This article discusses the appropriateness to the high school curriculum of the content, methods, perspectives, and concepts of sociology. It interprets research on cognitive and moral development to suggest that curriculum should be designed to provide occasions and stimulation to those students who are ready or reaching for growth in…

The purpose of this study was to discover if there was a relationship in decisions made between adults and 11-year old students assumed to be at different levels of the formal operations stage in their responses to a situation calling for a moral judgment. (Author)

Explains the Kohlberg moral stages in moral development, discusses the aims of moral and civic education, then describes the continuing experimental work at the Harvard Center for Moral Education. (Author/DW)

Sixty subjects were identified from two grade levels (second and fifth), in elementary schools in Iowa and in Jordan. Cognitive and moral judgment tasks were administered to each subject. The cognitive tasks measured conservation, class inclusion, multiplicative classification, and spatial perception. The moral judgment tasks presented situations…

A values analysis course, developed to improve critical thinking, is described. Included in the report is an evaluation of the students' reaction to the class which revealed a general work-play conflict inherent in the course and in college life itself. (JMD)

Although differences exist between their developmental perspectives, the theories of Erik Erikson, with a psychoanalytic focus, and Piaget and Kohlberg, with a cognitive, structural view, are basically complementary, providing a powerful observation on human growth. Here their theories are used to reexamine the secondary curriculum and the…

In response to the previous article, Whitehurst defends his article on imitation; it is different from Beilin's structural terms, and significant because much is known about imitation. Zimmerman challenges Beilin's interpretation of Piaget's structural assumptions. Brody maintains that children's qualitative changes in moral reasoning are best…

Cross-lagged correlational analyses and multiple-regression analyses of the data collected in these two studies supports the causal model that, while intentionality and internality both emerge when a common cognitive construct develops, heightened internality also significantly enhances a child's ability to learn intentionality. (Author/JMB)

Findings indicate that advanced moral judgment and potentially radical political beliefs came together in mid-adolescence. (Author/AM)

Relevant positions by social scientists, psychologists, educators, philosophers, and other professionals regarding moral education are cited. Related topics (e.g., values, ethics, and altruism) are examined, while philosophical underpinnings of morality plus theories on moral development are mentioned. The author concludes that morality can only…

Research suggests children readily distinguish between moral wrongs and social norm violations. Moral concepts consistently focus on issues of justice and compassion regardless of religious belief. Moral education can be compatible with, and independent from, religious doctrine. Two principals for such education are suggested as useful for…

Consider the following important questions: Should values be transmitted or developed? As children grow up, what, if anything, should change in values acquisition? How important are locus of control issues in moral development? and Why might process versus product elements be crucial in the development of values? One key element missing in the…

Ethical development was investigated in a cross-cultural context by examining both the cognitive structure of ethical reasoning and the content of perceived moral norms in black Carib boys of British Honduras in the framework of stage theory. (Author/JM)

The cognitive-developmental theory of moral development of the handicapped--i.e., a stage-like progress of moral reasoning with age--is only partially confirmed. While there is a development from the less to the more mature forms of moral reasoning, that course of development is not entirely such as the theory assumes. (Author/RM)