Historically, higher education has been an institution charged with the moral development of youth. Moral problems in this country have resulted from a failure to respond to this need. Schools should provide formal instruction in ethics and morality, and faculty members and schools should demonstrate ethics in their conduct. (SW)

Lawrence Kohlberg thinks that Utilitarianism and Rawls' theory of justice are formal elaborations of different stages in the psychological development of moral reasoning. Also that there are psychological reasons to favor the stage of reasoning of which he thinks Rawls' theory is an elaboration. Attempts to show that Kohlberg has confused ethics…

With Kohlberg's six stages of moral development in mind, author shows how the characters and ethical framework of "Billy Budd" may be classified. In doing so he emphasizes that the deductive system of ethical thinking is seriously wanting in the exercise of justice. States that Kohlberg is attempting to bring about moral maturity by…

Attempts to provide serious insight into the role of the school administrator on the moral aspects of initiating or not initiating change in their school systems. States that generalizations about change coming from solid behavioral research can help to support ethically grounded administrator behavior. (Author/RK)

This study is a comparison of the value responses of a group of students studied in 1969 with similar data recently gathered from their 1975 counterparts. (SB)

Moral development can be fostered through the use of "moral dilemmas," activities in which the child is asked to suggest courses of action to help fictional characters with their moral problems. (MB)

This research focused on the modes of distributive justice employed by individuals differing in the maturity of their moral judgments. Distinctions were made between five modes of distribution response: self interest, parity, equity, social responsibility, and individual responsibility. (MS)

Some objections (EJ 156 226) to an earlier article of mine (EJ 123 711) concerning the use of hypothetical moral situations in moral education are first examined. It is then argued that to characterize morality as a wholly "public" or "private" affair is mistaken, as moral decision-making must involve a combination of both…

The moral judgments of three groups of children were compared: mildly educationally subnormal (ESN(M)) children who are also maladjusted, stable ESN(M) children, and stable children of approximately average intelligence. Results showed intelligence to be the determining factor. Intellectually less able children scored less well on a test of moral…

The authors apply many of the factors that appear to be important to the successful determination and adoption of clinical and developmental innovations in analyses of their own efforts to train professionals and paraprofessionals in the use of sociomoral reasoning developmental programs for the treatment and prevention of delinquency and serious…

Six years ago, students at Birch Meadow Elementary School (Reading, Massachusetts) were polite to adults, but callous and uncaring toward each other. Today, thanks to a "Just Community" approach modeled on Lawrence Kohlberg's philosophy, students feel a sense of school ownership and responsibility for their classmates. (MLH)

A theory of the assignment of moral responsibility and punishment for harm was tested with 5- to 11-year-old children. Results indicated sophisticated use of moral concepts from 5 years. Developmental trends suggested increasing sensitivity to these concepts, greater tolerance for harm doing, and more emphasis on restitution than punishment.…

Subsequent to participation in a cognitively based moral reasoning development program adolescents identified by teachers as aggressive and/or disruptive demonstrated advance in moral reasoning stage and improvement on several behavioral indexes, including behavior referrals, tardiness, academic performance, and police/court contacts. Follow-up…

Bases for recent allegations of sex bias in Kohlberg's theory of moral development are discussed, and studies comparing the development of moral reasoning across the sexes are reviewed. A meta-analysis supported the conclusion that the overall pattern is one of nonsignificant sex differences in moral reasoning. (Author/RH)