Moral Judgment Differences in Education and Liberal Arts Majors: Cause for Concern?

Education majors’ moral judgment development reportedly lags behind other majors. This study questions the degree to which such differences exist. For this study, moral judgment development and other criteria were considered among 74 education and 50 liberal arts majors. Results revealed minimal mean differences and minimal differences in relationships. This study suggests that factors beyond major may be more relevant to college students’ moral development. ________________________________________________ Introduction and Overview ttending college is recognized as an important contributor to moral development and moral judgment development in particular. Years of formal education have consistently been found to be the highest predictor of moral judgment (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987; Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999). Higher education has been cited as accounting for up to 50 percent of the variance in the advancement of moral judgment, more than can be accounted for by age alone (Rest, Deemer, Barnett, Spickelmier, & Volker, 1986). While the college experience appears to be a powerful contributor to moral judgment, a variety of explanations have been offered in explaining what years of formal education really represent in terms of its contribution. A In general, factors pertaining to college such as its overall selectivity along with offered social and academic experiences have all been identified as interacting with established student characteristics in impacting moral judgment development (for specific accounts and discussions see Derryberry & Thoma, 2000; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Rest et al., 1986; and Schlaefli, W. Pitt Derryberry is an Educational Psychologist and an Associate Professor of Psychology at Western Kentucky University. His research interests include the moral psychology and moral education of adolescents and young adults. Hannah Snyder worked as an intern in Western Kentucky University’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and is a graduate of Oberlin College. She is currently employed as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. Travis Wilson worked as an intern in Western Kentucky University’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program and is a graduate of Kentucky Christian College. Brian Barger is a graduate of the Experimental Psychology Masters program at Western Kentucky University. He is currently employed with the Peace Corps. 2 Journal of College and Character VOLUME VII, NO. 4, May 2006 Rest, & Thoma,1985). There has therefore been an interest in determining whether such factors are facilitated by certain types of majors or programs of study in order to understand better the relationship between attending college and moral judgment development. Differences in moral judgment development have been noted among students in various majors. For example, McNeel (1994) cited deficits in the moral judgment ability of business and education students relative to other majors, and Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) reported similar trends. Though limitations have been recognized in the research comparing moral judgment ability among majors (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991), the trends noted are nonetheless problematic for those responsible for majors in which deficits have been found. This is especially true for those who work with education majors given the moral demands of teaching and the perceived role of teachers as moral exemplars and facilitators of student moral development (Chang, 1994; Goodlad, Soder, & Sirotnik, 1990). Because teaching is described as an inherently moral profession and enterprise (Goodlad et al., 1990), whose members are required to model and facilitate effective moral decision making (Chang, 1994), any indication that future members of the profession are ill equipped relative to their peers to make sense of moral situations is disconcerting. The Moral Judgment Ability of Education Majors variety of studies address the moral judgment ability of education majors. In an early study, Strange (1977) found that the majority of students enrolled in an introductory education course reasoned at Kohlberg’s first conventional stage. Yeazell and Johnson (1988) found the moral judgment development of a group of undergraduate education students to be somewhat low in comparison to other college samples they referenced. Diessner (1991) supported that the moral judgment development of education majors lags behind other majors in reviewing all available studies that indexed the moral judgment development of education majors, according to Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT; see Rest, 1979, 1986; Rest et al., 1999). A Though these studies describe relatively low moral judgment scores among teacher education majors, surprisingly few have directly compared teacher education students with other groups of college students. Lampe (1994) found that a large sample of teacher education students scored significantly lower on the DIT than a composite sample of college students that Rest (1979) compiled. Alarmingly, the scores that Lampe (1994) reported more closely rivaled those traditionally reported for students in high school than they did students in college (see Rest, 1979). McNeel (1994) noted distinct differences in DIT scores in comparing the moral judgment ability of those in education, business, and liberal arts majors. According to McNeel (1994), the DIT scores for education and business seniors were lower than the DIT scores of seniors in liberal arts majors. Additionally, McNeel (1994) observed that though those in all three major groups saw significant growth in moral judgment development while in college, the average effect size for those in liberal arts majors was much greater (1.10) than for those in education and business majors (.58). Recently, Cummings, Dyas, Maddux, and Kochman (2001) administered the DIT and the Academic Misconduct Scale (AMS; Ferrell & Daniel, 1995), a measure of academic misconduct, to a large group of education majors. Cummings et al. (2001) also found that the scores of their sample of education majors were significantly lower than what is usually reported among college students. Cummings et al. (2001) also investigated the correlation between DIT and AMS scores. A small, but significant, negative correlation was found, suggesting that lower levels of principled moral reasoning may be related to academic misconduct. Although the authors did not compare the AMS scores of their sample with any other student samples, Cummings et al. (2001) suggest ______________________________________________________________________________ Moral Judgment Differences 3 that those in teacher education majors may be more prone to academic misconduct, and possibly future moral infractions, given the low DIT scores seen in their sample and others. Statement of the Problem esearch detailing their moral judgment ability suggests that education majors appear to be reasoning at a lower level than other college students. However, premature conclusions should not be drawn from the literature currently available for a variety of reasons. Principally, education majors have rarely been compared to specific majors. With the exception of McNeel (1994), teacher education majors have most often been compared with composite samples comprised from a variety of schools that have included numerous types of majors. Since institution type (e.g., liberal arts, church affiliated, comprehensive, research, etc.) is known to be a correlate of moral judgment ability (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991), the comparison of education majors from a single institution to a group comprised of multiple majors from multiple colleges and universities poses a major confound. Additionally, referenced composite samples are several decades old, raising the possibility that they are no longer representative even of the institutions from which they were drawn. Another problem is that previous studies have focused only on participants’ abilities to make postconventional moral judgments, which refer to the most advanced level of moral reasoning according to Lawrence Kohlberg’s (1969; Colby & Kohlberg, 1987) conception of moral development. As such, research has ascertained the degree to which those in teacher education majors refer to postconventional arguments in making moral decisions in comparison to other majors. However, ability to refer to postconventional arguments does not mean that the postconventional level is the modal level of moral judgment development (see Rest et al., 1999). Thus, claims that developmental distinctions exist in terms of modal level may not be warranted. Lastly, only one of the aforementioned studies (e.g., Cummings et al., 2001) addressed variables related to moral judgment indices. As Cummings et al (2001) addressed, it is important to consider how other relevant constructs relate to moral judgment ability in order to increase understanding of reasons for and/or impact of any differences seen among majors. R In this study, then, education majors are compared to liberal arts majors at a large southcentral regional university. In addition to indexing moral judgment development, scores from other indices that have been shown to relate to moral judgment development are considered in order to provide a more precise understanding about any differences that may be seen between major groups. In addition to indexing moral judgment development, other relevant constructs are considered in the current study. This includes academic misconduct and human rights attitudes, which have both been acknowledged as outcomes of moral judgment development (see Cummings et al., 2001; Derryberry & Thoma, 2005; Getz, 1985; and Rest et al., 1999). Two noted influences on moral judgment development are also considered in the current study, including academic and intellectual aptitude and the attributional complexity of judgments regarding human behavior (see Derryberry, Wilson, Snyder, Norman, & Barger, in press; Thoma, Rest, Narvaez, & Derryberry, 1999). Two key research questions are addressed in this study. First, do differences exist between those in education majors and liberal arts majors at the same university on measures of and related to moral judgment? Second, do relationships among these variables differ for education majors and liberal arts majors at the same university?