The contemporary influence on the study of child morality has come from the cognitive-stage theories of Jean Piaget, who skewed the focus on interpersonal communication away from the family to the peer play domain. Aside from this approach, there are two other psychological approaches to moral development: psychoanalytic theory and social learning…

The author argues that unless Kohlberg's theory of moral development can be demonstrated empirically, based on scientific evidence, his ensuing plan for a program of moral education amounts to no more than a systematic program of indoctrination. Kohlberg identifies the moral stage of a person by eliciting from a subject the reasons referred to in…

Investigated whether parents do imply different moral principles to children of different ages and whether there is a relationship between the type of moral reasoning that the parents imply and the level of moral reasoning used by the child. (SDH)

A simplified inquiry process, structured by the teacher to require students to make decisions leading to values clarification and/or self-evaluation, is provided. (DE)

The question of whether athletics, religion, and education are compatible is examined from a liberal arts perspective with Christianity as a reference point. In the recent past an ideal of U.S. college life was that the college seeks wholeness of mind, spirit, and body. In the classroom, knowledge is sought, while on the playing field, health,…

The first part of this two-part paper provides a general review of adult development and is premised on an understanding of andragogy. Andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn. It is based on the following four assumptions about adults: (1) as people mature they become less dependent and more self-directed; (2) experiences serve as…

To combat the problem of teenage pregnancy, public health clinics have made birth control counseling and free contraceptives available to minors and many public schools have implemented sex education programs. Despite the development and implementation of these programs, teenage sexual activity and pregnancy have increased. The increase in…

A study was conducted to examine young children's ideas about a psychology study in which they had participated, and to assess their perceptions about the voluntary nature of their participation. Subjects were 28 third-grade students and 28 fifth-grade students. Findings indicated that while no significant grade level differences existed in…

This volume presents materials related to a symposium that addressed adult faith development. Chapters 1 and 2 provide background information on this topic and an overview of the symposium. Chapter 3 contains the hypotheses paper by Charles Bruning and Kenneth Stokes that was the basic document of the symposium. It provides a review of the…

This a report from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Panel on Moral Education. Topics discussed include the following: (1) why moral education now; (2) morality and religion; (3) what is moral education; (4) moral education in the social context; (5) characteristics of the morally mature person; (6) the teacher as a…

Developmental differences in attitudes toward physically disabled individuals were measured with an instrument requiring spontaneous responding and utilizing a systematic scoring taxonomy. Additionally, relations between attitudes, moral judgment development, and belief in a just world were explored. Forty high school freshmen and 40 seniors as…

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative merits of two causal models in which moral reasoning, sex, and social class were used to predict classroom behavior problems. Model A implied that conduct problems would decline linearly as moral maturity increased. Model B implied that the lowest as well as the highest levels of moral maturity…

A questionnaire was administered to 70 children in two age groups who averaged either 5 years, 8 months, or 10 years, 7 months of age, for the purpose of documenting their understanding of legal process and courtroom procedure. Questions probed factual knowledge and social cognition and perception. Subjects were also asked about four moral…

Perry's theory of intellectual and ethical development of college students is briefly reviewed. This theory was based on work with Harvard University students, and addresses dualism, multiplicity, and relativism. In the first stage, a student sees the world in right-wrong, black-white terms, with no room in the thinking process for conditional or…

Developmental theories, especially the moral development theory of Lawrence Kohlberg, can enhance the teaching of adolescent literature. Expanding on J. Piaget's model of moral development, Kohlberg's model consists of three levels--preconventional, conventional, and postconventional--subdivided into six stages: (1) punishment and obedience, (2)…