Examined were the effects of story elements in teaching moral concepts to college freshmen and sophomores. The two story elements studied were (1) context (descriptions of observable circumstances and observable actions) and (2) substance (descriptions of the internal character, feelings, desires, and beliefs of the actor). A total of 59 students…

Research on moral development from a cognitive-developmental perspective has been undertaken predominantly with Western subjects and most often with males. To investigate variables associated with moral reasoning among Palestinian Arabs, 259 male and female university students between the ages of 18 and 26 completed Rest's Defining Issues Test…

This paper observes that Americans, although they broadly and vocally resist informational censorship in the schools even for children, waffle in their efforts to eliminate the powerful and sometimes offensive cultural artifacts of popular "teen culture" from school curriculums. Potent economic and political forces, however, conspire to…

Addressing the needs of students who choose careers in business, this annotated bibliography contains 30 references of articles and papers in the ERIC database dealing with ethics in business. Sources cited in the first section, "Business Instruction," deal with teaching ethics in business communication, business literature, and other areas of the…

This presentation: (1) outlines three educational approaches to moral development; (2) explains Piaget's stages of moral judgment; (3) reviews Piaget's ideas about the development of children's concepts of justice; and (4) discusses comments by contemporary educators concerning moral education and its implications. Outlined in Part I are character…

A total of 72 children from the second, fifth, and eighth grades participated in an investigation of relations between children's moral reasoning about actions considered obligatory and discretionary. Assessments were made of children's evaluations and corresponding justifications of stimuli depicting two helping situations in each of which one…

The following papers were presented at this meeting: (1) "The Moral Import of the Concept of Education" (Robert D. Heslep) Response: J. Gordon Chamberlin; (2) "Religion and Public Education: Formulating a Rational Legacy" (William F. Losito) Response: James W. Garrison; (3) "Using Scientific Logic To Reconcile Theism and Secular Humanism as…

Because public schools are designed to serve the widest range of interests and are committed to the ideal of democracy, teachers cannot afford to avoid teaching works or presenting ideas that offend some members of communities. Students need to learn the value of controversy and of the challenges posed by a text. Richard Wright's "Native Son" and…

An investigation of children's tendencies to infer planfulness from the behavior of other actors revealed systematic differences in the responses of kindergarten and second-grade children to questions about the motives, goals, and knowledge of story characters. Participating in the study were 13 boys and 13 girls attending public school (15…

Theories and studies of adult development are largely confined to adult male career development and ignore a moral or faith dimension of adult development. To determine the faith and moral dimension of adult couples, three hypotheses were examined, i.e.,: (1) religion is a significant dimension in their consciousness; (2) the family is integrally…

Making a promise involves a self-conscious, self-commitment to undertake an obligation in the future and involves a personal sense of control. To study promises and self-focused attention, 72 women completed measures of self-focused attention and locus of control, a questionnaire, and were asked to promise to return postcards. As predicted,…

This study argues that environmental problems occur because people decide to act in their world in ways harmful to it and to themselves. Such decisions occur because people are in some cases ignorant of the consequences of their choices for themselves and their environment. They are not aware of the alternatives open to them because they have…

At Ball State (Indiana) University, the moot court format's replication of real-world advocacy has been found far more conducive to teaching ethics and values than debate because it provides internal monitoring devices and instantaneous feedback. Of course, the main purpose of the moot court is to polish communication skills. Still, even with this…

This paper discusses leadership theories, leadership research issues that educational leaders must confront in the next decade, and leadership skills required for the future. The discussion of leadership theories begins with a review of McGregor's Theories X, Y, and Z and moves on to the qualities embodied in such heroic, charismatic, and…

Pragmatic and philosophical cases against codes of ethics for journalists and other mass media practitioners are proposed in this paper. After an examination of the First Amendment considerations related to media ethics, a distinction is made between moral philosophy and moralizing, and it is argued that most media codes tend to be moralistic in…