The moral role of the teacher has long been recognised and this has implications for the selection and education of student teachers. There is growing recognition of the importance of teachers' capacity to make sound moral judgements and of the influence of teachers' levels of moral reasoning on their professional practice. The paper presents the…

This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to enhance ethical evaluation literature. The tool consists of two subscales named "Bases of ethical evaluation," and "Grounds of ethical evaluation." In order to determine the factor structure of the scales, both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were…

Many higher education studies have examined linear relationships between student experiences and outcomes, but this assumption may be questionable. In two notable examples previous research that assumed a linear relationship reached different substantive conclusions and implications than did research that explored non-linear associations among the…

This study investigated the effect of scaffolding computer-mediated discussions to improve moral reasoning and argumentation quality in pre-service teachers. Participants of this study were 76 teaching education students at a Turkish university. They were divided into three groups: (1) a computer-supported argumentation group; (2) a…

In addition to having academic knowledge and clinical skills, health professionals need to be caring, ethical practitioners able to understand the emotional concerns of their patients and to effect change. The purpose of this study was to determine whether emotional-social intelligence, caring, leadership and moral judgment of health science…

This research examines the effects of an off-campus service learning program on the moral reasoning development of college students. A pre-post quasi-experimental design was employed with two groups of college students (aged 18-22), one that engaged in service learning and the other which did not. The intervention was an eight-week summer service…

The present study aims to examine the similarities and differences between Vietnamese intellectually gifted adolescents and their age-peers not identified as gifted in the adoption of traditional Confucian values and related levels of moral reasoning. In this study, 354 high school students (180 intellectually gifted adolescents and 174 students…

Teachers tasked with developing moral character in future physicians face an array of pedagogic challenges, among them identifying tools to measure progress in instilling the requisite skill set. One validated instrument for assessing moral judgment is the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Based on the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, the test's main…

The goal of this study was to investigate how moral development changes over time for teacher education master's students during their year-long internship. Data on the Defining Issues Test-2 was collected at three points in time during the full-year teaching internships (beginning, end of first semester, and end of second semester). These…

This research examined the influence of undergraduate degree and ethics education on the moral reasoning of social workers. Statistical analyses found MSW social workers with liberal arts undergraduate degrees more likely to prefer postconventional levels of moral reasoning, defined as greater complexity of thought and principled reasoning. The…

The purpose of the study was to determine comparability of an online version to the original paper-pencil version of Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2). This study employed methods from both Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). Findings from CTT analyses supported the reliability and discriminant validity of both versions.…