Abstract
The increasing focus to go beyond assessing cognitive constructs around the globe and in Singapore (Ng in https://www.gov.sg/microsites/budget2017/press-room/news/content/speech-by-minister-ng-chee-meng-for-moe-schools-at-the-committee-of-supply-debate, 2017) such as cultural awareness, grit and moral reasoning and the call for schools to prepare students for citizenship the development of corresponding instruments applicable in a larger scale. Given the significance of moral reasoning and its assessment are key elements within the current Singapore Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum (Singapore Ministry of Education in https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/character-citizenship-education/files/2014-character-and-citizenship-education-(secondary)-syllabus.pdf, 2012), there is room to explore how moral reasoning can be assessed practically in a large-scale setting. Undergirding this exploration requires a review of the epistemology of moral reasoning, corresponding theoretical frameworks, and how they might apply to moral education in Singapore schools. By reviewing perspectives of moral reasoning from relevant literature beyond educational research to business, medical and philosophical domains, this paper aims to propose an operational definition of moral reasoning suitable for use in Singapore schools, and to mitigate possible issues brought about by educators’ disparate or assumed understanding of moral reasoning. This can consequently support the enactment of the CCE curriculum and be applied to the development of assessment instruments suitable for use within Singapore schools and similar contexts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
Not applicable.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Anzai, S., and C. Matsuzawa. 2014. Values and value priorities underlying Japanese elementary-school moral education: Content analysis of Japanese elementary-school moral books. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences 5 (4): 359–369. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n4p359.
Baer, J.A. 2019. Ethics/morality distinction. In Ethics: Questions and morality of human actions, ed. J.K. Roth, 185–186. Pasadena: Salem Press.
Bandura, A. 1991. Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of moral behavior and development, vol. 1, ed. W.M. Kurtines and J.L. Gewirtz, 45–103. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bavel, J.J.V., K. Baicker, P.S. Boggio, V. Capraro, A. Cichocka, M. Cikara, et al. 2020. Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behaviour 4: 460–471. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z.
Bleazby, J. 2020. Fostering moral understanding, moral inquiry & moral habits through philosophy in schools: A Deweyian analysis of Australia’s ethical understanding curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies 52 (1): 84–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1650116.
Capraro, V., and J. Sippel. 2017. Gender differences in moral judgment and the evaluation of gender-specified moral agents. Cognitive Processing 18: 399–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-017-0822-9.
Cheung, C. 1999. Ethical judgment and ethical reasoning on business issues: A crosslag model for university students in Hong Kong. College Student Journal 33 (4): 515.
Colby, A., L. Kohlberg, J.C. Gibbs, and M. Lieberman. 1983. A longitudinal study of moral judgment. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 48 (1/2): 1–124.
Crandall, C.S., J. Tsang, S. Goldman, and J.T. Pennington. 1999. Newsworthy moral dilemmas: Justice, caring, and gender. Sex Roles 40 (3): 187–209. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018894820652.
Dakin, E. 2014. Protection as care: Moral reasoning and moral orientation among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse older women. Journal of Aging Studies 28: 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2013.12.001.
Donenberg, G.R., and L.W. Hoffman. 1988. Gender differences in moral development. Sex Roles 18 (11): 701–717. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288055.
Gibbs, J.C., K.F. Widaman, and A. Colby. 1982. Construction and validation of a simplified group-administrable equivalent to the Moral Judgment Interview. Child Development 53 (4): 895–910. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129126.
Gilligan, C. 1982. In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gillion, R. 1994. Medical ethics: Four principles plus attention to scope. British Medical Journal 309 (184): 184–188. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.309.6948.184.
Green, A., and J.R. Snarey. 2011. Postconventional morality. In Encyclopedia of child behavior and development, ed. S. Goldstein and J.A. Naglieri, 1124–1127. Berlin: Springer.
Haidt, J. 2001. The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review 108 (4): 814–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.4.814.
Holstein, C.B. 1976. Irreversible, stepwise sequence in the development of moral judgment: A longitudinal study of males and females. Child Development 47 (1): 51–61. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128282.
Hursthouse, R. (2013). Virtue ethics. The Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Z. (Ed.). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue/. Accessed 4 Jan 2021.
Ip, Y.K. 2013. Ethics and the search for values. Journal of the NUS Teaching Academy 3 (3): 105–107.
Jaffee, S., and H.J. Shibley. 2000. Gender differences in moral orientation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 126 (5): 703–726. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.5.703.
Jeder, D. 2020. Re-interpretation and extension of the theories of moral development. International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation 7 (14): 62–66.
Jones, T.M. 1991. Ethical decision-making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review 16 (2): 366–395. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1991.4278958.
Keniston, K. 1965. Morals and ethics. The American Scholar 34 (4): 628–632.
Kohlberg, L. 1984. The psychology of moral development: The nature and validity of moral stages (essays on moral development, Volume 2). Manhattan: Harper & Row.
Krebs, D.L., and K. Denton. 2005. Toward a more pragmatic approach to morality: A critical evaluation of Kohlberg’s model. Psychological Review 112 (3): 629–649. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.112.3.629.
Lee, I.T., and G.Y. Park. 2019. A study on the way to verify effectiveness of character education in moral education of South Korea schools. Journal of Moral and Ethics Education 63: 81–110. https://doi.org/10.18338/kojmee.2019.63.81.
Levitt, D.H., and A.A. Aligo. 2013. Moral orientation as a component of ethical decision making. Counseling and Values 58 (2): 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2013.00033.x.
Lin, C., K. Tsou, S. Cho, M. Hsieh, H. Wu, and C. Lin. 2012. Is medical students’ moral orientation changeable after preclinical medical education? Journal of Medical Ethics 38 (3): 168–173.
Meindl, P., A. Quirk, and J. Graham. 2018. Best practices for school-based moral education. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 5 (1): 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732217747087.
Melanie, K., P. Kerry, L. Jennie, and A. Alicia. 2001. Fairness or stereotypes? Young children’s priorities when evaluating group exclusion and inclusion. Developmental Psychology 37 (5): 587–596. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.5.587.
Ng, C. M. 2016. Speech by Mr Ng Chee Meng, Minister for Education (Schools), at the 19th Appointment and Appreciation Ceremony for Principals. https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/speeches/speech-by-mr-ng-chee-meng-minister-for-education-schools--at-the-19th-appointment-and-appreciation-ceremony-for-principals. Accessed 5 Jan 2021.
Ng, C. M. 2017. Speech by minister Ng Chee Meng for MOE (Schools) at the Committee of Supply Debate. https://www.gov.sg/microsites/budget2017/press-room/news/content/speech-by-minister-ng-chee-meng-for-moe-schools-at-the-committee-of-supply-debate. Accessed 5 Jan 2021.
O’Flaherty, J., M. Liddy, and O. McCormack. 2018. ‘The teachers put effort into teaching us about life, and what’s right and what’s wrong’: Values and moral education in publicly-managed schools in Ireland. Journal of Beliefs and Values 39 (1): 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2017.1291109.
O’Leary, Z. 2007. The social science Jargon Buster. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020147.
Page, R. 1981. Longitudinal evidence for the sequentiality of Kohlberg’s stages of moral judgment in adolescent males. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 139: 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1981.10533431.
Palmer, E.J. 2018. Moral reasoning assessment. In Encyclopaedia of adolescence, ed. R.J.R. Levesque. Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33228-4_10.
Paxton, J.M., and J.D. Greene. 2010. Moral reasoning: Hints and allegations. Topics in Cognitive Science 2 (3): 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01096.x.
Pratt, M., G. Golding, W. Hunter, and R. Sampson. 1988. Sex differences in adult moral orientations. Journal of Personality 56 (2): 373–390. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1988.tb00891.x.
Rest, J.R. 1979. Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Rest, J.R., D. Narvaez, M.J. Bebeau, and S.J. Thoma. 1999. A neo-Kohlbergian approach: The DIT and schema theory. Educational Psychology Review 11 (4): 291–324. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022053215271.
Roth, J.K. 2016. Ethics. Pasadena: Salem Press.
Saunders, L.F. 2015. What is moral reasoning? Philosophical Psychology 28 (1): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2013.801007.
Singapore Ministry of Education. 2012. 2014 Syllabus, Character and Citizenship Education (Secondary). https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/character-citizenship-education/files/2014-character-and-citizenship-education-(secondary)-syllabus.pdf. Accessed 20 Jun 2018.
Singapore Ministry of Education. 2016. Character and citizenship syllabus (Pre-university). https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/character-citizenship-education/files/character_and_citizenship_education_preu_syllabus.pdf. Accessed 20 Jun 2018.
Singapore Ministry of Education. 2020. 2021 Syllabus, Character and Citizenship Education (Secondary). https://www.moe.gov.sg/-/media/files/secondary/syllabuses/cce/2021-character-and-citizenship-education-syllabus-secondary.pdf. Accessed 4 Jan 2021.
Smetana, J., and J. Braeges. 1990. The development of toddler’s moral and conventional judgments. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 36: 329–346.
Snarey, J.R. 1985. Cross-cultural universality of social-moral development: A critical review of Kohlbergian research. Psychological Bulletin 97 (2): 202–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.97.2.202.
Vayrynen, P. 2006. Ethical theories and moral guidance. Utilitas 18 (3): 291–309. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953820806002056.
Walker, L.J. 1984. Sex differences in the development of moral reasoning: A critical review. Child Development 55 (3): 677–691. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130121.
Walker, L.J. 2002. The model and the measure: An appraisal of the Minnesota approach to moral development. Journal of Moral Education 31 (3): 353–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305724022000008160.
Walker, L.J., B. de Vries, and S.L. Bichard. 1984. The hierarchical nature of stages of moral development. Developmental Psychology 20 (5): 960–966. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.20.5.960.
Woods, C.J.P. 1996. Gender differences in moral development and acquisition: A review of Kohlberg’s and Gilligan’s models of justice and care. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal 24 (4): 375–384. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.1996.24.4.375.
Kohlberg, L., and R. Kramer. 1969. Continuities and discontinuities in childhood and adult moral development. Human Development 12 (2): 3–120. https://doi.org/10.1159/000270857.
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The manuscript was prepared and written by Lyndon Lim. Elaine Chapman perused and edited the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lim, L., Chapman, E. Moral Reasoning in Secondary Education Curriculum: An Operational Definition. International Journal of Ethics Education 7, 131–146 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-021-00129-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40889-021-00129-z