Brenda Jo Bredemeier

Promoting Moral Growth in a Summer Sport Camp: The Implementation of Theoretically Grounded Instructional Strategies

Abstract The present field experiment was designed to explore the effectiveness of social learning and structural developmental prescriptions for moral pedagogy in a summer sports camp. Eighty‐four children, aged five to seven years, were matched on relevant variables and randomly assigned to one of three classes: (a) social learning, (b) structural developmental, or (c) control. Each of the classes shared similar curricula and was taught by two trained instructors for a six‐week period. Educators is the experimental conditions implemented theoretically grounded instructional strategies in their weekly emphasis on specific moral themes. Analyses indicated significant pre‐to‐post gains on a Piagetian intentionality task and a measure of distributive justice within both experimental groups, but MANCOVA results indicated differences between the experimental and control conditions only approached significance.

Sociomoral Education Through Physical Education With At-Risk Children

This paper presents a theoretically grounded and empirically tested intervention to promote the sociomoral growth of children through physical education. The intervention, which has been implemented with at-risk urban elementary school children, is based on the moral action model proposed by Shields and Bredemeier (1995). The first section of the paper discusses the appropriateness of physical education for sociomoral education. Then, the intervention program goals are identified: promoting empathy, moral reasoning maturity, task motivation, and self-responsibility. Four major components of moral education are then identified and illustrated: cooperative learning, building moral community, creating a mastery motivational climate, and transferring power from teacher to students concomitant with students acceptance of increasing personal and social responsibility. We conclude with anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention.

Athletic Aggression: A Moral Concern

Athletic aggression: Is it character-building and valuable or, perhaps, destructive and repugnant? Sport is an arena of human interaction where aggression and violence are sometimes idolized, sometimes condemned, but most often legitimated and at least tolerated. In this chapter the phenomenon of athletic aggression will be examined from social-scientific and ethical perspectives which have been informed by the study of moral development.

Contest, Competition, and Metaphor

In this essay, the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor is used to distinguish between two distinct forms of contesting. When a contest is interpreted through a metaphor of partnership, genuine competition takes place. When a contest is interpreted through a metaphor of war, decompetition occurs. Competition and decompetition are distinct social practices with different implications for what goals are pursued, the motivations tapped, and the views of opponents, officials, and rules. Competition and decompetition also carry into the contest different value orientations which influence the ethical practices of participants. Finally, we discuss how the metaphor of sport may carry a decompetitive mindset into other related domains, such as business and politics.