Endeavours to assess moral reasoning in education have largely been via established but less contemporary measures, with recent measures developed more than a decade ago. Together with the call to go beyond assessing cognitive constructs, and the intended learning outcomes of the Singapore Ministry of Education Character and Citizenship Education…

In this era of increased accountability, it is important to consider how student affairs researches and assesses the outcomes of efforts to increase moral competence. This article examines both qualitative and quantitative inquiry methods for measuring moral development. The authors review the instrumentation and methods typically used to measure…

Faculty tasked with revising the accounting curriculum to incorporate an ethics component may benefit from the experiences reported in the literature. We construct and describe a framework for the pedagogy of accounting ethics based upon extant literature. Our purpose is to present the cumulative contributions to the literature in a fashion that…

In an evening seminar held in the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) auditorium, Lisa Anderson-Shaw, Director of Clinical Ethics Consulting Service at the University of Illinois Medial Center, posed a scenario that inspired a thirty-minute discussion of contemporary bioethics, during which speaker and students untangled issues of patient…

While John Dewey's learning theory has been widely credited as the essential theoretical underpinnings of service learning, lesser attention has been paid to his concept of moral imagination regarding its immense potentials in nurturing college students' moral growth in service learning. This article explores Dewey's framework of moral imagination…

Argues that effective moral education must address roadblocks in moral thinking, not merely urging moral development forward. Examines Lawrence Kohlberg's moral stages as immoral judgement marked by bias and manipulation. Views the Defining Issues Test (DIT) as a useful glimpse into the nefarious, focused on ideological content and commitment.…

Reviews the Defining Issues Test studies (n=172) to investigate the moral development of undergraduate college students. Provides an organizational framework for analyzing educational contexts in higher education. Suggests that there are dramatic gains in moral judgment development and changes in moral reasoning during the college years. (CAJ)

Traces the history of Minnesota's approach to moral judgment research. Claims this history can be subdivided into four phases, each with a different goal and theoretical consideration. Concludes the Minnesota approach has been a progressive force in the field. Argues that this approach reaffirms Lawrence Kohlberg's view that moral judgments are…

Provides a critical appraisal of two significant contributions of the Minnesota approach to moral development. Describes one contribution as the componential model that describes the four psychological components underlying moral behavior. Identifies the second contribution as the conceptual and methodological reformulations known as the…

Findings from research studies that use the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a test of moral judgment development, are described. These findings are relevant to three major questions in higher education research: (1) the question of student outcomes (i.e., what does college experience do for and to people?); (2) the question of the relevance and…

Reviews the Defining Issues Test and Spheres of Control results of students involved in the pro-choice or pro-life movements. Rates participation of student involvement in on-campus activities. Reveals abortion activists more frequently endorsed moral issues and scored higher on sociopolitical issues. Discusses results based on relationships among…

Discusses the Defining Issues Test as an invaluable tool for research and practice in moral education. Explains that because such instruments are based upon previous developmental research, they are unsuitable for research on moral development. Argues that these measures stand in the way of generating new knowledge. (CAJ)

The document discusses the nature of moral judgment, reviews previous studies which link higher education to moral judgment, and presents results of a longitudinal study comparing college and non-college subjects. This project report from the Higher Education and Cognitive-Social Development Project at the University of Minnesota is presented in…

Discusses three core moral judgement ideas: (1) modern schema theory, (2) automatic decision-making frequency, and (3) implicit processes as the default mode of human information processing. Compares the Defining Issues Test (measures the beginnings of moral judgement) and the Lawrence Kohlberg Moral Judgement Interview (measures the highest level…

Draws on evidence from Alverno College's (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) longitudinal research to make the case that the Defining Issues Test (DIT) is best characterized as measuring growth in moral reasoning rather than a broader construct of moral development. Challenges current DIT theory, but is consistent with prevailing interpretations of growth on…