Published:
Summer, 2010
In this article, the author outlines broad theoretical and practical issues in teaching ethics and morality.
He first defines the terms "morals, ethics and character" following the analysis used by Deigh and illustrates them in the classroom setting.
He discusses the necessity to teach the process of arriving at decisions and not the decisions themselves.
He presents Kohlberg's staged theory of moral development and recent critiques of it based on cultural and gender differences as well affective as opposed to cognitive processes.
He also suggests the application of Bandura's social learning theory to moral development, introducing the use of modeling as a technique for reinforcing the development of moral behavior.
He applies the heteronomy perspective of philosophy endorsed by Maimonides to suggest how to help students learn to make appropriate choices to moral dilemmas.