One of the most remarkable things about the human consciousness is that each of us has the capacity to observe our thoughts and feelings as they arise in our consciousness. Why shouldn?t cultivating this ability to observe one?s own mind in action,becoming more self aware or simply more "conscious" be one of the central purposes of education? Even…

School leaders who have advocated for controversial programs know the pitfalls. Among the most frustrating are individuals and groups who resist any change at all, those who are supportive but remain silent, and those (opponents and allies alike) who are so passionate in their position they seem unable to hear the views of others. Each group…

This paper addresses the issue of incorporating moral education in the English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) classroom in light of the increasing calls for having teachers take on a more pro-active role in the moral development of their students. The moral education model recommended in this study includes the development of…

Most moral psychologists have come to accept two types of moral reasoning: Kohlberg's "justice" and Gilligan's "care", but there still seem to be some unresolved issues. By analysing and comparing Kohlberg's statement on some theoretical issues with some of Gilligan's statements in an interview in April 2003, I will look at some key issues in the…

R.S. Peters coined the term "paradox of moral education". In this article, the author identifies two subordinate paradoxes: how habituated reason is psychologically possible and how heteronomously formed autonomy is morally/politically possible and justifiable. He sketches possible Aristotelian solutions of those paradoxes and argues that for…

4-H Youth Development is an educational movement founded to create opportunities for youth to understand their dependence on nature's resources and to value the fullest development of hand, head, and heart. It originated in the 1900s as "four-square education": educational development, fellowship development, physical development, and moral…

In his lectures published in 1902, George Still described 43 children in his clinical practice who had serious problems with sustained attention and self-regulation. George Still certainly did not use the current terminology for this disorder, but many historians of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have inferred that the children he…

Parental power assertion is traditionally studied in the behavioral domain--discipline triggered by the child's immediate misbehavior--but rarely in the cognitive domain--parent-child discussions of the child's past misbehavior. Maternal power assertion was observed in "do" and "don't" discipline contexts from 14 to 45 months and in the context of…

This article argues that William James's thinking in "The Varieties" and elsewhere contains the view that social institutions, such as religious congregations and schools, are mediators between the private and public spheres of life, and are necessary for transforming personal feelings, ideals and beliefs into moral action. The Exercises of St…

School behaviour policies in England have developed in recent years as a direct result of government policy attempting to address issues of poor behaviour in schools, against a background of wider social concerns about anti-social behaviour and loss of respect. Since the 1980s there has been an acceptance that earlier authority-based approaches…

The purpose of this report is to provide a brief background on the current status on values teaching, to describe the two values education approaches most frequently appearing in recent educational literature (values clarification and cognitive development), to discuss methods of initiating values programs, to furnish examples of how schools are…

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…

A review of recent educational and theoretical research reveals a consistent concern with at least three moral imperatives: (1) the importance of students' reflecting upon the events, situations, and circumstances in their own learning experiences or in those of others; (2) the importance of asking students to determine the most meaningful moral…

Understanding and finding solutions to today's social problems can begin with a grounding in the history of moral education. Piety and virtue were among the goals pursued by colonial and early American educators. In pursuing such goals, these educators sought to give their students' lives a sense of purpose. Establishing this sense, and…

Character education is a contentious and fractionated topic, yet one that has been revisited with stubborn persistence in the history of American education. To explore the complexity of the character-education debate, this theme issue presents interviews with three national figures. First, a broad perspective is provided by Theodore R. Sizer, who…