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.     

The influence of moral reasoning on behavioral choices.

This study examined the ways in which exposure to moral reasoning statements affected the subsequent behavioral choices of 144 seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade boys at different stages of moral judgment. The subjects were divided among 4 experimental conditions, each of which attempted to isolate and relate behavioral choice and reasoning in specific ways. The presentation of reasoning had different effects on the behavioral choices of subjects at 2 different stages. The findings were considered in terms of their implications for developmental change as well as for a developmental analysis of the relationship between moral reasoning and moral behavior.     

Encouraging teacher development through embedding reflective practice in assessment

Learning to become a teacher is a developmental process, part of which is learning to become a reflective practitioner. The authors have implemented a structured approach to developing the habits of critical reflection, the purpose of which is to guide their university students (who are pre-service teachers) to progress through the stages of teacher development and to facilitate self-motivated professional growth. Their attempts to incorporate into these pre-service teachers' learning the ‘practice’ part of reflective practice have included the development of different kinds of practical and applied tasks. In turn, their attempts to incorporate the ‘reflective’ part of reflective practice have involved the embedding in assessment activities of different scaffolds for metacognitive reflection. Their innovative processes of embedding reflection in assessment have been guided by Dewey's and Schön's views of reflection, their own views of the teacher education process, and Brookfield's conception of ‘critical lenses’ which can be used as a scaffold to structure professional growth and development.     

中学生自我概念的结构与发展特点

通过对923名中学生的MSCS的测试,探讨我国中学生自我概念结构与发展特点.结果表明:中学生的自我概念是个多维度、阶层性结构;中学生自我概念水平偏低,自我概念发展呈U型分布;在身体自我、家庭自我上存在性别差异;城市中学生能力自我、情感自我水平高于农村学生;在自我概念所有维度上存在年级与区域的交互作用.     

Relational Analysis of College Science‐Major Students’ Epistemological Beliefs Toward Science and Conceptions of Learning Science

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest among educational researchers in exploring the relationships between learners’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of learning. This study was conducted to investigate these relationships particularly in the domain of science. The participants in this study included 407 Taiwanese college science‐major students. All of them responded to two major questionnaires, one assessing their scientific epistemological beliefs (SEBs) and the other one probing their conceptions of learning science (COLS). The SEB questionnaire included four factors: “certainty,” “source,” “development,” and “justification” of science knowledge. The COLS survey consisted of six factors in a hierarchical order, that is, learning science as “memorizing,” “preparing for tests,” “calculating and practicing,” “increasing one’s knowledge,” “application,” and “understanding and seeing in a new way.” The students’ confidence and interest toward learning science were also assessed by additional questionnaire items. Stepwise regression analyses, in general, showed coherence between students’ SEBs and their COLS, indicating that the sophistication of SEBs was consistent with less agreement with lower‐level COLS (such as “memorizing” and “preparing for tests”) as well as more agreement with higher‐level COLS (such as “understanding and seeing in a new way”). However, the SEB’s “justification” factor was positively related to almost all of COLS factors from the lower‐level to higher‐level. This study finally found that among all of the SEB and COLS factors, the “preparing for tests” factor in COLS was the solely significant variable for predicting students’ interest in science and confidence toward learning science.     

A vigilante serial killer as ethics educator? An exploration of Dexter as a tool for moral education in the professional domain

This study aims to inform the discussion over the proposed merit of morally ambiguous dramas as a tool in moral education in the professional domain, by providing insight into student groups’ moral evaluations of Dexter. In-depth interviews (N = 61) were conducted among a diverse sample of law and (developmental) psychology students. The results demonstrate differences in moral evaluations, according to the degree of ‘professional’ experience. Remarkably, law students follow the unlawful reasoning of vigilante killer Dexter instead of their own moral make-up; yet slowly develop a professional, strict procedural, point-of-view during their education. Conversely (developmental) psychology students ground moral evaluations instantly in professionalism, but proceed from an idealistic to a more realistic and nuanced point-of-view. To fully reach its potential as a launch pad for discussing professional predicaments, we recommend that Dexter is incorporated later in the curriculum after both student groups have had more experience in the field.     

Between a hard place and a hard place: A study of ethical dilemmas experienced by student teachers while on practicum

Assisting student teachers to understand the ethical nature of their work and developing the moral vocabulary to deal with ethical dilemmas of practice are vital components of initial teacher education. The study explores ethical dilemmas experienced by 100 student teachers in their final year of their teaching degrees while on practicum. The data examined were written reflective statements of each of the 100 students’ ethical dilemmas. The study found that, while some types of ethical dilemmas seem universal, a more situated theory of initial teacher education ethics is required to understand the particular sociocultural factors that inform the nature of teacher practice in context-specific environments. Our study highlights the need for preservice teacher education focusing on student teachers finding their own authentic ethical voice, through the examination of ethical dilemmas via critical thinking and the wider examination of the political, historical and social contexts that led to the dilemma. The dilemmas faced by the students were likely to be, in part, identifiable with fellow student teachers in other countries, but we argue that dilemmas are strongly contextualised. Our study is useful for educators working with student teachers in the practicum environment to instil confidence in student teachers to follow their own moral compass.     

Towards a Dynamic Systems Approach to moral development and moral education: a response to the JME Special Issue,September 2008

Abstract

This essay tells my story of using the moral orientations of justice and care to help me think about an incident of cheating in a seminar I taught. My story takes as a starting point the idea that teaching is a relational activity and that morality fundamentally concerns relations among people. These moral orientations gave me options to think about exploring, with my students, what it means to make moral choices in our everyday life. This narrative is about my own moral choice‐making in this dilemma and it reveals how using these psychological constructs helped me in my reflective practice of teaching. It also reveals the conflicts I faced in attempting to solve this dilemma and the questions and conflicts which still remain.     

The student–faculty interaction beyond the formal curriculum in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to identify and categorise factors that hinder Korean college student‐faculty interaction. Twenty‐one college students who had advising experience with faculty were interviewed. Concept mapping was used to collect, organise and interpret qualitative data through quantitative techniques. These factors were recorded on index cards, and 21 participants returned and sorted these statements into self‐defined, conceptually homogeneous categories. As a result, 45 common factors were elicited and reliably organised into four clusters, with hierarchical relationship with the faculty member (Cluster 1), time constraints (Cluster 2), doubt about (academic, personal and career) benefits of interaction (Cluster 3) and a lack of recognition of necessity (Cluster 4). According to the ratings, the most important cluster was ‘doubt about benefits of interaction’, and participants rated the ‘lack of recognition of necessity’ as the cluster most similar to their own experiences.     

Challenging Thoughts,Changing Minds: Preservice Teachers' Reflections on Their Experience Working in an Alternative School Setting

This study was designed to use critical reflective journaling practices to explore the experiences of preservice teachers working in a juvenile justice education program called the Reach Academy. Using a qualitative case study design, the researchers explored how 48 preservice teachers utilized critical reflective journaling to examine their own identities in relation to working in this unique school setting. Three major themes emerged from the reflective journal and interview data: (a) participants preconceived notions were challenged based on their positive interactions with Reach students, (b) preservice participants engaged in critical observation of the Reach Academy teachers and their interactions with students, and (c) participants' focus shifted from themselves to their students' needs. Findings suggest that preservice teachers reflective journaling process facilitated their ability to examine and reconsider their preconceived notions about working with students at the Reach Academy and in other diverse schooling settings.     

Knowing through reflective practice in higher education

This article explores the use of reflective practice statements as sources of data. Under certain conditions reflective practice statements can be interpreted as providing insight into the underlying mechanisms at work in organisations. The article presents an analysis of reflective practice statements produced by lecturers in higher education who have participated in a course for research supervisors. Reflective practice in higher education has not yet become institutionalised as a form of professional socialisation and the article argues that participants were actively engaged in meaning making. Such statements can be seen as productive of real insight. The data is analysed in terms of the craft skills involved in supervision, the contradictions of maintaining a sense of expertise in modern universities, the significance of emotion at work and in terms of institutional power relationships. The article concludes that properly contextualised reflective practice can produce knowledge of the mechanisms at work in the contemporary academy.     

师范生反思能力的培养

培养反思型教师是一个连续的过程。反思是师范生专业成长的起点,反思型教师的培养工作应前移至师范教育阶段。高师院校应加强对师范生反思能力的培养,指导师范生对个人原有教育观念和教育实践活动进行反思,使反思成为一种习惯,这对师范生终生职业生涯大有裨益。     

The effectiveness of propositional manipulation as a lecturing method in the statistics knowledge domain

The current experiment examined the potential effects of the method of propositional manipulation (MPM) as a lecturing method on motivation to learn and conceptual understanding of statistics. MPM aims to help students develop conceptual understanding by guiding them into self-explanation at two different stages: First, at the stage of propositions (statements referring to single statistical concepts and ideas), and subsequently, at the stage of more complex problems that comprise a set of relevant propositions. A total of 71 bachelor students in psychology who were preparing for the re-sit of their inferential statistics exam participated in one of two possible lectures. Topic, content, lecturer, and duration of both lectures were the same, and in both lectures five true/false hypotheses were presented. Students in the first lecture (control group) discussed interactively the truth or falsity of each hypothesis. In the second lecture (MPM group), this interactive discussion was structured by presenting a number of short open-ended questions along with each hypothesis. Conceptual understanding was measured by means of a twelve items multiple choice test. Further, the intrinsic motivation inventory was administered to examine motivation to learn. The results indicate that MPM does not lead to enhanced motivation to learn but can facilitate conceptual understanding development among students.     

The roles of reification and reflective abstraction in the development of abstract thought: Transitions from arithmetic to algebra

This study utilized a psychological constructivist perspective to examine the transitions that students make from arithmetic to algebra in the context of problems, that from the expert's perspective, involve the concept of linear inequality. Unstructured interviews were used to gather data that were used to develop an explanation concerning student understanding. Thirteen college students were interviewed individually and asked to solve nine related tasks. The interviews were videotaped and the protocols were analyzed to document student conceptions. Five case studies were used to develop and substantiate an explanation regarding students' transitions from arithmetic to algebra. Cifarelli's (1988) levels of reflective abstraction and Sfard and Linchevski's (1994) theory of reification provided a framework for this explanation. This paper discusses an integration of Cifarelli and Sfard's constructs. Students who completed a transition to algebra operated at higher levels of reflective abstraction than students who were unable to complete such a transition. Operating at higher levels of reflective abstraction enabled these students to consider concepts as both processes and abstract objects. Developing this ability was found to be critical in achieving a transition to using algebraic methods.     

A New "Stairway to Moral Heaven"? A systematic reconstruction of stages of moral thinking based on a Piagetian "logic" of cognitive development

One of the main deficiencies of the Kohlberg theory is that it has never lived up to the claim of being a structural developmental theory. First of all, it has never been shown, what specific problems arise at each stage and how these are resolved at the following one (integrating all lower stages). The present approach tries to fill this gap by starting from an elaborated developmental logic, which is then applied to the field of moral thinking. Thus, stages are (re)constructed successively out of one another. This procedure, however, yields a new taxonomy of moral stages, the "architecture" of which is expounded in some detail in the present paper. This new approach has important implications for moral education, especially as it allows for fine-tuned moral-cognitive stimulation (a feature which is discussed in comparison with received ways of fostering moral development). The article ends with a discussion of what the new "stairway" means for Kohlbergian theory.     

Examining the impact of prior academic achievement on moral reasoning development among college students: A growth curve analysis

Moral reasoning is concerned with making decisions regarding the appropriate course of action in particular situations and has been highlighted as a critical factor that may facilitate (or impede) the effectiveness of educational programs in promoting positive outcomes. This study examined the trajectories of moral reasoning as measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT2) for college students and to what extent there are intra-individual (within student) and inter-individual (between student) changes in moral reasoning during this developmental period. The results suggest that moral reasoning was best represented by a linear increase on the mean level and non-signi?cant variability across students. The relationship between moral reasoning and students’ prior academic attainment was also examined.     

小学低年级学生的道德学习

道德学习的本质是人满足道德需要的自主建构,核心是追求自我价值,即满足自尊的需要。个体道德学习的主体意识分为三个层级,道德学习的结构主要包括道德需要、价值分析、自我选择和道德实践等四个要素。这四个要素反映在小学低年级学生的道德学习中,就表现为独特的道德学习内容和方式。     

From the editor

It is argued that much of the ineffectiveness of schools in producing change is due to the educational psychologists’ moral relativity, identified with an “industrial psychologist”; model. Such relativity can result in defining educational aims in terms of “social adjustment,”; an approach that is said to have no empirical basis, or in terms of a “bag of virtues,”; an approach that is said to suffer from lack of agreement on what the virtues should be. A developmental‐philosophic strategy for defining aims of education is proposed as a solution. In this approach, the assumption is made that each later stage of moral development reflects a more adequate equilibration with the environment, and it therefore follows that what is at later stages is what ought to be. The universality of moral stages is documented and the stimulation of moral development in school and prison settings through a cognitive conflict procedure is illustrated.