The problem of motivation is one of the most important in determining the driving mechanisms that force a person to learn, work, master something new. Motivation to work is one of the key elements of challenging yourself on the way to self-development. Motivation has deep psychological and moral roots and is a complex multifaceted phenomenon that…

Early childhood education (ECE) classroom quality has become increasingly important as the link between high quality early learning experiences and future success has become clear. However, the definition of ECE quality does not include indicators that address issues of culture, race, and ethnicity, that may be particularly relevant for our most…

The Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale (SECDS) is intended as a measure of social-emotional skills and character for elementary school-age children. This study investigated the measure's psychometric properties using data collected over 5 waves for a cohort of students followed from Grades 3 to 5 in 14 urban elementary schools (N…

The author purports the need to treat moral education as a serious academic subject and suggests ways educators can manage it in an intellectually defensible way. Ethical education must avoid indoctrination, yet it should not be a mere training in philosophical ethics. The domain of moral education should include four partially interdependent…

Aware that children conceive of different types of trust, a study examined 60 children's conception of trust. The subjects comprised three age groups: 6-7 years old, 8-9 years old, and 10-11 years old. Each subject was interviewed on the basis of three stories. The stories depicted a hypothesized violation of trust in a moral context (lying),…

Recent concern about citizenship education has resulted in the examination of how civic values are presented in the classroom. Using the 10 civic values from R. Freeman Butts'"The Revival of Civic Learning," two third grade classrooms and their teachers are observed, and the textbooks for reading, social studies, and health are examined…

This paper examines the place of morals and values in the early school in the North West Territories (1885-1905), and in Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905-1945). The purpose is to determine whether values and morals have always been a part of the goals and/or curricula of the Canadian public schools. Department of education annual reports, curriculum…

The Prosocial Attitude Blank (PAB) was designed to assess interpersonal values and ethical awareness of elementary school children. PAB was administered to 405 elementary students as one component of the evaluation of an intervention program designed to reduce interpersonal conflicts, increase literacy skills, and enhance children's ethical…

Brief descriptions of recent research in early childhood moral development and the author's own hypotheses about the relevance of moral development theory on early childhood classrooms and curricula are provided. The three recent research studies focus on young children's development of a capacity for empathy, social perspective, and sense of…

Communicating values is at the heart of education. Intertwined with the processes and procedures of schooling, a host of values are taught every day. Education, therefore, carries with it a social and moral imperative. If we are to help students avoid moral bankruptcy, we cannot have a value-neutral education. A basic feature of the social and…

This research report describes a study of Marquesas Islanders and how they interact with each other at different life stages from childhood, through youth and adulthood. Fieldwork for this study was conducted for a 10-month period on the island of 'Ua Pou, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia. A small community of about 200 people in a valley on…

Few researchers who study political socialization have examined the attitudes, values, and beliefs of low ability, at-risk students. This seems unfortunate if, as is often claimed, the goal of civic education is to deal with all students in such a way as to motivate them to play their part as informed and effective members of a modern democratic…

The current interest in values and social conventions stems mainly from an uneasy feeling about people whose behavior fails to live up to the social conventions that are upheld in society. Many people are calling for values and social conventions to be reasserted and education is expected to make an important contribution to this process.…

In this article, the author discusses the practical, theoretical, and empirical rationale for linking diversity with the central educational and civic mission of higher education. While these links may be obvious to some, oftentimes diversity and race issues are conspicuously absent from discussions about learning and civic education. This…

The role of the universities in economic and social development is merely one aspect of the contribution of education and knowledge to economic and social development. Economists fully realize that human resources development is a necessary condition for achieving economic and social progress. To economists the role of higher education in the…