This study investigated quantitative differences in commitment between three age groups of children toward eight societal components: self, home, neighborhood, school, religion, voluntary membership organization, state, and country. Participating in the study were 469 school-age students in 18 randomly selected classrooms in six randomly selected…

A year-long seminar for elementary teachers in analytic thinking for children (ATC) is offered at the School of Education at Texas Wesleyan College. ATC uses philosophy and logic to help children understand how they think and to improve their reasoning. Four guidelines are given: (1) Discuss the nature and function of authorities and arguments…

The five observational studies reported in this paper provide consistent and interlocking testimony for the view that moral events differ qualitatively from social conventional events, and that these two aspects of the social world are associated with qualitatively differing individual-environment interactions. Each of the five studies focuses on…

This paper discusses the positive influences of folk literature on children and the basis of its appeal to them. Sections focus on how traditional literature can be used to develop the child's language ability, critical thinking, value comprehension and sense of humor. The clear-cut structure, characters and language, and the brief and pointed…

The paper discusses literature which reports biological factors of criminal behavior and suggests how such biological characteristics might interact with the learning of moral behavior. The first three studies of predelinquent and prerecidivistic criminals measured autonomic nervous system responses to stress. Those who later became delinquent…

This book contains papers in revised form that were delivered during the Fordham University 1976 Institute on Moral Education. The eight papers are titled: (1) The Teacher as Moral Educator; (2) Ten Years as a Moral Educator in a Catholic School; (3) Moral Education at the College Level: A Blueprint; (4) Moral Education at the Elementary School…

Socrates' contention was that the sophist misconstrues the sphere of ethics. Although the sophist presents a systematized moral world, no experience is implied. This can be applied to the new professionalism in the teaching of ethics. Loosening the creative tension of perceived responsibility effectively closes down the real moral decision. The…

The document contains a paper on the cognitive-decision approach to moral/citizenship education and three critiques of the paper. The major paper characterizes cognitive decisionists, describes strengths and weaknesses of their approach, and assesses the extent to which empirical knowledge is available for the approach. Cognitive decisionists…

The first part of the paper presents a description of Piaget's theory of moral judgment and makes a case for the relationship between the theory and the phenomenological approach to self concept development. It is proposed that both the development of self concept and moral judgment are greatly influenced by the examples of and interaction with…

An overview is given of the Sierra Project, a developmental intervention designed and undertaken at the University of California, Irvine during 1974-75 to facilitate and study dimensions associated with character development in college students. The developmental status of resident freshmen was assessed and their growth and development over the…

This study examines the interactive roles of social, cultural, and cognitive developmental factors in determining children's moral and achievement judgments. A total of 1485 male and female Iranian children/students of diverse social background (ranging in age from 4-18) served as subjects. Subjects were asked to evaluate (reward/punishment) the…

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…

This teaching guide presents a description of the inquiry method as applied to the study of India. Some specific techniques are presented that might be employed to use India-related materials for secondary level Asian studies. The inquiry learning method is emphasized, in contrast to most materials on the study of India which offer a traditional,…

It is stated in the introduction that growing numbers of educators and researchers are concerned with how students develop values and they are examining strategies for values clarification. This monograph presents historical background and recent trends in value education. It discusses the values clarification approach and the cognitive…

Writing samples representing argumentation, exposition, narration, and description were gathered from 52 fourth-grade pupils. Significant differences were found among the four modes of writing and among high, medium, and low ability groups, for T-unit length and clauses per T-unit; lesser differences also were found for clause length.…