Are you interested in Moral Education?

Join the Character in Community Research Team!

Middle School Project Activities 2004-2005:

• Observe classrooms and work with family activities
• Conduct classroom surveys on moral development
• Learn to conduct Moral Judgment Interviews with students
• Help with sport and character research

Also: Help with laboratory research on moral information processing or the Media Research Team

Work with one or more members of the Moral Education Team:
Darcia Narvaez, Clark Power, Ann Power, Nicole LaVoi and others

Sign up for two or three credits Psy 398 or 498; special studies forms available in 118 Haggar

Email your questions to dnarvaez@nd.edu
For more information on Dr. Narvaez' work, go to her webpage.

Special Studies Structure:

Meet weekly with the entire Moral Development Team of people who are working on different projects (see below). We will read and discuss articles on moral development. You will also meet weekly with your project group(s).

Projects You Can Participate In:

• Moral Identity Project:
    (need one or two people. Contact Nicole LaVoi)
    How is an individual's perception of their Real and Ideal self related to the development of moral identity? Does moral identity change depending on context (e.g., does one have moral identity at home and another moral identity at school) or is it a trait-like variable? How is moral identity related to other psychosocial variables like motivation, sense of belongingness, ethical sensitivity, citizenship, life satisfaction or goal orientation? Students will help collect, learn to code and help analyze data pertaining to moral identity in both the classroom and sport team settings.

• Ethical Sensitivity: The Coach-Athlete Relationship:
    (need one or two people. Contact Nicole LaVoi)
    How is moral sensitivity related to relationship quality in the coach-athlete relationship. How are the dimensions of closeness and conflict related? Do females prefer a qualitatively different kind of relationship with their coach than males? Do dimensions of relationship quality change over the developmental trajectory? What strategies can be used to teach coaches to be Ethical Experts and develop ethical sensitivity? Students will explore how the expert-novice apprenticeship model of ethical expertise can be applied to the coach-athlete relationship with the goal of realizing the potential of sport to foster positive development. Students will carry out literature reviews, help design surveys, and may collect and analyze data.

• Moral Judgment Interviews:
    (need up to 20 people. Contact Clark Power)
    Learn about moral judgment development and how to conduct interviews that measure level of moral judgment development using Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview. Clark Power, one of its creators will instruct you. Then you will go and interview middle school students in South Bend schools. Each fall we will be conducting interviews on the same set of students to see how their moral judgment develops.

• Ethical Development: Home & School Connections:
    (need 5-10 people. Contact Ann Power)
    What kinds of homeroom activities help middle school students focus on ethical issues and develop ethical sensitivity and judgment? How can teachers involve parents and other family members in reinforcing and incorporating the ethical skills being learned in school? How do background factors (e.g., culture, race/ethnicity, family structure, and socioeconomic status) influence this process? Help the Moral Education Team in its creation and testing of curriculum for middle school homerooms through this special focus on family influences. Students will review the literature in this area. They will also be asked to observe in classrooms, conduct interviews, and/or assist in preparing survey data for use in homerooms in South Bend public schools' newly formed intermediate centers (grades 5-8).

• Moral Information Processing:
    (need one or two people. Contact Darcia Narvaez)
    Various individual and developmental differences affect how a person understands a story. People construct different representations of stories and take away different messages. Help design and collect data on the processing of moral stories.

• Media Research Team:
    (need up to 5 people. Contact Darcia Narvaez)
    What do kids understand from the media they encounter? What messages do they get from everyday shows and stories? What stories and shows influence their moral development? Help design and conduct studies to study how children understand moral narratives in film and print.
  For more informaiton on the Maedia Research Team, go to its website