Philosophical pragmatists rarely receive credit for their contribution to virtue ethics. But perhaps they should. How did America's philosopher of democracy, John Dewey, and one of its most famous elder statesmen, Benjamin Franklin, advise troubled souls in search of moral improvement? According to James Campbell, Dewey and Franklin recommended…

Virtue ethics has been considered to be of utmost relevance in every aspect of education in terms of cultivating virtuous character in individuals. Moral education aims at the development of worthy moral character through the cultivation of virtues, values, attitudes, ethical conduct and habits. Eudemonic well-being suggests engaging in behaviours…

The purpose of this study is to explore the happiness principles and educational thoughts of Buddha and Laozi. The significance of the study is to provide the basic theories and the worthy resources of contemporary and future education, especially happiness education and moral education, for educational theorists and practitioners in the world. To…

Compared with children, adults are widely assumed to possess more mature moral understanding thus justifying deference to their moral authority and testimony. This paper examines philosophical discussions regarding this child-adult moral relation and its implications for moral education, particularly accounts suggesting that the moral status of…

Although whether a teacher of philosophical ethics should explicitly endorse any theory or position has been a topic of decades-long debate, there is little empirical analysis of the effects of instructor advocacy or neutrality on students' moral development. Our study represents a step toward closing that gap. Using a quasi-experimental design,…

If Neil Postman, were alive today, what would he say to Prensky, the originator of the term, "digital native", about the ways in which teachers should approach the wonders and perils of e-learning in their classrooms? As the Dean of a faculty of education which is devoted to both creating and critiquing a variety of digital teaching and…

Although Kohlberg has stated that his moral reasoning theory is a refinement of Jean Piaget's and John Dewey's approaches, some educators have concluded that Kohlberg has misinterpreted Dewey's approach. However, the statement that Kohlberg is not of the Deweyan tradition seems unfounded. Actually, a thorough examination shows that numerous…

Jim Fay and James Dobson are two of America's most visible, popular, and influential "experts" on the topics of parenting and discipline for children. Dobson is widely known for the "pro-family" political activism of Focus on The Family, the organization he founded and currently directs. He first made a name for himself as a…

The paper presents key features of Jean Piaget's theory of moral development, compares Piaget's theory with Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development and Sidney Simon's theory of values clarification, and evaluates the values clarification movement in light of Piaget's theoretical and practical conclusions. The focus is twofold: first, on…

Four theoretical approaches to moral/citizenship education are described and compared. Positive and negative aspects of the cognitive-decision, developmental, prosocial, and values approaches are discussed and ways of relating the four approaches to each other are suggested. The first approach, cognitive-decision, is distinctive for its…