| Today's teacher educators face the challenge of preparing teachers to confront an array of educational, social, and moral problems and to do so in a rapidly expanding electronic environment. Two recent innovations in teacher education---case-method pedagogy and web-enabled instruction---offer promising possibilities for addressing this challenge. The purpose of this research was to explore the efficacy of case-based, web-based instruction for promoting the moral reasoning of teachers in both face-to-face and distance education contexts.; A total of 33 participants at two different institutions of higher education took part in this study. All participants were preservice or inservice teachers who enrolled in a CaseNEX course in order to receive graduate credit. To make comparisons, the groups were split in half, participants opting to participate in either the "live" or "virtual" delivery of the CaseNEX course.; CaseNEX is a set of Web-assisted professional development courses for educators that combines the use of case methods and Web-based technologies. Teachers in the CaseNEX treatments practiced the case analysis process by discussing (online or face-to-face) cases with their peers and instructor. Formal assignments required students to construct analyses that demonstrate that they effectively address the five steps of the process: (1) identify educational issues, problems, or opportunities; (2) recognize different perspectives or values that drive people's actions; (3) call up personal, theoretical, and empirical knowledge relevant to issues identified; (4) propose possible actions for handling the issues identified; and (5) forecast the likely consequences of such actions.; The Defining Issues Test (DIT), a multiple-choice test based on Kohlberg's stage theory, was used to measure the moral judgment development of teachers in the sample. The test is designed to identify an individual's recognition of and preference for using principled moral reasoning. Moral development as measured by the DIT test is determined by the more frequent use of higher stages of moral judgment.; Results suggest that teachers were able to advance their moral reasoning skills during the CaseNEX intervention. Participants' gains were marked by an increasing preference for more complex moral schemas. Results also suggest that a collaborative, case-based approach can enhance the moral reasoning of teachers in both face-to-face and online contexts; that is, that one context is not superior to the other. An exploration of differential subgroup gains in moral judgment development further revealed that those who started with the lowest levels of moral judgment gained the most from their work on cases. As the initial level of moral judgment development increased, the gains decreased. |
