The contribution of various educators, including William Holmes McGuffey, in developing a character education-based curriculum in the United States is discussed. The role of teachers in moral education of students too is described.

Research has established that gifted children often develop deep sensitivities to world issues and injustices at an early age (Piechowski, 1997; Silverman, 1993). Once provided with information, they become more intensely interested in and concerned with current environmental problems (Clark, 1992; Cullingford, 1996). Although ecology is usually…

A review of recent educational and theoretical research reveals a consistent concern with at least three moral imperatives: (1) the importance of students' reflecting upon the events, situations, and circumstances in their own learning experiences or in those of others; (2) the importance of asking students to determine the most meaningful moral…

Understanding and finding solutions to today's social problems can begin with a grounding in the history of moral education. Piety and virtue were among the goals pursued by colonial and early American educators. In pursuing such goals, these educators sought to give their students' lives a sense of purpose. Establishing this sense, and…

Character education is a contentious and fractionated topic, yet one that has been revisited with stubborn persistence in the history of American education. To explore the complexity of the character-education debate, this theme issue presents interviews with three national figures. First, a broad perspective is provided by Theodore R. Sizer, who…

Noting that our culture has accepted some dangerous beliefs about raising children which is resulting in a generation of poorly educated, apathetic, and amoral children, this book discusses the moral development of children. Drawing on ground-breaking research and the author's years of work in schools, the book presents a program to reintroduce…

Failure to separate judicial reasoning (the application of rules) from legislative reasoning (the justification of rules) in earlier studies is claimed to invalidate most previous developmental research using moral dilemma interviews. Two studies used a novel method of scoring moral dilemma interviews that separates judicial from legislative…

Based on a participant observation study of a full-day kindergarten in a North Carolina public school in 1994, this report argues that instructional transitions or classroom rituals act as rites of passage enabling children to disengage from their home roles, transition to school roles, and assume the moral identity of the student role. Portal…

A study on moral development focused on the status passage from school to work. The paper-and-pencil form of the Moral Judgment Interview (an adaptation of Kohlberg's instrument by Gibbs and Widaman) was administered to young people aged 17-22 who had just finished schools and were starting as apprentices in insurance companies where they were…

This paper describes guiding principles of educational reform founded upon character education. The signatories of the declaration recognize the following precepts for character education: (1) Education in its fullest sense is inescapably a moral enterprise; (2) We strongly affirm parents as the primary moral educators of their children and…

Values education, moral development, critical thinking, and critical pedagogy are important educational concepts, each with its own philosophical and political background and educational practices. This paper reports on efforts to link elements from these different approaches to the secondary education curriculum. First, a model of "Teaching…

Current societal problems and increasing pressures on youth has prompted school systems to infuse values education into the curriculum. Information pertaining to the development and hierarchy of values in students is highly sought after. A random sample of 2,342 students in grades 4-12 were administered the Survey of Values addressing six domains:…

This article examines selected interactive behaviors and messages currently being communicated in the home and attempts to answer the question: To what extent does a child's response to social and moral incidents resemble or match the parent's response to the same situations? A set of episodes depicting social incidents involving children and…

Sex-linked differences were examined with respect to: (1) Kansas State University undergraduates' recollection of single experiences that they considered most important in their moral development; and (2) undergraduates' perceptions of the moral lessons learned as a result of those experiences. Although the 517 (244 males and 273 females) subjects…

This book identifies a method of moral thinking and moral decision making that is compatible with the methods of rigorous disciplinary scholarship. It demonstrates how a comprehensive program of values education may integrate effectively major components of learning in a manner that serves the purposes of human development. The book contributes to…