Psychological research has revealed that there is a strong tendency for people to believe that they have a 'true self', and to believe that this true self is inherently morally good. This would seemingly be very good news for virtue theorists, since this may help to promote virtue development. While there are some obvious benefits to people having…

The development of children's lie-telling abilities is considered to be a social and cognitive milestone. While occasional lying is developmentally appropriate, the use of frequent, antisocial lies as a maladaptive problem-solving mechanism can indicate behaviour problems. Since lying is often considered a moral transgression, researchers should…

In this article, the author would like to address a challenge that is intensively discussed in Europe, namely the so-called dilemma of teaching values. How to win children, pupils, students or even citizens for values like tolerance, human rights or democracy without dogmatism without ignoring the free use of reason?

This article addresses a conflict that exists in many schools' discipline philosophies regarding exclusionary practices. School administrators are commissioned to, above all else, consider the safety and physical well-being of the child. This mindset might compel a leader to adopt a zero tolerance stance with students who engage in activities that…

This article introduces a special section on moral development. We claim that the field is now undergoing a resurgence of theoretical and methodological innovation after the eclipse of paradigmatic moral stage theory. Although research on prosocial development, moral emotions, and social domain theory has sustained interest in moral development,…

Imagine what a child can learn by slithering across the ground like a worm or snail! Children learn many things from their connections with beautiful living things such as flowers and rabbits. Many adults are surprised when young scientists identify with "yucky" animals and plants. A child who connects with creatures ranging from the cuddly to the…

This chapter argues that schooling neglects virtue through the dominant quest for right answers. This is not only intellectually disreputable in presuming the correctness of what is taught, but it undermines the development of necessary intellectual virtues, such as open-mindedness, impartiality, and accuracy in the school curriculum, and it fails…

At the heart of positive school climate are strong relationships. Schools with positive climates have students and staff who are caring, respectful, and committed to their communities, both their immediate communities (e.g., school and neighborhood) and the broader world. These practices become part of the fabric of the school, permeating day to…

Regrettably, accountability has largely come to mean suffering externally imposed consequences if results on simplistic, reductive measures of success are not met. Just as worrisome, this notion of accountability is internalized, deemed inevitable, and trivializes our understanding of moral accountability. This essay is an attempt to posit an…

In this paper, I suggest that one major effect of abuse and neglect is that children become less interested in other people, less able to care for others, and are thus less altruistic. I argue that the capacity to care for others ordinarily co-emerges with a swathe of other capacities such as the ability to understand other minds, to empathise, to…

Society is in turmoil that can be termed a moral crisis the result of dogmatic materialistic worldviews. A more holistic framework for moral development based on the tripartite theory that considers cognitive, affective and conative domains and capacities is presented along with some guiding principles as an answer to the needs of the modern…

Five international conferences were held during the 1990s by the Peace Education Commission, a semi-independent subgroup of the International Peace Research Association. The conferences were held in Groningen (The Netherlands), Firenze (Italy), Kyoto (Japan), Budapest (Hungary), and Valletta (Malta). This document is a brief commentary on the…

A New York camp's character education program is described. Implementing the program involves choosing which values to teach, making staff and campers aware of the program's importance, deciding where to teach the values, choosing and coaching the attributes that reflect each value, debriefing after activities, and keeping campers and staff…

Focuses on ways caregivers can promote the development of empathy in young children. Discusses the role of empathy in moral development, how empathy develops, and the influence of genetics and experience. Suggests that to promote development of empathy in children, teachers can model caring behaviors, name and interpret emotions, role play helpful…

Recounts that studies of adolescent conduct have found that exemplary and antisocial behavior can be predicted by the manner in which their moral concerns are integrated into their descriptions of self. Proposes a new method, "The Youth Charter," for promoting adolescent self-identification with a coherent set of moral standards. (DSK)