Edwin Fenton

Secondary School Moral Discussion Programmes Led by Social Studies Teachers

Abstract An experiment is reported on the effect of a moral discussion programme taught in the schools by regular classroom teachers. Number of discussions and type of teacher preparation were varied. Students’ moral judgment stage was assessed before and after the programme and teachers were observed throughout the course of the year. A substantial degree of moral judgment stage change was shown in some but not all of the classrooms. Three variables associated with likelihood of student moral judgment change were number of discussions, range of pre‐test moral judgment stage within the classroom, and teachers’ skills in eliciting moral reasoning from students during the discussions.

Developing Inquiry Skills with an Experimental Social Studies Curriculum.

AbstractAn experimental social science curriculum with the express intent of developing inquiry skills was tested in a controlled experiment against an established conventional curriculum. The new curriculum involved inquiry skill objectives as well as knowledge objectives for each unit; readings stressed source material. Post-experiment testing showed that students who followed the experimental program developed inquiry skills to a significantly greater degree than students in the control group.