evident through viewers' comments. From an educational viewpoint, it also paves the way for the use of appropriate video footage for promoting moral values and moral development.     

Elementary Pre-Service Teacher Perceptions of the Greenhouse Effect

Environmental issues are an important topic both in national news, and in science education. Previous studies revealed that students hold many misconceptions relating to such issues as global warming, ozone depletion, and acid rain. This article expands on earlier work by Boyes et al. to examine pre-service teachers' views about these issues, especially global warming and the related term, the greenhouse effect, and the effect of their views on elementary student performance. Results support the findings of Boyes et al. that elementary education majors hold many misconceptions about these environmental issues, and these can effect their teaching of these topics in elementary classes.     

Disciplinary Categories, Majors, and Undergraduate Academic Experiences: Rethinking Bok’s “Underachieving Colleges” Thesis

Using data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, we show that study time and academic conscientiousness were lower among students in humanities and social science majors than among students in science and engineering majors. Analytical and critical thinking experiences were no more evident among humanities and social sciences majors than among science and engineering majors. All three academically beneficial experiences were, however, strongly related to participation in class and interaction with instructors, and participation was more common among humanities and social sciences students than among science and engineering students. Bok’s (Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006) influential discussion of “underachievement’ in undergraduate education focused on institutional performance. Our findings indicate that future discussions should take into account differences among disciplinary categories and majors as well.     

Developing Character and Values for Global Citizens: Analysis of pre-service science teachers’ moral reasoning on socioscientific issues

Character and values are the essential driving forces that serve as general guides or points of reference for individuals to support decision-making and to act responsibly about global socioscientific issues (SSIs). Based on this assumption, we investigated to what extent pre-service science teachers (PSTs) of South Korea possess character and values as global citizens; these values include ecological worldview, socioscientific accountability, and social and moral compassion. Eighteen PSTs participated in the SSI programs focusing on developing character and values through dialogical and reflective processes. SSIs were centered on the use of nuclear power generation, climate change, and embryonic stem cell research. The results indicated that PSTs showed three key elements of character and values, but failed to apply consistent moral principles on the issues and demonstrated limited global perspectives. While they tended to approach the issues with emotion and sympathy, they nonetheless failed to perceive themselves as major moral agents who are able to actively resolve large-scale societal issues. This study also suggests that the SSI programs can facilitate socioscientific reasoning to include abilities such as recognition of the complexity of SSIs, examine issues from multiple perspectives, and exhibit skepticism about information.     

Children's Social Reasoning in Context: Reply to Gabennesch

Children's social reasoning is multifaceted. Moral judgments of justice, welfare, and rights are an important aspect of domains of social reasoning that are not merely the arbitrary and relative products of social formations. In defining all social formations as conventions that are either reified or accurately perceived as arbitrary and relative human inventions, Gabennesch relegates the moral concepts of many philosophers, moral leaders, and laypersons to ethnocentrism and reification. In the process, he fails to distinguish between metaethics relating to the source of knowledge and the form of knowledge. He also fails to account for distinctions between conventionality and moral concepts that do not constitute realism or reification. His review of the evidence of moral realism in children is selective in that isolated findings are taken out of the context of a particular study and of the entire body of evidence. Moreover, he has incorrectly interpreted many of the findings he cites in support of childhood realism. We present a summary of 48 studies demonstrating that children distinguish morality and convention. Gabennesch's perceptual metaphors hinge on an exaggerated role for conventionality in social formations at the expense of other complex social phenomena.     

Improving moral reasoning among college students: a game-based learning approach

Considering a company’s limited time and resources, an effective training method that improves employees’ ability to make ethical decision is needed. Based on social cognitive theory, this study proposes that employing games in an ethics training program can help improve moral reasoning through actively engaging learners. The experimental design with an ethic board game as the experimental group and ethics instructions as the comparison group was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a game-based ethic training method on improving moral reasoning. Results show that using games in an ethics training program significantly decreases respondents’ importance rating on issues associated with lower stages of an individual’s cognitive moral development (CMD) and increases their importance rating on issues associated with the highest stage of CMD. In addition, a game-based ethics training program was found to produce significantly greater change on the importance rating towards issues associated with the middle stage of CMD than a non-game based ethics training program. These findings suggest that a game-based ethics training program could effectively develop moral reasoning, and shape moral views better than a non-game-based training program. Discussions and suggestions for future research were included to conclude this study.     

Reasoning about science-related uncertain issues and epistemological perspectives among children

In order to fulfill social responsibility, one of the goals in science education is to equip students with the competence of scientific reasoning. Nevertheless, psychological studies have found that people in general do not have adequate ability to make scientific arguments in everyday situations. Later studies found that the inadequate ability was associated with the development of personal epistemology. However, the conclusion is drawn mostly from research with adults or adolescents. This study attempted to examine the relation between scientific reasoning in informal contexts and the epistemological perspectives demonstrated by elementary school pupils. Participants of the study were 62 sixth graders who were interviewed to criticize two science-related uncertain issues. Content analysis showed that most children had developed the absolutist form of personal epistemology. Chi-square analyses suggested that the more multiplist view toward the certainty of knowledge and the process of knowing, the better coordination of theory and evidence as well as reflective reasoning. In addition, children’s beliefs about the certainty of knowledge, source of knowledge and concept of justification were seemingly consistent across different issues. Nevertheless, content analysis showed that the criteria used to make judgments varied with problem contexts.