With nationwide concerns about the declines in youth voting turnout across the United States, increased attention has focused on schools to promote "civic education," a broad curricular approach aimed at facilitating students' development of key civic knowledge, skills, and behaviors. However, less is known about how civic education…

We present the results of a literature review of studies on teaching strategies for moral education in secondary schools (1995-2003). The majority of the studies focus on the "what" and "why", i.e. the objectives, of curriculum-oriented moral education. Attention to the instructional formats for enhancing the prosocial and moral development of…

Children's character or moral development, what the author refers to as ethical development, has been an important and controversial topic in schools for many years. Educators agree that it is vital to renew the emphasis on teaching for character development. Schools face an important challenge, doing their part in preparing children and youth to…

John Dewey's writing is explicit concerning the moral responsibilities of education in democracy. These moral dimensions provide a framework for identifying characteristics of good undergraduate education consistent with recent reports and the pedagogy of service learning. Articulation of these characteristics supports the value of service…

Character includes the emotional, intellectual and moral qualities of a person or group as the demonstration of these qualities in prosocial behavior. Character education is an inclusive term encompassing all aspects of how schools, related social institutions and parents can support the positive character development of children and adults.…

The purpose of this article is to present empirical evidence suggesting the potential benefits of systematically utilizing general education as the institutional foundation for an integrated, multidisciplinary learning environment expressly dedicated to the promotion of civic engagement. Recently, the authors conducted an assessment of student…

This paper provides an overview of research on community service in adolescence and outlines a theoretical approach that relates service participation to identity development. After building the case that the 1990s has been a period of increased interest in the prosocial effects of service participation among school-aged youth, this paper…