Assessment of Principled Moral reasoning of a Female Sample of Graduate students in Education (original) (raw)

The Impact of Gender on the Principled Moral Reasoning of Kuwait Education Students

American International Journal of Social Science, 2019

Using Lawrence Kohlberg's cognitive moral development theory as the guiding theory, the present study was designed to investigate the principled moral reasoning of 67 undergraduate students at the University of Kuwait (27 males and 40 females). Their age ranged from 19 to 24 (Mean age = 18.64 years, SD = 1.20 years). A major purpose of the study was to explore the impact of gender on their moral reasoning .Moral reasoning of the participants in the study was measured by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a widely employed tool for measuring moral reasoning .The data collected were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of, means, and standard deviations; and inferential statistics of independent samples t-test. The results indicate that the sample scored lower in principled moral reasoning than undergraduate students in general. However, they scored predominantly at stage 4 in Kohlberg's moral judgment theory. Results also indicate that there are no significant differences in principled moral reasoning of the participants according to their gender.

Moral Reasoning of Students of Different Professional Choices

Facta Universitatis, Series: Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, 2019

The goal of this research was to investigate the differences in moral reasoning among students of social, biomedical and technical sciences. The sample included 300 students of both genders (154 male and 146 female students). In order to investigate students’ moral reasoning, we used a modified version of the DIT developed by Rest. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, which claims that there are six stages of moral development which are grouped into three levels of morality, was used as the theoretical foundation for the test. The results of the study show that there is a statistically significant difference at the postconventional level of moral judgment depending on the group of sciences: the level of postconventional moral reasoning is higher among the students of social and biomedical sciences than among the students of technical sciences. When it comes to the conventional level of moral reasoning, which is the modal level for the adult population, differences have not been o...

Moral reasoning development and graduate education

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1983

The Defining issues Test (DIT) of moral reasoning development was administered to 20 advanced and 20 first-year groduate students, plus 40 college graduates matched to the graduate groups on sex, age, and verbal ability. A two-way ANOVA design was used to infer whether groduate education, selection, maturation, or a combination of these effects is (are) associated with group differences on the DIT. Results suggest thot differences found between the graduate students and college graduotes can be accounted for by a combination of moturational and selection effects, contrary to the hypothesized effects of formal education.

Moral Judgement Development in Higher Education: Insights from the Defining Issues Test

Journal of Moral Education, 2002

This article reviews 172 studies that used the De ning Issues Test to investigate the moral development of undergraduate college students and provides an organisational framework for analysing educational contexts in higher education. These studies addressed collegiate outcomes related to character or civic outcomes, selected aspects of students' collegiate experiences related to moral judgement development and changes in moral reasoning during the college years as they related to changes in other domains of development. Findings suggest that dramatic gains in moral judgement are associated with collegiate participation, even after controlling for age and entering level of moral judgement. Although many studies used gross indicators of collegiate context (e.g. institutional type or academic discipline), studies that examine speci c collegiate characteristics and educational experiences are better suited to identifying factors that contribute directly or indirectly to changes in moral judgement during the college years. Implications for student development practice and future research are discussed.

Moral Reasoning Among Croatian Students of Different Academic Orientations

European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 2017

Previous studies demonstrated that different academic contexts could have different effects on moral development, i.e. in most cases formal education enhances moral reasoning, but sometime erodes it (for example for medical students). The aim of this study was to examine differences in moral reasoning among students of different academic disciplines (health care, law, social sciences and humanities). In research participated 386 students (Mage=23,12): 154 law students, 55 nursing students, 123 other social sciences students, a 53 humanities students. Participants took Test of Moral Reasoning (TMR) (Proroković, 2016) which measures index of moral reasoning (in range from 0 to 1), and idealistic orientations (humanistic and conservative). The results showed that there was no difference in the moral reasoning index among students of different academic orientations. Furthermore, students of different academic disciplines differed in the humanistic orientation in a way that students of social studies were more humanistically oriented than law students. Some of the possible explanations for the lack of differences with regard to academic orientations is that overall stimulating environment that college provides is perhaps more important for moral reasoning development than specific academic contexts. Findings of this study are consistent with the findings of some of the previous studies.

I Know What I Did is Wrong, But…': Investigating the Factors of Students' Moral Reasoning (Absenteeism)

Jurnal Pendidikan Karakter, 2020

This study wants to explore and examine the relationship between potential factors and the student's moral reasoning. Reasoning on moral decisions occurred when students should make a judgment of pursuing their academic goals. Several studies have tried to explain this from various perspectives. Every student was taken for granted to understand his ethical decisions in the academic process. However, the understanding showed that moral awareness has not correlated with the academic score (GPA) and gender variable. This research used quantitative method. The participants in this research were 521 students from 29 departments. The moral reasoning scale was measured by construct validity. Covariate analysis was used to generate a multivariable model. Based on the neutralization theory, the research found that the tendency to make justifications on immoral behaviour is higher for male students and is significantly done by the students at the GPA's level ranging from 2.01 to 2.5. The characteroriented learning process is essential to help students in developing their moral awareness. Lack of understanding of how moral decisions to be made indicates a gap in the academic process which is dominated cognitive aspect. Imposing sanctions without character training does not provide a solution to problems that appear to be a small issue in education but can have a significant detrimental impact when the student immerses and works in society.

The propensity of applying principled moral reasoning among undergraduate business students in Malaysia

Canadian Journal on Scientific and Industrial Research, 2011

Business ethics has become a serious challenge for business community over the past several decades. The challenge is even bigger in a multicultural country like Malaysia. Moral reasoning is one of the critical elements that determine their ethical behavior of managers at workplace. This study explored the influence of 3 independent variables – demographic variables, personal values, and religiosity on moral reasoning of business students who are the future managers and business leaders. The influence of ethical climate as a contextual variable on the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable was also explored. The study relies on Kohlberg’s Cognitive Moral Development Theory, Victor and Cullen’s Ethical Work Climate Theory and Rokeach’s Value Theory. The short form of James Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT) was utilized as the instrument to measure moral reasoning ability of the respondents. Questionnaires containing the DIT, and measurements for other independent variables and moderating variable were distributed to undergraduate business students of a private university in Selangor, Malaysia. 217 completed questionnaires were returned. Data analysis showed that ethnicity, age, religiosity, and personal values significantly influence students’ moral reasoning. Ethical climate moderated some of the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables. The data gathered through the study would be very valuable for policy makers such as the government, universities, and business organizations in discovering the current state of moral reasoning ability of the business students who will be future managers and business leaders. The understanding on the present state of moral reasoning ability of the business students is an important platform for the policy makers to come up with effective ethics initiatives. Keywords: business ethics, moral reasoning, ethics policies, ethical climate