The goal of this study was to investigate children's descriptions and evaluations of their reasons for leaving others out of a peer group. A total of 84 children (divided into 7-, 11-, and 17-year-old age groups) provided a narrative account of a time they excluded a peer and were subsequently asked to evaluate their reasons for exclusion. With…

This study investigated 202 elementary school children's judgements and reasoning about transgressions when school rules regulating these transgressions have been removed in hypothetical school situations. As expected, moral transgressions were judged as more wrong and less accepted than structuring, protecting and etiquette transgressions. In…

Offers a rebuttal to Giyoo Hatano's commentary on a study on sociomoral development in the kindergarten classroom. It is suggested that the danger in restricting evaluation to stated goals is that unintended negative effects will not be recognized. (LB)

General issues raised by Gersten in his commentary on DeVries' article are discussed. These include the role of error, academic content, and direct instruction in constructivist education. His criticisms of sociomoral research by DeVries and others are emphatically refuted. (LB)

The observational study of effective instructional processes in kindergarten by DeVries and others is critiqued. It is maintained that (1) the study takes a narrow approach to constructivism that does not reflect current thinking; (2) there are flaws in the coding system used; and (3) the understanding of instructional issues involving minority…