Uses metaphors to describes roles needed in civil society: the Knight embodies vocational virtues, the Queen is a person learning to act a citizen of a nation-state, and the Archangel seeks to fulfill the moral qualities of a human being. (SK)

Explores the moral domain from a religious educator's perspective in terms of the four distinct yet interrelated processes of awareness, reflection, making commitments, and conduct. Offers suggestions for helping people to name and understand everyday moral concerns from a Christian perspective based upon this four-component model. (VWC)

This paper proposes a lifespan developmental model of critical moral consciousness and examines its implications for education in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Mature moral consciousness, central to negotiating the challenges of the 21st century, is characterized by a deepening lifelong integration of moral motivation, agency and critical…

We ask three questions: What are the components of young children?s conscience? How are they organized? How does early conscience develop? We discuss the changing perspectives on each of those questions. We describe the shift from a focus on a single component of conscience (moral emotions, conduct, cognition) to a growing emphasis on their…

In this paper, I argue that it is quite useful, both theoretically and empirically, to adopt a socio-cultural approach to the study of moral development. This entails viewing "moral functioning" as a form of mediated action, and moral development as the process by which persons gradually appropriate a variety of "moral mediational means". Mediated…

The author wants to relate a little incident that certainly made her realize that something is lacking in civilizing mechanisms today. She and a friend of hers were having a snack on a weekday afternoon at a fast food restaurant in which a number of people were eating. Near them was a group of schoolgirls talking in loud, piercing voices. Her…

Ethical maturity and behavior are of great concern to all educators, firms, and investors, and even more so in a recession. This research surveyed managers and employees in the retail environment to measure their Personal Business Ethics Scores (PBES) to see if age, education, and management experience makes a difference in making more ethical…

We surveyed 31 prospective employers (65% response rate) regarding their views on character as part of the employment selection process. The results showed character qualities superordinate, relative to skills that prospective employees bring to potential jobs. We discuss survey results in light of business educators' responsibility for helping…

The goals of higher education often entail the development of students' character. Rarely, however, are these character development goals connected to the unique design and delivery of distance education programs. Additionally, the research literature that explores the character development aspects of distance education is sparse. Thus the purpose…

This paper reports a study designed to increase the moral reasoning and multicultural competence of White students in a counselling internship. An intervention was conducted to determine the effectiveness of using a deliberate psychological education (DPE) approach that incorporated issues of cultural competence, oppression and diversity. This…

In Sweden the compulsory school curriculum prescribes that education should promote learning in different subjects while simultaneously assisting students to develop into citizens of good character. To achieve these goals students need to cultivate such character strengths as respect and responsibility, so that they can create positive…

There is no single script for effective character education, but there are some important basic principles. This document presents eleven principles that schools and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available character education programs: (1) Promotes core ethical values and supportive performance values as…

The study examined children's moral reasoning with specific reference to adult interventions, across age and gender. Seventy-two children from the age groups 6-8 years and 10-12 years respectively were presented with two hypothetical vignettes pertaining to Piaget's justice framework of moral reasoning. Chi-square analysis and descriptive analysis…

The research shows that people cannot--and should not--separate how they feel (about themselves, their relationships, their environments) from teaching or learning. It makes the case for social emotional learning (SEL) in schools clear. First, schools are social places and learning is a social process. Students do not learn alone, but rather in…

This paper uses the story of the Wizard of Oz to help explain and understand the vital characteristics and capabilities of a holistic teacher: knowledge, caring and courage. It explores the process of human development as an outcome of developing these faculties and explains their interrelationship so that educators and their students might better…