Many educators agree that they must be concerned with standards of conduct, referred to by some as character education and by others as moral education. However, schools should not and cannot bear the entire responsibility. The responsibility should be shared by many, among them the families, private and public agencies, and health care and social…

This essay emphasizes a need for broad-minded constructivism which posits that individuals have coherent ways of understanding their world and that these understandings are structured and hierarchically organized. The meaning behind the term "co-construction," used in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines, is…

This paper applies principles of situational leadership theory to the management of student behavior problems. First, it summarizes situational leadership, noting the theory's premise that leaders must consider two important factors to gain acceptance and compliance in managing people--the maturity level of the individuals and the nature of the…

This book argues for much greater attention to ethical education and responds to skeptics who doubt its accomplishment in a pluralistic, secular society that is badly fragmented over values. The book seeks themes that unite rather than divide and provides a conceptual foundation for ethical education, broad enough for building consensus among…

This paper explores the process of identity formation as related to adolescents' level of moral development, race, sex, and family configuration. Ego identity was operationalized into four identity statuses based on an adolescent's reported degree of exploration and goal commitment in the areas of occupation, religion, politics, and philosophy…

In light of the amount of violence reported in public media and increasing rudeness of public behavior, it is imperative that elementary school students learn to care for other human beings. This paper makes recommendations for developing an elementary school curriculum of caring. The paper recommends three categories of objectives--knowledge,…

This paper examines the research literature on character education and advocates its inclusion in the public school curriculum. Research indicates a connection between a lack of moral and ethical development and destructive behavior among children. Sections of the paper include: (1) Introduction; (2) "The American Moral Heritage"; (3)…

The book examines approaches to moral education, first attempting to understand each one sympathetically, then highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and finally formulating the problems and issues uncovered in the analysis. The work concludes with the author's own version of a postmodern "patchwork" pedagogy of moral conversation. The…

The intent of this book is to analyze the moral and social problems that currently plague U.S. schools. The volume outlines what can be done to confront the problems of student behavior in and outside the classroom. Illegal drug use, theft and deceit, sexual practices, and race relations are among the troubling issues facing educators. Religious…

The 45 tests described in this bibliography assess the moral development and values of populations at all age and grade levels (particularly target toward those above grade 7). Some of the instruments consist of questions that pose moral problems and respondents must select a solution. Several of the tests are concerned about professional ethics.…

Perry's scheme of intellectual and ethical development was examined for sex differences with respect to content areas for which sex differences have elsewhere been suggested: occupational choice, interpersonal relationships, and sexual identity. In addition, the content area religion and ego development, as measured by Loevinger's sentence…

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…

Discusses relationship between social purposes and higher education's intrinsic values examining six specific purposes that have emerged in the transition from elite to mass higher education and concluding that society and higher education may have to continue in active tension if academic ideals are to be self-perpetuating. (JT)

The intellectual changes of the 19th century were as dramatic as the economic changes of the Industrial Revolution. U.S. citizens at that time subscribed to the traditional belief that a spiritual self, grafted onto the body, was the source of life and thought. The later belief that human beings possessed complete, experiential knowledge of their…

The "teaching of values" should be relabeled as an effort to help form the character of young people and to aid them in achieving moral literacy. There is a general consensus regarding helping children develop reliable standards of right and wrong to guide them through life. In order that children develop appropriate character traits, it is…