A Curriculum Sequence for Moral Development

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Abstract
This study reports the impact of a values course on the moral development of eleventh grade students. The one-semester values course consisted of a two part sequence: nine weeks of psychological awareness followed by nine weeks of moral discourse. Three groups were studied; the first received the psychological awareness plus the moral discourse; the second group experienced moral discourse for the entire semester; and the third one experienced no values education course at all. Subjects from all three groups were administered Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview as a pre, mid, and posttest. Both the combined group and the moral discourse group advanced significantly more than the control group in moral reasoning during the semester. For the moral discourse group stage advance of moral reasoning occurred generally during the semester. For the sequence group, however, the largest part of stage advance occurred during the second half of the semester. These data suggest a possible “dormant seed effect” whereby psychological awareness meets preconditions for moral maturity during subsequent moral discourse.