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Moral development: The effects of story dilemma discussions in the promotion of children's moral judgments at the primary level
Abstract
This exploratory study offers a discussion of Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development, with a brief explication of each stage. It then applies this theory to moral judgment and its development. The approach was premised mainly on Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning. The problem under investigation was to examine four real-life story dilemma discussions, and their effectiveness in the promotion of children's moral judgments at the primary level. The subjects consisted of fifty-four (54) students (twenty-seven (27) males and twenty-seven (27) females) from the southwestern part of Boston. They ranged in age from eight to nine. The design used in the study parallels the model described by "Campbell and Stanley" (1973), as the Non-Equivalent Control Group Design. The subjects were pretested and posttested, using a non-standardized test device. This instrument was designed to obtain both the qualitative and quantitative data needed to answer the five research questions which guided the study. The comparison of groups on the pretest and posttest substantiates the findings that there were no appreciable differences among the groups tested. However, the behavior of group participants differed substantially following the treatment. The results led to the conclusion that moral development can, in fact, increase the moral reasoning of primary school children. However, it was further concluded that real-life dilemma discussions are more effective in promoting children's moral judgments at the primary level, and are useful in teaching moral education as an integral part of the curriculum.
Subject Area
Curriculum development|Elementary education|Educational administration|Educational sociology
Recommended Citation
Craft, Bettye Morgan, "Moral development: The effects of story dilemma discussions in the promotion of children's moral judgments at the primary level" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9420615.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9420615