Students in a 12-week facilitative skills development course completed a measure of moral development before and after training and were rated for empathic understanding of client statements on an analog videotape and a counseling audiotape. Empathy ratings on the videotape and audiotape correlated significantly with moral development scores,…

Discusses the problem school systems have in selecting textbooks that do not offend special interest groups but still address pertinent, possibly controversial, issues. (JC)

Briefly states the stages of moral development in children (Damon 1977). Discusses ways in which children's literature dealing with social issues can help children reason about topics such as distributive justice. Identifies guidelines for related discussions and lists books and questions that stimulate discussion on sharing. (AS)

Teachers with relatively high scores on the Defining Issues Test of moral development, contrasted with teachers with relatively low scores, had a more democratic view of teacher and student roles, and saw rules as protecting the rights of individual students as well as the group's rights. (NH)

Holds that ethical inquiry, as a "craft," causes students in this area to be "apprentices," and the classroom a "community of inquiry" wherein the tools, methods, practices, and procedures of the craft are imparted. States that the generic procedures of reasoning, necessary for moral reasoning, should be taught within…

Examines Japan's Reitaku University (Chiba-ken, Japan) and its goal of producing students who have a good balance between technical intelligence and morality. Discusses in detail how the university uses foreign-language instruction, moral education coursework, and dormitory living experiences to further the students' moral education. (GEA)

Third and fourth graders (N=72) participated in psychoeducational interventions focused on feeling and feeling content, moral dilemmas and conflict resolution, or combination of both. Combination condition manifested significantly greater gains in moral development than did other conditions. All conditions as a whole exhibited significant gains in…

The autumn conference of the Vermont Council on the Humanities focused on discussions about Allan Bloom's book, "The Closing of the American Mind," and his call for Americans to return to fundamental questions of the nature of man and society. The Council also runs book discussion groups in local libraries. (MLW)

Emphasizes necessity of reconsideration of adolescent development, for these reasons: the view of childhood has changed; females have not been systematically studied; theories of cognitive development favor mathematical and scientific thinking over the humanities; and because the psychology of adolescence is anchored in separation and independence…

Examines responses of sixty preschool children interviewed on their understanding of war. Although the majority of children could not articulate details of the specific nature of war, they indicated that war was bad for morally relevant reasons. Implementations of the findings for preschool educators are discussed. (Author/DST)

The life of British feminist and pacifist Vera Brittain demonstrates that an attempt to understand the relationship between personal experience and political activities should take account of the following: (1) the centrality of political values in an individual's identity; (2) the individual's life stage and life history; and (3) the individual's…

Describes the use of an instructional unit utilizing Kohlberg's moral dilemmas to develop the moral judgment of black, urban, parochial school students. Highlights an additional project component which involved a 6-month staff development program on moral development. Assesses effects on teaching methods, children's mental processes, and behavior.…

In Holland moral education is defined as a process of actively exploring vital questions in which awareness and development of values giving direction to moral behavior are stressed. Moral education projects in Holland are described, teacher education in Dutch moral education is discussed, and Dutch and U.S. moral education are compared.…

Perry's scheme of intellectual and ethical development was examined for sex differences with respect to three areas of identity concern: occupational choice, interpersonal relationships, and sexual identity. Regression analyses revealed patterns in which male personality processes focused upon occupational issues while female processes focused…

Poses a series of reflective questions regarding the establishment of honest moral attitudes and activity in the classroom. Urges teachers to examine the motivation and methods behind their rules of order and honesty; how they reward honesty and punish cheating; and how they promote honesty and justice through their behavior. (DMM)