Gains in moral judgement, as measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), correlate strongly with advancing education. Curricula that are strongly biblically based may not promote, and students with a strong fundamentalist orientation may not demonstrate, such moral growth. Students at an interdenominational, but very conservative seminary,…

This article, based on field research, considers how an adolescent graduate of a New York Jewish day school constructs his moral identity now that he is in the larger setting of a large public high school in metropolitan New York. Jeffrey Schochet (a pseudonym), the subject of this article, wrestles with moral issues throughout his school day,…

Reviews the Defining Issues Test and Spheres of Control results of students involved in the pro-choice or pro-life movements. Rates participation of student involvement in on-campus activities. Reveals abortion activists more frequently endorsed moral issues and scored higher on sociopolitical issues. Discusses results based on relationships among…

Suggests that sanctions based on emotional well-being or self-esteem are insufficient for motivating moral behavior and ultimately are reduced to hedonism. Argues this is also the case in the hypothetical event that all moral action results in heightened self-esteem and all immoral actions results in lower self-esteem. (CAJ)

Both diversity and autonomy liberals agree that adults have the right to exit from voluntary associations. As children do not have this right, the paradoxical character of the upbringing of children in fundamentalist and ultra-orthodox communities is evident. Diversity liberals like Galston and Spinner-Halev seem to take an ambivalent position…

The present study investigates whether epistemic cognition in moral domain (dubbed "metaethical cognition") develops analogously to epistemic reasoning regarding empirical knowledge. The study's conceptual framework distinguishes two main areas of metaethical cognition (beliefs about the nature of moral judgments and conceptions of the process of…

The new independent Christian schools developed by parents and evangelical churches in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s remain controversial among both Christian and secular educators. In response to this controversy, the present study traced 106 men who had graduated from these schools between 1985 and 2003 and analysed their evaluation of…

This guide is designed to teach foster parents, direct care providers, and house parents how to help children develop interpersonal relationship skills. The book focuses on developing the whole child through intellectual, psychological, and moral development. Specific techniques for creating a nurturing environment for children are discussed, as…

Much research has been done on critical thinking and on moral reasoning, but little has been conducted or reported on the relationship between the two. Since these two abilities are of current concern at all levels of education and since students are supposed to develop the ability to think analytically and behave ethically, it seems that some…

This paper addresses the pros and cons educators may encounter if they are involved in a character education program. Those supporting a character education program offer the following reasons: (1) decline of a traditional family structure; (2) erosion of the values system of key institutions; (3) the position of schools as the second most…

The notion of "Personal Writing" has come under sustained attack from several different directions and for a variety of reasons, yet it is a concept that still retains usefulness for writing instructors. One problem with personal writing is that frequently students do not like it or feel it invades their privacy, despite the traditional…

As Martha Nussbaum argues, narratives, and especially novels, provide a way of reflecting on what it means to live well morally, and the emotional responses that stories evoke are crucial to the ability to formulate complex moral judgments. An important aspect of the moral nature of literature is the reader's "empathetic imagination," or…

This paper discusses a theory of the formation of social stereotyping and prejudice in children. This intergroup-developmental theory of prejudice has three primary goals: to account for the development of stereotyping and prejudice across multiple domains; to provide a developmental account of social stereotyping, outlining how developmental…

Although Kohlberg and others have proposed that various social psychological and cultural factors may influence a person's level of moral reasoning, most work in this area has been conducted among relatively well educated persons in so called advanced societies. These two studies investigated stages of reasoning about moral dilemmas among…

Social scientists and educators who favor the developmental approach to values acquisition focus on the individual and his or her own psychological growth as the means to acquiring a healthy set of values. On the other hand, those who favor the transmission approach to values acquisition focus on the instillation of societal and group norms in the…