Discusses Montessori theories for development of social, moral, cognitive, and emotional dimensions of the human personality during the second plane of development--age six to puberty--as these theories relate to the theory of optimal experience. (JPB)

Asked Dutch university and Russian high school students to sort statements in terms of moral sophistication to investigate hierarchical stage structure of moral stages. Found that sorting statements representative of stages below one's own was straightforward; sorting statements above one's stage was difficult, suggesting that reflective…

Values are principles or standards that people have decided are desirable to live by. The question of whether values can or should be taught to college students has been debated for decades, with the pros incorporating moral concepts into curricula and the antes scorning such efforts as not only inappropriate but also intellectually dull. In this…

Examines James Davison Hunter's claim that the moral education establishment is responsible for the death of character. Declares that moral education must grapple with Hunter's finding that effective moral education requires coherent moral culture with a clear conception of public and private good. Compares post-Soviet and current U.S. moral…

Sixty years after the International Military Tribunal opened in Nuremberg to try "major war criminals", how should soldiers learn not to follow clearly illegal or unconscionable orders? Following the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, judges during the Nuremberg Trials rejected defendants' efforts to avoid punishment on the basis of…

This paper argues that there are some common characteristics that define what we label graduate professional programmes. By analysing two programmes, law and psychology--as experienced by the students--it becomes obvious that while the programmes educate their students well in the academic aspects of professional work, they do not prepare students…

Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist, coined the term "Just Community" to describe a community built on trust and resolution, in which each member participates democratically in the development of the rules and regulations that govern their community life (Kohlberg, 1985). In a school, this means that students and teachers alike actively participate…

The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of community service work and community involvement on perceptions of self-entitlement--expectations of others to do things for oneself--among undergraduate students. Over the course of a 16-week semester, 26 randomly selected subjects (20 community college psychology students and six…

Sociologists and psychologists have shown increasing interest in moral emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt, including their developmental role. While these emotions have an important part in normal development, the chronically shame-prone person has feelings of worthlessness, incompetence, and helplessness; a guilt-prone person dwells on…

Based on the belief that critical thinking patterns, language abilities, and social skills that develop from birth to age 6 are foundational to children's sociomoral development, the Phoenix Project was developed to explore the factors contributing to and affecting children's sociomoral development. This pilot project was carried out by the…

For more than 30 years, Kohlberg's theory of moral development has been tested across the world. This paper reports on two studies that investigated people's state of moral thinking and whether or not there are phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of Kohlberg's theory. The first study examined the moral thinking of a group of students, ages…

This paper discusses the concept of literature as a moral laboratory in which author and readers run complex thought experiments about human actions and their consequences. The paper warns that discussion of the role of literature in building moral character and moral communities needs to be based on a better understanding of what literature is…

To develop students who embrace the ethics of justice and caring, the ethos of the classroom and school must promote the virtues of justice and caring. This paper, by the principal of the Hong Kong International School (HKIS), explores how the school can more intentionally develop a school ethos that contributes to the development of student…

This report describes the development of social responsibility in schools through law-related education (LRE). LRE through which students become better informed and effective citizens provides an understanding of the law and its effects on daily life. The Office of Education (1978) defines LRE as those organized learning experiences that provide…

Two studies of the development of children's moral relationships with nature addressed such questions as: (1) What does it mean to say that we have an obligation not to harm the natural environment? (2) Does the natural environment feel pain? (3) Does it have rights? or (4) Is moral obligation an inappropriate construct by which to understand the…