The purpose of this study is to develop a program that enhances the moral development for 5 year-olds and to validate the effects on moral judgment, moral emotions, and behavior consideration. The research questions set for these purposes are as it fo...
The purpose of this study is to develop a program that enhances the moral development for 5 year-olds and to validate the effects on moral judgment, moral emotions, and behavior consideration. The research questions set for these purposes are as it follows.
1. What is the composition of the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program?
1-1. What is the purpose and objective of the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program?
1-2. What are the contents of the moral enhancement of 5- year olds program?
1-3. What are the methods of the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program?
1-4. How will the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program be assessed?
2. What is the result of the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program?
2-1. How does the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program impact children’s moral judgment skills?
2-2. How does the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program impact children’s moral emotion?
2-3. How does the moral enhancement of 5-year olds program impact children on their care behaviors?
In order to construct a program to develop morality, this study collected and analyzed the precedents and literature related to morality and young children’s moral education. Based on the analysis of the literature, the objectives of the program, contents of education, methods of teaching and learning, and evaluation methods were constructed and concrete activities were devised. The developed program was verified through the consultation with the early childhood education specialists.
The purpose of the program is to help young children to become a moral person who is able to appropriately judge according to moral situations, to empathize with himself or herself to others' emotions, and to act in accordance with moral norms. The goals set for this program are 'developing the ability to understand and judge moral norms',' ‘expressing emotions in moral situations and to empathize with others' emotions' 'Practicing behavior that cares for young children according to the moral code'. The program is consisted of three areas: moral judgment, moral emotion, and behavior consideration. The elements of moral judgment are norm understanding, fairness, and decision making. The elements of moral emotion were self - esteem, sympathy. Lastly, the elements of education contents of care action are self - consideration, consideration of others, understanding diversity, and consideration of the environment. The teaching and learning process is designed to explore, recognize, experience, and evaluate. Exploring is a process in which children learn about moral issues, whereas recognition is a process of helping children to recognize and understand moral situations. Experience is the process of developing various moral enhancement activities and experiencing the elements of morality. Lastly, evaluating is the process of internalizing the concept related to moral factors and encouraging the children to live by their morals by talking about experiences and experiences through activities. Teaching strategies are explained, self-expression, conversation and practice. The evaluation of the program is done by the young children and the teacher
In order to verify the effectiveness of the morality improvement program, 48 children(experimental group 25, control group 23) who attend a day care center in Chungcheongnam-do were interviewed from November 21, 2016 to February 3, 2017. Children in the experimental group were provided with a program that consisted of twenty-four activities that lasted 12 weeks. The collected data were statistically analyzed by covariance analysis (ANCOVA) by using the SPSS 20.0 program. The results of the young children morality improvement program are as follows.
First, there was a positive effect on the children's moral judgment ability. In the pre-test, the mean score of the comparative group was higher than that of the experimental group, but the post-test score was higher in the experimental group and the score difference between the groups was also significant. As a result of verifying the difference between the groups in the moral judgment situation, there was no difference in the judgment ability in moral situations, but it was found that there was a difference in judgment ability in the social situations and the personal situations. Furthermore, there was no difference in the moral situation between the groups according to the moral judging criteria, whereas there was a difference in the seriousness in the social situation, the severity in the individual situation, the rule independence and the individual choice possibility. These results imply that the moral improvement program positively affected the moral judgment ability of young children.
Second, the young children morality promotion program has a positive effect on the young children's moral emotional ability. According to the pre-test results for moral emotion, the mean score of the comparative group was higher than that of the experimental group. However, in the post-test, the experimental group average score was higher than that of the comparative group, and the score difference between the groups was also statistically significant. The emotional and compassion subscales of the moral emotion subscale were higher in the comparison group than in the experimental group. However, in the post test, all of the four subscales were higher in the experimental group and the score difference between the groups was also significantly different. These results suggest that the moral improvement program positively affected the moral emotional change of young children.
Finally, the children’s morality improvement program has a positive effect on the care behaviors of young children as well. In the post test, the average score of the experimental group was higher than that of the comparative group, and the score difference between the groups was also statistically significant. The group differences among the four subcategories of care behaviors were also significant. These results suggest that the moral improvement program has a positive effect on the change of care behaviors of young children.
The results of this study suggest that “The Moral Enhancement of 5-year olds Program” had a positive impact on children’s moral judgment, moral emotion, and care behaviors. In particular, the effectiveness of the moral improvement program was greater in moral emotions and care behaviors than in moral judgments, proving that the ability of moral judgment can be a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition to cause a moral behavior. In order for moral knowledge to be linked to practice, systematic education on moral emotion and care behaviors is needed. As a result, “The Moral Enhancement of 5-year olds Program” suggests that this program is highly applicable in terms of studying the morality of young children