Those who implement character education initiatives intend for those initiatives to be effective in promoting the development of character. To maximize this likelihood, it is important to consider common problems of implementation and assessment. This article addresses four challenges to effective implementation: (a) what counts as evidence of…

In this article I provide an overview of the methodological issues involved in measuring constructs relevant to character development and education. I begin with a nontechnical overview of the 3 fundamental psychometric properties of measurement: reliability, validity, and equivalence. Developing and evaluating measures to ensure evidence of all 3…

The purpose of our article is to offer a set of core knowledge learning objectives for accounting ethics education. Using Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, we develop learning objectives in six content areas: codes of ethical conduct, corporate governance, the accounting profession, moral development, classical ethics theories, and…

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…

For the better part of the past 100 years, John Dewey, Ernest Boyer, and other higher education reform advocates have challenged universities to hold true to their civic roots and responsibilities by promoting teaching and scholarship in the context of the real world. In response, service-learning has evolved into a viable pedagogy to encourage…

The purpose of this article is to explain how a means/ends test can be adapted for the school environment. Public school officials can use a means/ends test to document an analysis of whether dress-code policies will be effective in diminishing risks to the health, safety, or morality of the school population. Elements of policy evaluation--ends,…

Describes a University of Glasgow (Scotland) Test for Ethical Sensitivity in Science (TESS) as a pen and paper measure for studying ethical sensitivity development in young adult students. Requires students to respond to an unstructured story where responses are scored on level of recognition of ethical issues. Evaluates overall study results.…

This monograph examines the assessment of moral development over the past half century. Recent renewed interest in the field has led to the creation of new techniques and to the refinement of existing methods. Unsolved problems in theory and in technical development provide challenges for researchers in the future. (LMO)

This paper discusses a cross-sectional study that assessed the moral development profiles of undergraduate pharmacy students (n=71) using Rest's Defining Issues Test. Analysis showed no significant difference in mean level of principled moral reasoning between first and fourth professional year undergraduate students. (GLR)

Project SHAL in St. Louis (Missouri) involved an attempt to reproduce effective schooling elements, as identified by research, in four inner-city schools, including one middle school (Stowe) and three K-5 schools (Hempstead, Arlington, and Laclede). The pilot project required the development of a replication model to track project implementation,…

The background, evaluation process, theories, and practical aspects of the Just Community High School in Cambridge, Masachusetts, are presented. The document is organized into four sections. Section 1 briefly discusses the components of a Just School: participatory democracy with teachers and students having equal rights, emphasis on conflict…

A number of issues concerning the evaluation of moral and civic education programs are discussed. Four program types are described: (1) rationalist, which involves a high cognitive knowledge of the law and legal processes; (2) actionist, in which students participate in out-of-class projects; (3) values clarification, in which students study,…

Recommends broadening the scope of evaluation in moral education. Argues that past research has relied too heavily on indirect evidence (for example, gains in moral reasoning) rather than changes in behavior. Recommends further emphasis on the relationships among self-control, social control, and moral education. (MJP)

Four experiential learning programs that are in the early stages of development are described. The report from the Consortium of the California State University and Colleges details the efforts of a traditional, decentralized system to introduce flexibility into the use of examinations for crediting prior learning. A description of a large,…