Moral Text Comprehension: implications for education and research

Several studies are reviewed that examine differences in moral schema development using techniques intermediate between measuring implicit knowledge (such as with the DeŽ ning Issues Test) and explicit knowledge (such as with the Moral Judgment Interview). Findings include signiŽ cant differences in the comprehension of moral narratives based on age/education and on level of expertise. Also, intended moral themes in stories are not understood by younger children. It is safe to say that most research in moral development has focused on moral judgement (i.e. the reasoning used to advocate a certain action choice in a moral dilemma). In this tradition, researchers recognise that people conceptualise moral problems differently, based on developmental age and education (e.g. Kohlberg, 1984; Rest, 1986). As individuals develop in moral judgement, transformations occur in how they construe their obligations to others. According to a moral constructivist theory, these transformations can be viewed as changing moral schemas (conceptual understandings) about how it is possible to organise co-operation (Rest et al., 1999, 2000). Conceptual understandings are transformed as individuals extract meaning from experience and construct models of the world. As meaningmaking matures and moral judgement complexity increases, an individual’s considerations expand, and he or she is able to consider the welfare of more and more “others” when conceptualising ideal forms of co-operation (e.g. at the lowest schema, one is primarily concerned for self whereas in the most developed type of schema, one includes concern for strangers.) Constructivist theory suggests that understandings change as individuals, through experience, construct new views of and responses to the world. Constructivist theory generally, and moral constructivist theory speciŽ cally, assumes that an individual processes or interprets experience based on previous experience or knowledge. Cognitive Schema Theory (CST) suggests that when an individual is presented with information, a schema or knowledge structure is activated to interpret the information. This idea is predominant in reading research. After a general discussion about the effects of schema ISSN 0305-7240 print; ISSN 1465-3877 online/01/010043-12 Ó 2001 Journal of Moral Education Ltd DOI: 10.1080/03057240120033802