In this thesis it is argued that the fundamental goal of education is one of equipping students to think well, that is, to make decisions on the basis of arguments that are both logically cogent and ethically grounded. Moreover, the concern of the thesis is the role social and environmental education might play in fostering both the capability and the readiness to engage widely in such thinking. Drawing on relevant philosophical and psychological theory the study describes the development of an educational programme grounded in the procedures of ethical inquiry and taught via whole-class community of inquiry style discussions. The programme was trialled by way of a large scale, matched intervention study in South Australian upper primary classrooms. The findings from the research project indicate that participation in the programme produced significant gains in participants' logical and ethical reasoning and also that the programme fits within the constraints of prevailing educational structures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/284095 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Collins, Carol |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | EN-AUS |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Carol Collins 2004 |
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