scholarly journals Teaching Moral Education in Secondary Schools Using Real-Life Dilemmas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vishalache Balakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Moral Choices

<p>The purpose of this study is to contribute to contemporary debates about alternative ways of teaching Moral Education (ME) in Malaysia by including the voice of students. ME in the Malaysian setting is both complex and compulsory. This study explores alternatives to the current somewhat dated approach. It seeks to discover what young adolescents describe as moral dilemmas, how they approach them and what they find useful in resolving these moral problems. The research is founded on a modified version of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), extended to suit the multicultural, multiethnic Malaysian setting, and here called the Zone of Collaborative Development (ZCD). This study uses qualitative research methodology consisting of a modified framework of participatory action research (PAR) as the methodological framework. Data was gathered for textual analysis through a modified form of participant observation, focus group transcripts, interviews, and student journals. The research trials a process of resolving reallife moral dilemmas in the ME classroom. It critically analyses the types of reallife moral dilemmas that a selected group of secondary students face. It also indicates the moral choices they make and the moral orientations they use. Participants in this study were 22 16-17 year old adolescents from three different types of secondary schools in a Form Four ME classroom in Malaysia. They were from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, but within a nonMuslim community of students. ME in Malaysia (MEM) is designed to cater for this group while Muslim students study Islamic Studies. Findings show that students were concerned about moral issues and values not covered in the current ME curriculum. The moral dilemmas that they identified were relational and context dependent. Multiple factors contributed to the problems they described. These factors included national legislation, Malaysian culture, ethnicity, and religion as well as the effects of history, in particular the Japanese occupation. Students named autonomy, self and mutual respect, trust, freedom, and tolerance as main conflicting themes in their reallife moral dilemmas. They found their peers helpful in providing support, advice, and direction. Students also appear to find the process trialled in the research interesting, interactive/collaborative, meaningful, and reflective. The analysis also shows that the respondents' moral choices were influenced by parents, culture, religion, utilitarianism, collaboration, and friendship, within a strong carebased approach. However, moral pluralism was also evident in the findings in cases where participants made decisions based on care and justice interchangeably. The study suggests that including students' voices in MEM in this way might better engage students' interest, whilst at the same time contributing to intercultural tolerance and understanding.</p>

scholarly journals Teaching Moral Education in Secondary Schools Using Real-Life Dilemmas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vishalache Balakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Moral Choices

<p>The purpose of this study is to contribute to contemporary debates about alternative ways of teaching Moral Education (ME) in Malaysia by including the voice of students. ME in the Malaysian setting is both complex and compulsory. This study explores alternatives to the current somewhat dated approach. It seeks to discover what young adolescents describe as moral dilemmas, how they approach them and what they find useful in resolving these moral problems. The research is founded on a modified version of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), extended to suit the multicultural, multiethnic Malaysian setting, and here called the Zone of Collaborative Development (ZCD). This study uses qualitative research methodology consisting of a modified framework of participatory action research (PAR) as the methodological framework. Data was gathered for textual analysis through a modified form of participant observation, focus group transcripts, interviews, and student journals. The research trials a process of resolving reallife moral dilemmas in the ME classroom. It critically analyses the types of reallife moral dilemmas that a selected group of secondary students face. It also indicates the moral choices they make and the moral orientations they use. Participants in this study were 22 16-17 year old adolescents from three different types of secondary schools in a Form Four ME classroom in Malaysia. They were from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, but within a nonMuslim community of students. ME in Malaysia (MEM) is designed to cater for this group while Muslim students study Islamic Studies. Findings show that students were concerned about moral issues and values not covered in the current ME curriculum. The moral dilemmas that they identified were relational and context dependent. Multiple factors contributed to the problems they described. These factors included national legislation, Malaysian culture, ethnicity, and religion as well as the effects of history, in particular the Japanese occupation. Students named autonomy, self and mutual respect, trust, freedom, and tolerance as main conflicting themes in their reallife moral dilemmas. They found their peers helpful in providing support, advice, and direction. Students also appear to find the process trialled in the research interesting, interactive/collaborative, meaningful, and reflective. The analysis also shows that the respondents' moral choices were influenced by parents, culture, religion, utilitarianism, collaboration, and friendship, within a strong carebased approach. However, moral pluralism was also evident in the findings in cases where participants made decisions based on care and justice interchangeably. The study suggests that including students' voices in MEM in this way might better engage students' interest, whilst at the same time contributing to intercultural tolerance and understanding.</p>

Examples in ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Louden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Actual Case ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Philosophers often employ examples to illustrate how their favoured principles are to be applied to concrete cases, and sometimes even to show that principles are of no help in decision-making. Examples are also used to convince readers of the existence of moral dilemmas – unresolvable conflicts between moral obligations. But a variety of different philosophical questions concerning the role, status, and nature of examples used in ethics have also been raised. One such question concerns the role that examples should play in our moral experience: should this be a rhetorical, pedagogic role of persuading us to do what is right, as determined by pre-existing principle; or a stronger, logical role of helping to determine what is morally right? Another query relates to moral teaching: is exposure to and reflection on stories, tales, narratives and exemplars sufficient for moral education, or is there a further need for exposure to principles and theories of ethics? Third, in terms of the kinds of examples employed in moral philosophy and reflection, should such examples be culled from great literature or sacred texts? Alternatively, should they be actual case studies drawn from real life, or hypothetical but realistic examples constructed by theorists? Or should they be imaginary, highly improbable cases designed to test our intuitions? A fourth question asks how examples are best identified and described, and to what extent the examples used in ethics are themselves theory-laden or even theory-constituted.

scholarly journals A reconceptualisation of Vygotsky’s ZPD into ZCD in teaching moral education in secondary schools using real-life dilemmas

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1142925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishalache Balakrishnan ◽  
Darcia Narvaez ◽  
Yvonne Xian-han Huang
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Real Life

scholarly journals Ethical and Moral Competences of Upper Secondary Students: A Comparative Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 209653112097395
Author(s):  
Zhengmei Peng ◽  
Dietrich Benner ◽  
Roumiana Nikolova ◽  
Stanislav Ivanov ◽  
Tao Peng
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Moral Knowledge ◽  
Moral Action ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Moral Competences

Purpose: This article presents the theoretical framework, research design, methodology, and main findings of the comparative measurement of ethical–moral competences of 15-year-old upper secondary students in Shanghai, under the ETiK-International-Shanghai project. Design/Approach/Methods: By dividing the ethical–moral competences into the categories of basic ethical–moral knowledge, ethical–moral judgment competence, and competence in developing ethical–moral action plans, a survey of 2,036 students was conducted, using a reliable and valid testing instrument. Findings: In general, 15-year-olds from homes with more educational resources perform higher in all three scales across all countries taken under consideration in our study. Furthermore, school practices, teaching, as well as quantity and quality of instruction play a very important role in the moral education process and especially in developing students’ proficiency levels of ethical–moral knowledge, reasoning competence, as well as students’ high abilities in developing moral action plans. When relevant educational background factors are held constant, Chinese students show lower average scores on basic ethical–moral knowledge and moral judgment competence. With exception of the tested Vienna students, all other European samples scored better than the Chinese students—also on the test for developing ethical–moral action plans. However, Chinese students are especially able to display outstanding empathy when dealing with suffering, misfortune, and sorrow, as well as in their willingness to help others. Originality/Value: The findings of this article can foster thinking about which topics should be further discussed to improve the ethical–moral knowledge and competences of Chinese students and highlight requirements for the further development of moral education in China at the levels of teaching, curriculum, teacher education, and research.

scholarly journals Understanding Cultural Preferences for Social Robots

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Oliver Korn ◽  
Neziha Akalin ◽  
Ruben Gouveia
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Emotional Awareness ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Cultural Preferences ◽  
Design Preferences ◽  
The Impact

This article presents a study of cultural differences affecting the acceptance and design preferences of social robots. Based on a survey with 794 participants from Germany and the three Arab countries of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, we discuss how culture influences the preferences for certain attributes. We look at social roles, abilities and appearance, emotional awareness and interactivity of social robots, as well as the attitude toward automation. Preferences were found to differ not only across cultures, but also within countries with similar cultural backgrounds. Our findings also show a nuanced picture of the impact of previously identified culturally variable factors, such as attitudes toward traditions and innovations. While the participants’ perspectives toward traditions and innovations varied, these factors did not fully account for the cultural variations in their perceptions of social robots. In conclusion, we believe that more real-life practices emerging from the situated use of robots should be investigated. Besides focusing on the impact of broader cultural values such as those associated with religion and traditions, future studies should examine how users interact, or avoid interaction, with robots within specific contexts of use.

scholarly journals A moral education? British Values, colour-blindness, and preventing terrorism

2021 ◽  
pp. 026101832199892
Author(s):  
Christine Winter ◽  
Charlotte Heath-Kelly ◽  
Amna Kaleem ◽  
China Mills
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Colour Blindness ◽  
British Education

The Prevent Strategy tasks the British education sector with preventing radicalisation and extremism. It defines extremism as opposition to fundamental British Values and requires schools to promote these values and refer students and staff believed to be vulnerable to radicalisation. Little research examining the enactment of the Prevent and British Values curriculum has included students. To fill this gap, we investigated how students, teachers and Prevent/British Values trainers engage with this curriculum by conducting individual interviews in two multicultural secondary schools in England, framing the study in recent work on colour-blindness. We found that whilst multiculturalism was celebrated, discussion about everyday structural racism was avoided. Critical thinking was performed strategically, and classrooms were securitised as sites for identifying potential safeguarding referrals. Moral education, colour-blindness and safeguarding intersected to negate racialised experiences, whilst exposing students and teachers to racialised Prevent referrals.

FISHING ACTIVITIES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RACHUONYO NORTH SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
GRACE AUMA OJIJO ◽  
Lucy Kibera
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Government

This study investigated the influence of fishing related activities on academic performance of secondary school students in Rachuonyo North Sub-County. The specific objectives were to examine the activities associated with fishing and determine how they influenced academic performance of secondary students in the Sub-County. The study targeted students and principals of the 49 secondary schools in Rachuonyo North Sub-county. The research used simple random sampling to select 14 public secondary schools and 20 Form Three students from each of the sampled schools. The total sample size was 292 respondents. Primary data was collected and analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods and then presented in tables in percentages. Data analysis was done using SPSS and the Microsoft Excel software. The study established that students participated in fishing activities while attending school. Major fishing activities that students engaged in included: actual fishing an agreement  index of 82.9% of students; repairing of fishing nets which was supported by 74.2% of students; setting of nets in the lake which was supported by 84.4% of students; and removal of fish from the nets which was agreed to by 83.9% of students. Some (91.7%) of the students believed that their counterparts who engaged in fishing activities tended to perform poorly in their classwork.  The study has recommended that parents, School Boards of Management and the communities along the beaches collaborate with each other in order to keep students from engaging in fishing activities for this likely to improve school attendance and academic performance of students. The Government should enforce compulsory basic education as well as provide it free to all children at this level of education.

scholarly journals Walking the Talk: LGBTQ Allies in Australian Secondary Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Vicars ◽  
Samara Van Toledo
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Safe Schools ◽  
School Cultures ◽  
Sexual Culture ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Narrative Methodology

Sexual culture(s) are an active presence in the shaping of school relations, and LGBTQ issues have long been recognized as a dangerous form of knowledge in school settings. Queer issues in educational domains quickly attract surveillance and have historically often been aggressively prosecuted and silence enforced. This paper examines the intersections of straight allies in promoting an LGBTQ visibility and agency in Australian secondary schools. Drawing on interviews with “straight”-identified secondary students, a narrative methodology was utilized to explore the presence of student allies for making safe schools. Drawing on straight secondary students' responses to LGBTQ issues in their schools, firsthand accounts of intervening in heteronorming school cultures focus on experiences of being an ally to address LGBTQ inclusivity in Australian secondary schools.

scholarly journals REPORT BETWEEN SOCIAL ETHICS AND PERSONAL MORALS IN OUR DAYS

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1737-1741
Author(s):  
Rita Loloçi ◽  
Orneda Gega Hoxha
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Traditional Societies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Personal Ethics

In this study, we will try to explain the correlation that exists between social ethics and personal ethics. Today’s challenges of human society in the field of ethics, morality and consciousness are not the same in different eras and in nations or groups of states. All three of these domains move more slowly than other processes, but are indispensable in everyday life. State authority in constantly way strive to create legal rules, but their non-compliance with ethic, principles of morality and conscience create major problems in contemporary development. Rapid contemporary developments, especially those in the field of technology and science have brought other concepts to social and personal ethics, but the necessity of their presence always adapting to other conditions has been felt. Today’s man seeks to understand it more in the form of ethics and social education. For example: nudity, morality principles to this phenomenon have changed from generation to generation, once considered shame and today as something private. The reality of the moral and conceptual problems that human and society have had over law, the rights and ethics have changed, concepts have been overthrown, and the way how people have been judged for different situations has evolved. Individual’s education in the traditional societies have been very important issue in his/ her life. That was a lifelong learning process instead. Education’s main purpose was to help the individual during his/her life so that he/she was not only responsible and aware of the environment, but to prepare the individual to fit into real life. In the actual society there are different points of views as far as the moral and civilizing education bonds are concerned. A mutual environment asks for mutual values, but on the other hand it is assumed the need to understand, accept and support even the values which may be different from the individual ones. In other words, the civil education has to treat moral as a separate issue, even though there are different opinions like: moral is a personal choice, moral is given by God, moral is a social agreement, etc. What we should emphasize is the fact that dealing with similar points of view is as important as debating against the opposite ones. It would be very positive if this could be achieved for a common understanding. But does everyone understand what moral, social and personal ethic is? Another question adds to this one: How is the problem of moral going to be treated? And is it necessary to set tasks or duties on moral as well? What features must moral education have in a view of the evolution of society as whole in terms of a new worldview? Today humanity is on the rise and is heading towards great organisation, but one must keep in mind that within this uniformity there is also diversity to be respected. The new worldview must be open to new progress and thinking not only from the content but also from the form.

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