Those who implement character education initiatives intend for those initiatives to be effective in promoting the development of character. To maximize this likelihood, it is important to consider common problems of implementation and assessment. This article addresses four challenges to effective implementation: (a) what counts as evidence of…

In this article, I respond to Noel Card's "Methodological Issues in Measuring the Development of Character." I focus on the ways in which social scientific knowledge represents human constructions of the world and the implications of this stance for the measurement of character. Further, I consider how context influences those…

In this article I provide an overview of the methodological issues involved in measuring constructs relevant to character development and education. I begin with a nontechnical overview of the 3 fundamental psychometric properties of measurement: reliability, validity, and equivalence. Developing and evaluating measures to ensure evidence of all 3…

Moral development is viewed as a matter of progression in the cognitive reasoning and rationale underlying choices and judgments. Traditionally, retrospective reports of rationales have been used to measure moral development levels, resulting in unreliable information. Information Integration Theory attempts to assess individual differences in…

Research into the critical period of Chinese pupils' moral development is one of the most important parts in the field of moral psychological study. This paper reviews 20-year literature available on the critical period of pupils' moral development and its instruments to measure it. It also gives details of its inadequate research into pupils'…

Moral feeling, moral thinking and moral acting are aspects in Moral Education for Malaysian schools. Students are encouraged to practice what they learn within and outside the boundaries of the class room. In the year 2000, there were shift in assessing teaching and learning of Moral Education in which equal weightage were given to the…

A model for analyzing and comparing values education materials is presented. The model is based on other curriculum and evaluation models, such as those proposed by Morrissett and others (1969). The first section outlines five existing approaches to teaching values: inculcation, clarification, cognitive-developmental approach, analysis, and the…

A number of issues concerning the evaluation of moral and civic education programs are discussed. Four program types are described: (1) rationalist, which involves a high cognitive knowledge of the law and legal processes; (2) actionist, in which students participate in out-of-class projects; (3) values clarification, in which students study,…

These conference proceedings of the Association for Moral Education contain papers on the evaluation of moral development and of moral education programs at all levels. In section I, "Evaluating Moral Education Perspectives and Examples," models of moral development that have influenced theory and practice during the past ten years are…

Recommends broadening the scope of evaluation in moral education. Argues that past research has relied too heavily on indirect evidence (for example, gains in moral reasoning) rather than changes in behavior. Recommends further emphasis on the relationships among self-control, social control, and moral education. (MJP)