The use of moral dilemmas in teaching American history: Strategies for improving critical thinking, moral reasoning, and learning

The field of moral/values education was surveyed and the models of inculcation, values clarification, values analysis, and Lawrence Kohlberg's cognitive moral development were sketched. The tradition of moral education in American public schools was delineated. A survey of the literature traced the development of Kohlberg's theory, chronicled the adaptation of his theory to the classroom, and summed research which explored the efficacy of employing dilemma discussions to improve critical thinking and to increase learning.; Two experiments were conducted in consecutive school years, examining the effect that dilemma discussions and critical thinking discussions had when employed in four class periods of a unit of United States history instruction which focused on the relationship between religion and reform during the ante-bellum era. Teaching materials and a critical thinking discussion methodology were developed and data were collected with pretest and post test instruments. The analysis of the data indicated that no significant differences existed, before or after the experiment, between the two discussion groups for either year for the variables of critical thinking, moral reasoning, and learning. Some trends towards significance were found and conclusions were drawn from the research. A proposal was made for a replication of the experiment which would have more discussion time and would last at least one semester.