A Four-Year Longitudinal Study of Principled Judgment Reasoning in Teacher Education Students

This paper has four objectives. First, to conceptually link studies of principled judgment reasoning to recent efforts by national teacher accrediting bodies to include professional dispositions as a teacher education program goal. Second, the investigator reports four-year longitudinal results of a character development study of teacher education students as measured by principled judgment reasoning scores. Four-year results are compared with other four-year longitudinal samples. Third, the investigator examines correlations between principled judgment reasoning and prospective teachers’ performance during student teaching. Finally, implications are drawn for teacher education programs.