The present study focusses on the description and analysis of the religious beliefs and practices of a central Taiwanese spirit-writing cult or "phoenix hall" (luantang). A phoenix hall is a voluntary religious association of congregational character centring upon communication with the gods by means of the divinatory technique of "spirit-writing" (fuluan). While spirit-writing can be and is used as an oracle for the solving of believers' personal problems, its more high-profile application is for the writing of so-called "morality books" (shanshu), i.e., books of religious instruction and moral exhortation. Spirit-writing cults are nowadays the most important sources of such works. Much attention has been given to morality books as mirrors of the social concerns of their times, but comparatively little work has been done on the groups that produce them and the meaning these works have for them. An adequate understanding of the meanings and functions of morality books, however, is impossible without some knowledge of the religious groups that produce them and the role played by morality books in their beliefs and practices. It is the objective of this thesis to provide a detailed description and analysis of one such group, the "Temple of the Martial Sage, Hall of Enlightened Orthodoxy" (Wumiao Mingzheng Tang), a phoenix hall in the city of Taizhong that was founded in 1976 and has played a significant role in the modern development of the shanshu genre through the active and varied publications programme of its publishing arm, the Phoenix Friend Magazine Society. The study utilizes data extracted from the Hall's published writings as well as interview, observation, and questionnaire data collected during an eight month period of field research in Taizhong. Part I provides a macrohistorical overview of the development of spirit-writing cults on the Chinese mainland (chapter 1) and on Taiwan (chapter 2) since the nineteenth century, leading up to the case-example's microhistory (chapter 3). Part II is devoted to an account of the beliefs and practices of the Wumiao Mingzheng Tang, including descriptions and analyses of its organization, deities, ritual activities, concepts of moral cultivation, and of the body of morality book literature it has produced over the years. The appendix contains samples of the cult's morality book and scriptural literature, as well as of various liturgical texts.

No description available.

Beginning with Piaget, literature has accumulated indicating that children's moral judgments pass through a series of stages culminating in the application of high order general principles to practical judgments. Principled moral reasoning, therefore, has come to be seen as similar in principle to other abstract sciences where less formal, narrative forms of thinking are seen to be less abstract and more immature. Kohlberg's research as inspired by the work of Piaget who had tried to connect the development of a child's moral judgment to its overall cognitive development. Kohlberg believed that as the whole human personality matures, our thinking about right and wrong starts at a preconventional level, then progresses to a conventional level, then finally arrives at postconventional thinking. Each of these three levels has two specific stages. Kohlberg's research included subjects from many cultures, and therefore, he believed that he was uncovering a universal innate developmental structure of the human personality. Carol Gilligan has posed a serious threat to this general scheme by suggesting that a more narrative contextual approach to moral reasoning, what she calls an "ethic of care", which far from applying abstract moral rules to particular cases, treats each case in terms of a host of considerations any or all of which may have some role in arriving at a judgment or an action. She argues that such moral reasoning is as valid an orientation of moral thinking as that based on the application of general, abstract rules, and furthermore, that the bias towards this orientation is, at base, a gender based. A rich body of data has now been collected congruent with these claims. In order to explore the relationship between this alternate proposal and Gilligan's "justice" and "care" orientations, this study was designed to examine the moral orientation with a group of adolescents, fifteen boys and fifteen girls, at two high schools in Durban. The participants live in a working class, housing estate that has high levels of crime and violence. The adolescences were requested to reflect upon two scenarios depicting real life dilemmas, and then engage in moral judgments and decision-making in response to probing questions put to them in an interview situation. Results have shown that, contrary to Gilligan's view; across age and gender the adolescences responses reflected a higher moral orientation to justice than care. 66% of boys' responses show greater use of a justice orientation in their reasoning than care orientation 34%. A similar pattern was evident with girls across the age ranges: 53% of girls' responses were justice oriented as against to 47 % that were care oriented. An interesting finding was that girls' use of a justice orientation increased with age, and the use of moral reasoning that reflected a care orientation decreased with age. However, in line with Gilligan's theory, boys' responses across age ranges reflected a higher orientation to justice than to care. Based on previous research findings (Gilligan & Attanucci, 1988; Johnston, 1988), it was hypothesized that female learners would demonstrate higher ethic of care scores than men. The results from this study fell in line with this hypothesis. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Vaikystė – tai toks žmogaus gyvenimo laikotarpis, kai vystosi patys svarbiausi asmenybės charakterio bruožai bei psichologiškai bei fiziškai būtiniausi įgūdžiai. Suaugusiųjų pastangos sukurti savo atžaloms ar ugdytiniams emociškai saugią ir vertybiniu atžvilgiu pilnavertę atmosferą turi ypatingą reikšmę. Pagrindinis tiek šeimos, tiek ugdymo įstaigos uždavinys yra dorovinis asmenybės auklėjimas. Tyrimo tikslas: išsiaiškinti ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų moralinį brandumą ir padėti suaugusiesiems tinkamai įvertinti jų dorovinio auklėjimo svarbą. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Išnagrinėti pedagoginę ir psichologinę literatūrą apie žmogaus moralinės mąstysenos reiksmę ir aktualumą, aptariant ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų dorovinio ugdymo ypatumus. 2. Sužinoti, kokias ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų vertybines nuostatas atskleidžia jų elgesys įvairiose socialinėse situacijose. 3. Išsiaiškinti, kokie yra tiriamojo prioritetai, sprendžiant įvairias moralines dilemas. 4. Atskleisti, kokios vertybiniu atžvilgiu aktualios problemos kyla ikimokyklinio ugdymo įstaigose ir mėginti suprasti to priežastis. 5. Išsiaiškinti pedagogų požiūrį į vaikų dorinį ugdymą bei sužinoti jų taikomus ugdymo metodus. Tyrimo metodai: 1. Teorinis: mokslinės ir psichologinės literatūros analizė. 2. Empiriniai: stebėjimas, pokalbis, anketavimas. 3. Statistinis: tyrimo rezultatų apdorojimas. Tyrimo dalyviai: stebėjimuose dalyvavę 130 penkerių – šešerių metų amžiaus vaikai; individualių pokalbių metu moralines dilemas sprendę 105... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Childhood is the period of lifetime when the most important character traits of personality and necessary psychological and physical skils are under development. The adult efforts to create an emotionally safe and valuable atmosphere for their offspring or pupils are of great significance. The moral education of personality is to be the main task of family and school .The aim: to clarify preschool children’s moral maturity helping adults to evaluate the importance of moral education. Tasks: 1.To analyse educational and psychological literature on the relevance of human moral thinking, discussing the features of preschool children’s moral education, as well. 2. Finding out the moral values of children’s behavior in different social situations. 3. To clarify particular child’s priorities solving various moral dillemas. 4. To reveal topical moral problems in the educational institutions trying to understand their reasons. 5. Finding out teachers’ views on the moral education of children and appropriate methods applied. Research methods: 1. Theoretical: The analysis of scientific and psychological literature. 2. Empirical: Observation, interview, questionnaire. 3. Statistical: Proceeding the results of empirical research. Participants of research: observation included 130 five to six-year-old children; 105 five to six-year-old children participated in the individual interview solving moral dillemas; 97 educators of kindergarten answered the questionnaire. The study revealed... [to full text]

Department of Educational Leadership

This empirical study aimed at determining any significant difference in level of moral judgment between behaviourally handicapped adolescent clinic school pupils of normal intelligence (experimental group) and a matched sample of non-behaviourally handicapped pupils (control group). Moral judgment level was measured in terms of Global stage Scores and Weighted Average Scores using Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interviews and standard Issue scoring. Secondary aims were to determine whether the data obtained indicated significant sex differences in level of moral judgment and to compare the mean level of moral judgment of the experimental and control groups with existing research. A statement and motivation of the problem and clarification of concepts were followed by an evaluation of applicable pre-Kohlbergian research, the philosophical foundations of Kohlberg’s theory and the theory itself. This was followed by an examination of the methods of research and the empirical study. The data generated indicated a significant difference in mean level of moral judgment between the research groups in favour of the control group when controlling for age, gender and socio-economic status. This difference was highlighted by comparisons with existing research. No significant gender differences in moral judgment were found. Important conclusions reached were: - Experimental group pupils were retarded in level of' moral judgment and, unlike the pupils in the control group, most had not yet reached stage 3 moral reasoning. - Sex differences in moral judgment were not found as is predicted in Kohlbergian theory (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987: 130). - Sub-group comparisons indicated chronological age to be an important factor in the measurement of moral judgment. The research findings imply that: - Attempts should be made to raise the level of moral judgment of pupils like those in the experimental group specifically, but also that of all pupils. - Planned moral education programmes can ignore sex differences, but not chronological age. - Varied research into moral judgment is necessary. / Dissertation (MEd)--PU for CHO, 1990

This empirical study aimed at determining any significant difference in level of moral judgment between behaviourally handicapped adolescent clinic school pupils of normal intelligence (experimental group) and a matched sample of non-behaviourally handicapped pupils (control group). Moral judgment level was measured in terms of Global stage Scores and Weighted Average Scores using Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interviews and standard Issue scoring. Secondary aims were to determine whether the data obtained indicated significant sex differences in level of moral judgment and to compare the mean level of moral judgment of the experimental and control groups with existing research. A statement and motivation of the problem and clarification of concepts were followed by an evaluation of applicable pre-Kohlbergian research, the philosophical foundations of Kohlberg’s theory and the theory itself. This was followed by an examination of the methods of research and the empirical study. The data generated indicated a significant difference in mean level of moral judgment between the research groups in favour of the control group when controlling for age, gender and socio-economic status. This difference was highlighted by comparisons with existing research. No significant gender differences in moral judgment were found. Important conclusions reached were: - Experimental group pupils were retarded in level of' moral judgment and, unlike the pupils in the control group, most had not yet reached stage 3 moral reasoning. - Sex differences in moral judgment were not found as is predicted in Kohlbergian theory (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987: 130). - Sub-group comparisons indicated chronological age to be an important factor in the measurement of moral judgment. The research findings imply that: - Attempts should be made to raise the level of moral judgment of pupils like those in the experimental group specifically, but also that of all pupils. - Planned moral education programmes can ignore sex differences, but not chronological age. - Varied research into moral judgment is necessary. / Dissertation (MEd)--PU for CHO, 1990

This study is scientifically aimed at the problematic question of the present situation regarding the climate in the Bible Education classroom in secondary schools. A possible cause of the problems experienced with Bible Education and the negative view prevalent with regard to the subject, can be ascribed to the prevailing climate in the Bible Education classroom in the secondary school. An empirical study was conducted by means of a structured questionnaire distributed to the Bible Education teachers and a stratified sample of ten pupils per class at four Afrikaanse secondary schools. The four schools were chosen at random and served as test sample. According to the answers of the respondents, it became clear that the present classroom climate puts a very high premium on rules and control in the classroom. Therefore it would appear as if a lot of work needs to be done concerning the mutual relationship between teacher and pupil for the effective improvement of the climate in the classroom. / Skripsie (MEd (Didaktiese Opvoedkunde))--PU vir CHO, 1995

Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.