An interview taped in 1978 with Constance Kamii, a child development researcher who studied Piagetian theory at the University of Geneva, is presented in this document. When asked what teachers of young children should keep in mind, Dr. Kamii talked about teaching to the child's level and cautioned against dealing with symbolic materials, advising…

Piaget's and Kohlberg's interview and scoring methods for assessing moral judgment in children were empirically compared. Based on cognitive development and social learning theories, six hypotheses were tested on 139 elementary school children. After being interviewed, the children participated in a moral conduct task. Multiple linear regressions…

The study attempted to determine the effects of chronological age (CA), mental age (MA), IQ, sex, and the content of eight Aesop's Fables on the ability of 56 mentally handicapped children (26 boys, 30 girls; 7 to 18 years old) to interpret the stories' morals correctly. After reading the fables, which were chosen to illustrate the virtues of…

This book examines six models of moral education: rationale building, consideration, values clarification, value analysis, cognitive moral development, and social action. The public is demanding that schools become increasingly involved in moral education. More than two thirds of the respondents to 1975 and 1976 Gallup polls on education stated…

This paper reports findings on relationships between fifth graders' responses to school-specific moral issues and to Kohlbergian moral dilemmas; between their stage of moral reasoning and their moral conduct as rated by teachers; and between teachers' ratings of the children's moral behaviors in several specific areas and teachers' overall…

This study examined the relationship between moral reasoning and altruistic behavior in 120 boys, 4- to 11-years old. Subjects were administered Damon's Positive- Justice Interview, and were presented helping and sharing tasks under five behavioral conditions corresponding to Damon's justice levels. Findings supported cognitive- developmental…

This study investigates the moral development of thirty 5-year-old children in Montessori and traditional preschools. Data for the study were derived from five sources: an intelligence test; a perspective taking task; an altruism/helping task; an altruism/sharing task; and an interview for exploring moral reasoning. Two 30 to 45 minute sessions…

Using Quay's typology, three equal groups (n=12) of adolescent psychopathic, neurotic, and subcultural delinquent males and a matched nondelinquent control group were individually administered Kohlberg's structured moral dilemmas, two Piagetian tasks of cognitive development (pendulum and balance), and an adaption of Flavell's role-taking task.…

This study investigated social interactions and the development of social concepts in preschool children in terms of two conceptual domains, the moral and the societal. The former has to do with concepts of justice and fairness, the latter with social conventions, rules and social organization. Subjects were children 3 to 5 years of age enrolled…

Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development, when applied to theories of teaching composition, support any method or material that refers to the age and prior experience of the writer and the newness of the task the writer is attempting. Rhetorical development and maturation in the ability to write and argue persuasively are partly conceptual…

The author is concerned that teaching strategies based on the values clarification approach (VCA) and on Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development might be premature. The VCA has been adopted widely despite concerns about threats to privacy of participating students, infringement on rights of parents to shape their children's values, and…

The performance of 75 congenitally blind and 75 sighted subjects (6- to 18-years-old) was compared on 32 Piagetian measures of reasoning, moral judgment, and moral conduct. Among major findings were that blind Ss did not achieve the reasoning processes characteristic of concrete operational thought with the facility or completion that would be…

This paper describes the development of measures of young children's social thinking, particularly as applied to moral problems. The Kohlberg procedure of presenting problems and dilemmas to children was adopted, but the Kohlberg dilemmas were found to seem remote to children younger than 10 years of age, and incomprehensible to children younger…

This paper presents the position that concern for others is fundamentally a matter of cognitive definition of one's relationship to and responsibility for other human beings. Altruism changes as a function of an individual's overall level of cognitive-moral development. There are six forms of altruism, corresponding to Kohlberg's six sequential…

The study focused on the conflict between good and evil as it was portrayed in selected examples of fantasy and realistic fiction appropriate for children in the 8-to-12-year-old range. Newbery Award books from 1945 to 1972 and the Newbery Honor books from alternate years within the same period were analyzed. In addition, children's literature…