Service-learning courses can be powerful instruments for cognitive, affective, and moral transformation. This chapter examines the strengths and weaknesses of service-learning as an agent for cognitive, moral, and interpersonal development and its ability to promote civic or social engagement.

The present study aims at a definition of "European consciousness". In particular, it draws on Henri Tajfel's theory of social identity as well as Roland Wakenhut's and Jutta Gallenmuller's moral determination of national consciousness. European consciousness is then defined as a sense of belonging which, depending on certain…

Ethical conduct should inspire a quality of behavior that exemplifies honor and dignity for oneself. In a school district, teachers, administrators, staff, and school board members should understand the importance of ethical conduct in the educational arena. An effective educational organization entails the need of individuals maintaining…

This article revisits Kohlberg's cognitive developmental claims that stages of moral judgment, facilitative processes of social perspective-taking, and moral values are commonly identifiable across cultures. Snarey [Snarey, J. (1985). "The cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research."…

Whether one calls it G*d-talk, religious discourse, or spiritual musings, conversations speaking to the divine, spirit, mystery, religion, and G*d are increasingly prevalent in educational studies. Whether it is the recurring discussions of church/state distinctions, exploration of the relationship between moral development and religion, or an…

Adolescents who live in urban settings regularly encounter a complex array of people and circumstances that require sophisticated decision-making skills. Using their personal standards, adolescents coordinate moral thoughts and emotions when deciding how to act. After defining what the author refers to as moral engagement, several empirical…

The author of this paper, an ethicist, states that he considers himself fortunate to be in a field undergoing a resurgence; however he also is aware of how academic efforts to promote moral development often lack a deep appreciation of the underlying character of ethics. He argues that, in order to further the moral maturation of today's students,…

Two related studies were conducted in order to investigate whether psychosocial and moral development appeared to have been disrupted and arrested in veterans diagnosed as having posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Study 1 was devoted to developing a measure of late adolescence, early adulthood, and adulthood stages of psychosocial…

All colleges teach ethics across their undergraduate curricula, yet relatively few institutions do so deliberately. That is, few colleges make explicit attempts to coordinate or integrate the various ethical lessons their students might be learning. This does not mean that most colleges are bad for students' ethical development; research shows…

This article addresses teachers' understanding of spiritual development in public and religious schools in Boston and Chicago. It examines how teachers define spiritual development in different educational contexts and looks at the way they relate spirituality to a number of factors including community, identity, and character. The data from the…

The author conducted a qualitative inquiry of individuals' proclivity to participate in interracial dialogues. Lived experience of 20 participants in a race study circle yielded the overarching themes of education, self-reflection, advanced empathy, moral consciousness, universality, racial identity development, and social interest. Implications…

In an age of continual technological advancement, user-friendly software, and consumer demand for the latest upgraded gadget, the ethical and moral discoveries derived from a careful reading of any fictional literature by college students is struggling in the American college classroom. Easy-access information systems, coinciding with the…

In this article, the author reflects on the juxtaposition of power, morality and leadership. He contends that if power is about the extent of the difference that one can make to the lives of young people then morality is perhaps concerned with the qualitative nature of that difference. Every school leader understands the imperative of good…

Differing findings exist on how Defining Issues Test (DIT) scores relate to intelligence. Further study is needed in order to address aspects of intellect not previously considered and to address how these relationships rival studies that have compared indices of intellect with constructs similar to DIT scores. In the present study, a sample of…

Any democratic society must concern itself with the socialization of its citizens. This begins in childhood, and schools are critical to this process. The interrelations and roles of educating for character (character education, moral education) and educating for citizenship (citizenship education, civic education) are explored, largely in a North…