ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the relationships between different types of student engagement and moral reasoning development among U.S. college students. Using the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, a longitudinal dataset, and applying fixed-effect and random-effects models, the results indicate that various types of student engagement, including honors programs, participation in undergraduate research, and the frequency of nonclassroom interaction with faculty, improve students’ moral reasoning. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of student engagement in the development of (...) moral reasoning. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between prosocial messages, the degree of presence induced from different message types and the heightening effect of moral identity. A total of 96 students were pre-tested with a moral identity scale and assigned to three experiment groups and one control group. Each of the experiment groups was exposed to a series of prosocial messages designed with different message characteristics daily. After 9 days the participants were subjected to moral identity and presence measures. Overall, presence (...) design is key to heightening moral identity. Prosocial messages heightened moral identity symbolization significantly in two of the experiment groups and as expected, no significant changes occurred in the control group. Picture with text and narrative text prosocial messages heightened moral identity symbolization more than short text prosocial messages. Perceived presence mediates the relation between the pre-moral identity symbolization and post-moral symbolization but not moral internalization. (shrink)

Although some previous studies have investigated the relationship between moral foundations and moral judgment development, the methods used have not been able to fully explore the relationship. In the present study, we used Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) in order to address the limitations in traditional regression methods that have been used previously. Results showed consistency with previous findings that binding foundations are negatively correlated with post-conventional moral reasoning and positively correlated with maintaining norms and personal interest schemas. In addition to (...) previous studies, our results showed a positive correlation for individualizing foundations and post-conventional moral reasoning. Implications are discussed as well as a detailed explanation of the novel BMA method in order to allow others in the field of moral education to be able to use it in their own studies. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper makes the case for including critical harmony as a complement to justice within civic education. The concept of harmony is significant for civic education because it acknowledges the crucial role that relationships play in society—an important moral, ethical, and social ideal in many cultures around the world. Harmony must also incorporate a critical dimension, however, by embracing conflict and tension, valuing difference and diversity, and striving for balance among divergent voices. By using examples of public issues such (...) as housing and gender identity to illustrate the relational dimension of public policy, this paper argues that the concept of critical harmony can contribute to a more comprehensive foundation for students’ deliberation of civic issues. (shrink)

ABSTRACT My aim in this paper is to examine the epistemic habits that agents develop through frequent social media usage. I point out that extensive social media usage is conducive to the development of closed-mindedness and unreflective thinking and accordingly argue that social media act as inadvertent educators of epistemic vices. I contend that understanding social media as generators of epistemic dispositions is of significant import to intellectual character education. It shows the urgency of incorporating in educational curricula pedagogical methods (...) that eliminate the bad epistemic habits that agents acquire through frequent social media usage. I propose character building through problem-solving as an effective educational method for efficiently offsetting such habits. Fostering intellectual virtues through problem-solving safeguards against intellectual vices commonly developed through extensive social media usage. At the same time such an educational approach trains students’ information-seeking abilities. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In the last century, higher education has witnessed a shift away from explicit character education. Although scholarship has recently reemerged on the importance of character in college, there are almost no empirical investigations of courses intentionally designed to impact student character at the college level. The current study examines an innovative course intervention called ‘Commencing Character’ designed to intentionally teach 16 target virtues through direct instruction, application of seven research-based strategies of character development, and engagement with over 40 commencement (...) addresses focused on character. Comparing pre- and post-course self-reports, results indicated significant group differences in the development of seven targeted virtues when comparing students in the course to a control group. These results show that a course focused explicitly on character in a way that is developmentally- and contextually-sensitive can promote the development of specific virtues. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Moral Education in 2021, this study explores moral education research trends and changes as reflected in JME from 1971 to 2021, with special attention to significant changes in the last decade, a period of rapid digitalization and increasingly complex socio-cultural contexts, both local and global. Moral education trends, as reflected in the 1261 articles published in JME, were investigated using content analysis of disciplinary approaches, keywords, research methodologies, as well (...) as the national and gender backgrounds of the first authors and JME editorial teams and trustees. The main findings point to specific and important issues, central research topics, and neglected areas in moral education and development over the past five decades. The review offers JME and the field of moral education some considerations for the development of moral education, observations on research method paradigms, insights on gender equity, and attention to cultural diversity. (shrink)

Having an agreed-upon definition of character education would be useful for both researchers and practitioners in the field. However, even experts in character education disagree on how they would define it. We attempted to achieve greater conceptual clarity on this issue through a prototype analysis in which the features perceived as most central to character education were identified. In Study 1 (N = 77), we asked character education experts to enumerate features of character education. Based on these lists, we identified (...) 30 features. In Study 2 (N = 101), experts assessed which features were central to character education through a categorization task. In Study 3 (N = 166), we assessed the extent of centrality using scalar items. We conclude by offering practical advice for the development of future character education studies and programs rooted in what is deemed central to such programs. (shrink)

Psychological research has revealed that there is a strong tendency for people to believe that they have a ‘true self’, and to believe that this true self is inherently morally good. This would seemingly be very good news for virtue theorists, since this may help to promote virtue development. While there are some obvious benefits to people having morality intrinsically tied to their sense of self, in this paper I want to suggest instead that there may also be some significant (...) drawbacks, especially when it comes to motivating virtue development and moral improvement. In part this stems from people’s belief in their own inherent moral goodness being merely assumed (as part of one’s core identity), rather than earned (say through reliably good moral behavior). This disconnection between identity and behavior can result in attempts to reinforce one’s identity as morally good, at the expense of in virtuous behavior or self-improvement. (shrink)

ABSTRACT When opposing injustice, the failure to recognise wrong or translate knowledge into action are two problems with which moral education has to contend. The notion of ‘social restitution’ can be a helpful concept in addressing these challenges because it locates restitution at the level of interpersonal and communal moral responsibility. This is important because restitution is often seen almost exclusively as a government or institutional endeavour. This paper describes a study conducted amongst 72 students from four African universities in (...) Sierra Leone, South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon that includes dialogues and a self-location activity whose aim was to cultivate moral awareness of injustice. This process of self-location also provided a helpful basis for action based on everyday acts of social restitution. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to argue that social science is an inherently moral enterprise. There are four reasons to see science as a moral endeavor based on the neo-Aristotelian recognition that morality is centered on human goods, not just right action. First, science is guided by epistemic values and underwritten by pro-science traits. Second, the outcomes of applied science are valued by scientists and others. Third, attempting to eliminate values from science is counterproductive because it leads to (...) smuggling in moral commitments that are very difficult to critically evaluate, particularly in the social sciences. Finally, the goal of science is knowledge, which is a vital human good. Therefore, science is a thoroughly moral enterprise because human goods are moral aims. I conclude with three implications of this argument for science education. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Increasing divisiveness and prejudicial conflict in Western societies has accelerated interest in convincing moral knowledge. Although social science is a natural place to seek answers, these sciences are hindered by academic siloing. Moral education has also been distant from most research on morality, limiting both groups’ contributions. The new Network for Research on Morality addresses these needs by cultivating a cohesive, cumulative body of interdisciplinary research and pursuing a natural partnership with the Association for Moral Education. This special issue (...) explores three emergent NRM themes and begins bridge-building with the AME. The themes are exploring: 1) how morality research can support and inform moral education, 2) how best to promote interdisciplinary research on morality, and 3) the extent to which recognizing researchers’ moral commitments requires a revision of research on morality. These papers simply begin the lively discussions for which these topics so strongly call rather than reporting consensual answers. (shrink)

ABSTRACT One of the overarching problems of the world today is that too many people see themselves as dominating other groups of people, and dominating nature. That is a root problem. And thus part of a core solution builds from Kohlberg’s commitment to a universal moral orientation, though extended to include not only all people but the more-than-human world: animals, trees, plants, species, ecosystems, and the land itself. In this article, I make a case for this form of ethical extensionism, (...) and then present psychological evidence for it in both children and adults, including studies with inner-city Black youth and their parents. Then I build on Piaget’s, Kohlberg’s, and Turiel’s emphasis that interaction with the physical and social world is a critical mechanism for development. My corollary is this: that to reverse the incredibly fast human-caused destruction of nature—the wellsprings of human existence—we need to deepen and extend people’s interactions with nature, and with its relatively wild forms, even in urban environments. Toward this end, I discuss my current body of research and framework for urban design based on what are referred to as interaction patterns. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Science is an ethical community whose practitioners aim to discover information about the natural world and to explain discernible patterns that might be detected. Those who pursue science generally embrace certain epistemic values that help establish the moral boundaries of the community, while the twin pillars of rationality and empiricism serve as the foundations upon which scientists establish their truth claims. Yet however robust the assertions might appear, they nevertheless are the by-products of an exclusively human endeavor directly impacted (...) by those sociological forces that apply throughout the social universe, including the scientist’s social location and the importance of enhancing one’s reputation. The current paper identifies key sociological factors that help shape scientific bias and the nature of the justifications used to defend truth claims. A case study of one community committed to a sociological paradigm demonstrates the utility of the explanatory framework advanced. A more self-conscious awareness of the forces at play that create such biases can help mitigate their deleterious impacts that subvert the quest for explanatory knowledge and valid truth claims about observable phenomena. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Winston C. Thompson’s review of Moral Education for Social Justice by Larry Nucci and Robyn Ilten-Gee accurately captures the effort to integrate critical pedagogy with domain-based moral education. A core element is student participation in domain-based discourse entailing responsive engagement that transcends the cognitive activity of individuals. Those discussions may lead to action projects. Replying to Thompson’s review, Nucci and Ilten-Gee address potential problems that may arise from student resistance and from objections of conservatives who may view attention to (...) social justice as political indoctrination. They conclude that moral education that does not attend to social justice suffers from incoherence. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Many thinkers are accustomed to separating facts and values—knowledge and morality. They believe that morality enters into the choices scientists and scholars make about what is worth studying, but after that, the cold logic of evidence assessment takes over. This sells science and scholarship short. I will suggest that science and scholarship, done right, are the best exemplars we have of a set of intellectual virtues that are essential if we are to be moral individuals living in a moral (...) society. These virtues include love of truth, fair-mindedness, perseverance, and wisdom. Science and scholarship with these virtues is a way of interacting with the world to which we should all aspire. Nurturing these intellectual virtues, and not job training, is what university education should be for. Students with intellectual virtues will be better employees, in whatever career path they follow. And they will also be better citizens, willing to contribute to societal well-being in general. (shrink)

ABSTRACT My remarks will outline, from a philosopher’s perspective, challenges and opportunities that I see for a science of virtue. I will touch on three topics: ensuring that the studies are philosophically useful; grappling with issues of measurement; and next steps in moving a science of virtue forward. I approach and through reflections on some recent uses of psychology by philosophers and of philosophy by psychologists; and will argue in part that next steps should entail certain kinds of educational efforts (...) to promote interdisciplinary research. An example is that recently undertaken in a program by the Society of Christian Philosophers that offers opportunities for focused psychological training to philosophy graduate students. These and similar efforts could have far-reaching impacts for the emergence of a philosophically informed science of virtue. (shrink)

ABSTRACT We appreciate and respond to Cokelet’s thoughtful criticisms of our book. First, he points to deliberative forms of practical wisdom as objectionable to anti-rationalist’s. In response, we point to non-conscious forms of deliberation that occur as individuals automatically process and respond to virtue-relevant stimuli. Second, Cokelet states that reflecting upon one’s life as a whole may be unnecessary and ineffective for virtue development. We clarify that reflection is not the only means of virtue cultivation, and even flawed reflection is (...) likely helpful. Finally, Cokelet recommends aiming for ‘theoretical neutrality’ by recasting these core tenets as empirical hypotheses. We argue against a neutral perspective that accommodates antirationalist views that we think are on the wrong track. Non-neutral claims help generate testable empirical hypotheses that can move virtue science forward. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this extended book review, Winston C. Thompson engages with Larry Nucci’s and Robyn Ilten-Gee’s Moral education for social justice. Following summary of a few conceptual foundations of the project, Thompson offers areas of attention for further explorations of moral education in a socially unjust world. This focus on elements of the project’s foundation endeavors to demonstrate abiding potential for future work, with the specificity and nuance characteristic of the book, especially as related to the foundational theoretical analyses and (...) practical guidance on offer. (shrink)

ABSTRACT There is a tendency for research on morality to focus on the individual, sometimes at the expense of context, using overly individual notions of the person. To some extent, this is an understandable consequence of disciplinary focus, and a scientific need to break phenomena down into manageable parts. I will advocate incorporating sociological perspectives for researching morality and cultivating states of moral character. This interdisciplinary approach is informed by a small group of scholars working in the spirit of virtue (...) ethics philosophy while also adopting sociological perspectives. With a special focus on sociological habitus and philosophical hexis, improved treatment of social and contextual factors in morality research and moral education are the suggested applications for these important interdisciplinary advances. (shrink)