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Soc Psychol Educ (2010) 13:575–591DOI 10.1007/s11218-010-9127-x
Contributions of moral education lectures and moral
discussion in Hong Kong secondary schools
Chau-kiu Cheung · Tak-yan Lee
Received: 3 July 2009 / Accepted: 19 April 2010 / Published online: 19 May 2010© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract Moral education in the traditional form of classroom didactic lectures in
secondary schools has been prevailing in Hong Kong since the initiation of moral
education in the 1980s. However, such a traditional form has not received credit from
research in the West. Instead, discussion of moral issues would be a more effective
way of moral education than would didactic lectures. Because of the differential ways
of moral education in Hong Kong, findings from other places can be subject to a test in
Hong Kong. As such, this study employed panel data from 19,069 secondary schoolstudents in Hong Kong to analyze the impacts of moral education on moral commit-
ment to sustain societal interests. Findings indicated a weak contribution of moral
discussion and an even weaker contribution of moral education lectures to moral com-
mitment. These findings therefore echo those in other places and suggest that real-life
moral education contributes in the expected way, albeit weakly.
Keywords Moral education · Moral discussion · Cognitive development
In school, moral education can usually take the form of didactic lessons inculcating
moral concepts and discussion sessions mobilizing students to discuss moral issues.
The former typically represents lessons committed to moral education, whereas the
latter can permeate religious, civic, social, public affairs, classroom teachers’ les-
sons, as well as moral education lessons. A study of the effectiveness of such moral
education in the real-life school setting is necessary because of the paucity of such
studies (Berkowitz et al. 2008; Leming 2008). Instead, research has concentrated on
the examination of experimental moral education programs (Conroy 1999; De Haan
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576 C. Cheung, T. Lee
and Hanford 1997; Halstead and Taylor 2000a, b; Miller et al. 2005; Pace 2003; Power
et al. 1989). This question is of fundamental concern, before any attempt to investigate
the impacts of specific forms and ways of moral education. A panel studyof moral edu-
cation in Hong Kong is opportune to answer the fundamental question because moral
education is relatively new in Hong Kong (Leung 1992; Postiglione 1991, 1992). Thenewness of moral education makes moral education available only in some of the
secondary schools, thus allowing the analysis of the impact of moral education in a
comparative way.
A study of the effectiveness of moral education in secondary schools appears to be
commonly important, because it is supposed to be crucially relevant to young people’s
moral and other forms of positive development (Halstead and Taylor 2000a, b; Power
et al. 1989). Hence, moral education in secondary schools tends to happen at the right
place and time for young people aged between 14 and 17 (Furnham and Stacey 1991).
In addition to experimental research on well-controlled moral education programs, astudy of moral education practiced in a real-life, non-experimental setting is crucial
to inform educational policymaking applicable to all students. Such a study would
minimize the inflation of the effectiveness of moral education due to experimental
control and selection of program participants (Galston 2001; Mahy and Vandeville
1996). Hence, the study would reveal the effectiveness of moral education practiced
in the real-life school setting.
The study of the effectiveness of moral education in Hong Kong is valuable for the
test of the generalizability of research findings obtained in the West and other places,
because of variations in moral education and sociocultural contexts across places. Thegovernment of Hong Kong, as a major sponsor of schools, has begun to advocate
moral education. Notably, the government has established a support team to facilitate
moral education in schools (see the Website of the Curriculum Development Insti-
tute, Government of Hong Kong: emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeid=2397&langno=2).
The schools, nevertheless, are free to implement their own moral education, typically
in the traditional Chinese way. Such a traditional way relies on didactic classroom
lectures, delivered in an authoritarian manner (Cheng 2004; Ip et al. 2000). The cram-
ming of moral knowledge would be different from moral education based on a just,
caring, and democratic community advocated in the West (Higgins-D’Alessandro andPower 2005; Knipprath 2005;Lapsley and Narvaez 2006). Nevertheless, despite the
differences in educational and cultural contexts, moral development in Hong Kong is
comparable to that in the West and other places (Cheung et al. 2001; Ma and Cheung
1996). As such, the effectiveness of moral education for moral development is a
universally researchable concern.
1 Research aims
This empirical research aims to examine if the impacts of moral education in terms
of moral education lectures and moral discussion in particular are generalizable to
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Moral education 577
willingness to perform moral action. Although moral commitment is not necessarily
a cause of moral action, the commitment is vital in safeguarding the quality of moral
action, that is, exemplary moral action such as rescue (Youniss and Yates 1999). Pro-
moting moral commitment is therefore a goal of moral education and is worthwhile
for this study. Specifically, examination of the effect of exposure to moral discussionin school serves to assess the contribution of cognitive-developmental theory to moral
education (Richmond and Cummings 2004; Snarey and Pavkov 1992). An essential
research expectation is that moral discussion is more important than the lecture form
of moral education lessons in raising the student’s moral commitment. This expecta-
tion stems from past observations about the relative strength of discursive and didac-
tic forms of moral education (Berkowitz et al. 2008; Halstead and Taylor 2000a, b;
Leming 2008). The didactic or classroom lecturing form of moral education lessons
characterize those in Hong Kong, with respect to guidelines issued by the government.
Accordingly, the guidelines stipulate that students should learn from moral educationlectures to develop many content areas, including being a responsible person, family
member, and citizen, serving society devotedly, and maintaining harmony and order
in society. The guidelines also advise schools to deliver moral education lessons by
means of storytelling, projects, field visits, community service, and reflection. They,
however, do not include moral discussion as a key approach to moral education.
The didactic form of moral education lessons may not lead to impressive develop-
ment in thestudent’s moralcommitment in that moraldevelopment requiresa structural
change that goes beyondcontent change, according to cognitive-developmental theory
(Kohlberg et al. 1983). Accordingly, moral structure progresses from an egocentricto a sociocentric concern, which is broader, more inclusive and universalistic than
the former. The progression manifests cognitive development in that it represents the
expansion of one’s scope of interest from the ego and people nearby to people in soci-
ety and universalized principles. This development thereby focuses on the sharpening
of the individual’s reasoning ability, thus taking moral reasoning as the necessary
condition for moral development. Practically, it places a greater emphasis on the com-
petence than the performance aspect of morality. It would downplay the importance
of content pertaining to moral values and moral conduct. This represents a liberal
approach to moral development, which does not impose moral values on the student.The didactic, lecture form of moral education lessons, as characterized in character
education (Smagorinsky and Taxel 2005), would do the most to inculcate in students
moral values that are morally correct in content. Such content involves longstand-
ing virtues such as benevolence, justice, propriety, and trustworthiness (Damon and
Gregory 2003). Many of these virtues are universally virtuous; especially when they
endorse the Golden Rules or categorical imperatives of (1) treating others like treating
oneself, (2) respecting others as an end rather than a means, and (3) universalized
application that receives everyone’s support (Holmes 2003). As learning such virtues
tends to foster moral commitment (Beck and Ajzen 1991), the didactic moral educa-
tion lessons may become relevant. To inculcate such virtues, moral education lectures
would apply the techniques of giving examples, role modeling, and experiential learn-
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578 C. Cheung, T. Lee
The lecture format of the moral education lesson is the traditional approach to
teaching children about moral virtues, and is justified by Aristotelian or Confucian
principles (Arthur 2008; Berkowitz and Bier 2008; Wang 2004). Accordingly, lectur-
ing is necessary because children are not knowledgeable and intellectual enough to
reflect on moral concepts. A lecturer is therefore necessary to explain and inculcatemoral concepts to foster children’s habituation to the concepts (Steutel and Spiecker
2004). The lecture is reasonable in that knowledge about morality is absolute and
hence requires an authoritative figure to teach (Carr 2005).
Moral discussion, in contrast, has assumed credit due to the cognitive-developmen-
tal theory of moral development. Accordingly, the theory posits that disequilibrium
in reasoning involving peers would best facilitate development in moral reasoning
(Kohlberg 1985; Weinreich-Haste 1986). Disequilibrium occurs when one confronts
reasoning at a stage higher than one’s own. Consequently, it facilitates progression
along the moral stages, with hedonistic concern for pleasure and pain as the loweststage, concern for personal interest as the second stage, concern for interpersonal
accord as the third stage, concern for social order and law as the fourth stage, concern
for social contract as the fifth stage, and concern for universal principles as the sixth
stage. The credit of disequilibrium largely stems from the grouping of peer discussants
with similar moral reasoning stages. Such a setting represents a democratic setting of
the just community, which encourages discussants to maximize their reasoning com-
petence (Power et al. 1989). Essentially, moral discussion needs to center on moral
issues or dilemmas, which typically involve the trade-off between interests of the
person and society order (Carpendale and Krebs 1992; Wark and Krebs 1996). Thetrade-off is indispensable to invoking moral reasoning, such as sacrificing personal
interests for social order. Moral dilemmas allow one to demarcate what is moral and
immoral (Kohlberg et al. 1983). Evidence in favor of the contribution of moral dis-
cussion is abundant (Berkowitz et al. 2008; Haan et al. 1985; Halstead and Taylor
2000a, b), but its generalizability may not be fully adequate. Notably, desirable find-
ings under controlled settings may not generalize to real-life school settings, which
mix heterogeneous groups of students and pedagogical strategies (Berkowitz et al.
2008).
2 Specific research expectations
The study estimates the impacts of earlier attendance at lectures of moral education
lessons and exposure to moral discussion on the student’s moral commitment, in terms
of level and growth. This estimation is possible by analyzing panel data gathered from
the same students through three waves of a survey. These data unfold the levels and
increments of moral commitment in a latent growth curve model (Bast and Reitsma
1997; Wickrama et al. 1997). The model furnishes the test of the following hypotheses
concerning relationships among the growth as well as the level of moral commitment,exposure to moral discussion, and having moral education lectures, embedded among
th bl ( Fi 1)
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Moral education 579
Moral discussion
Moral educationlesson
Family structure
Parental education
Birthplace
Grade
Age
Female
Group size
Moral
commitmentgrowth
Moral
commitment
level
Commit,
Wave 1
Commit,
Wave 2
Commit,
Wave 3
3
2
1
1
1
1
Fig. 1 Latent growthcurve model simplified. Note: Forthe purpose of simplification, the illustration groups
moral lessons, family structure, parental education, birthplace, grade, age, and female into one box
2. Having moral education lectures has a positive effect on the level of moral com-
mitment.
3. Exposure to moral discussion has a positive effect on the growth of moral com-
mitment.
4. Having moral education lectures has a positive effect on the growth of moral
commitment.
The above hypotheses essentially address the net effects of moral education lecturesand moral discussion on moral commitment. Such qualification is necessary because
exposures to the lectures and discussion are not mutually exclusive, and because moral
discussion can be a part of moral education lessons. Essentially, multivariate analysis
serves to clarify the net effects due to exposure to moral discussion and exposure to
moral education lectures that do not consist of moral discussion in an analytical way.
Both exposures to moral education lectures and moral discussion are group-level
variables, based on students of the same grade of a school. When a school provides
moral education lectures to a certain grade of students, all students of that grade would
have exposure to the lectures. In contrast, moral discussion refers to the proportion of
students in a grade of a school who participate in discussion about moral issues in vari-
ous class sessions. Exposure to such group-level moral discussion is more appropriate
than student-level moral discussion as a predictor of moral commitment in that (1)
discussion is necessarily a collective activity (Halstead and Taylor 2000a, b) and (2) it
is unlikely a result of any one student’s characteristics, including moral commitment.
The collective development property of group discussion is also a feature of cogni-
tive-developmental theory (Snarey and Pavkov 1991; Power et al. 1989). Exposures
to group-level moral discussion and moral lectures are therefore reasonable predictors
of moral commitment rather than vice versa.
The latent growth curve model that allows for random variation due to groups of
students is suitable to examine the individual- and group-level impacts on the level
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580 C. Cheung, T. Lee
the latent growth curve model also incorporates a number of variables to serve the
control purpose of minimizing bias. These control variables include family structure,
parental education, birthplace, grade, sex, and age. Besides, some other background
influences indicate the need for statistical control. Such influences transpire in the sex
difference in moral conduct (Wentzel 2003), and differences in moral values due toage (Markoulis and Valanides 1997) and sex (Mihalic and Elliott 1997).
3 Methods
The study drew data from 19,069 Hong Kong students of 23 secondary schools thrice,
in October 1999, April 2000, and October 2000. These students were all the eighth
through thirteenth graders in the sampled schools during the third wave. They were
from schools of various kinds (government and aided schools), located in differentparts of the special administrative region of Hong Kong. All of the schools relied on
financial support from government, which nevertheless allowed schools to implement
their moral education activities in their own pace. The schools participated in the study
partly as a form of support for the quality education initiative launched by govern-
ment. Meanwhile, the schools could track the moral development of their students with
the aid of the study. In support of the study, school personnel worked with research
personnel in administering all the three waves of surveys to all students in class time.
The surveyed students consisted of roughly equal proportions of boys (51.0%,
see Table 1) and girls (49.0%). Their average age was 14.9 years and their averagegrade was 9.6. During Wave 3, 4,856 (25.5%) were Grade 8 students, 4,755 (24.9%)
were Grade 9 students, 4,085 (21.4%) were Grade 10 students, 3,989 (20.9%) were
Grade 11 students, and 1,384 were Grade 13 students (7.3%). No Grade 12 students
participated because they were new students admitted to the first matriculation grade
of the schools. In Hong Kong, matriculation grades (12 and 13) were separate from
lower, non-matriculation grades (7–11). The student, on average, already had higher
education than did the student’s father and mother, whose average years of education
were 8.7 and 8.3, respectively. A great majority (85.3%) of the students lived with both
fathers and mothers, whereas 10.5% lived with either fathers or mothers and 4.2% didnot live with parents. Close to one-fifth of the students were born in Mainland China
and then migrated to Hong Kong.
When a school organized moral education lectures and moral discussion within the
lessons or some other classes, including those on religion and public affairs, it offered
them for the whole grade within the school. As each grade in a school formed a group
of students, there were 117 groups during the Wave 1 survey, 110 groups during the
Wave 2 survey, and 108 groups during the Wave 3 survey. During the Wave 1 survey,
31 (26.5%) of the groups had moral education lectures and 48 (41.0%) had moral
discussion. During the Wave 2 survey or the second term of the first school year,
33 (30.0%) of the groups had moral education lectures and 40 (36.0%) had moral
discussion. During the Wave 3 survey of the first term of the second school year, 14
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Moral education 581
Table 1 Means and standard deviations
Variable Scoring M SD
Moral commitment at Wave 3 0–100 48.2 15.4
Moral commitment at Wave 2 0–100 48.1 15.6
Moral commitment at Wave 1 0–100 48.0 16.3
Exposure to moral discussion at Wave 2 (yes = 100) 0,100 25.1 43.4
Exposure to moral discussion at Wave 1 (yes = 100) 0,100 22.9 42.0
Having moral lectures at Wave 2 (yes = 100) 0,100 20.8 43.6
Having moral lectures at Wave 1 (yes = 100) 0,100 16.2 39.6
One parent (yes = 100) 0,100 10.5 30.6
No parent (yes = 100) 0,100 4.2 20.0
Father education Years 8.7 3.7
Mother education Years 8.3 3.6
Born in Mainland China (yes = 100) 0,100 18.6 38.9
Female (yes = 100) 0,100 49.0 50.0
Grade 6-13 9.6 1.5
Age at Wave 3 Years 14.9 1.7
Group size Persons 203.1 52.1
that schools tended to organize moral education lectures and moral discussion at a
lower grade. Overall, as moral discussion could be part of moral education lessons,exposures to moral discussion and moral education lectures showed a correlation of
.317 ( p < .001).
3.1 Measurement
Moral commitment . Moral commitment referred to the commitment to perform moral
behavior for the interests of society. It covered six items: “trying hard to maintain
social order,” “trying hard to improve the moral atmosphere in society,” “trying hard
to redress injusticein society,” “contributing to public interests in society,” and“willingto sacrifice own interests for sustaining societal interests.” These items were adapted
from existing measures of moral behavior (McCann 1997) and social responsibility
(Valette-Florence and Jolibert 1990). Rating scores ranged from 0 for “very little,” 25
for “rather little,” 50 for “average,” 75 for “rather a lot,” and 100 for “very much.”
The composite, internal consistency reliability (α) was .782 at Wave 1, .783 at Wave
2, and .774 at Wave 3.
3.2 Analytic procedures
Analysis concentrated on the estimation of structural relationships portrayed in
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582 C. Cheung, T. Lee
ments of moral commitment across the three waves of surveys. The level factors were
simply the averages of conditions in the three waves, as theyemitted equal connections
to the conditions. Having differential connections to conditions in the three waves, the
increment or growth factor indicated the average increment of the condition from an
earlier wave to a subsequent wave. Besides, the model allowed for correlations amongmoral commitment, exposure to moral discussion, and having moral lectures with
the same wave of study to capture time effects on the time-varying factors. To adjust
for any bias due to the clustering of data according to 110 groups in the 23 schools
of the third wave, analyses of the confirmatory factor model and latent growth curve
model both reliedon the adjustment technique provided inM plus (MuthenandMuthen
2006). The clustering bias occurred when student cases were under the common con-
textual influence of theschool. This clustering yielded an intraclass correlation of .018.
Adjustment for this bias was feasible through the estimation technique for complex
survey design in M plus (Muthen and Satorra 1995).For the credibility of estimation from the latent growth curve model, the model
needed to attain a good fit to the data. Such a fit would be associated to a low likeli-
hood ratio chi-square ( L2) and its ratio to degrees of freedom (df ), root-mean-square
error of approximation (RMSEA) lower than .07, standardized root-mean-square of
error (SRMR) lower than .05, andcomparative goodness-of-fit index (CFI) higher than
.95 for a model having 15 input variables (Hu and Bentler 1999). A model with more
input variables, such as that in the present study, could relax the criteria for attaining
a good fit (Marsh et al. 2004).
4 Results
Moral commitment, on average, increased very little from 48.0 at Wave 1 to 48.2 at
Wave 3, within one year (see Table 1). In contrast, exposure to moral discussion, on
average, exhibited a clear increasing trend from Wave 1 to Wave 2 ( M = 22.9–25.1).
This pattern of change did not dovetail with that of moral commitment, suggesting
the lack of correspondence between moral discussion and moral commitment at an
aggregate level.
4.1 Analysis of the latent growth curve model
The latent growth curve model, involving the specification of level and growth factors
for moral commitment, exposure to moral discussion demonstrated a very good fit
( L2(22) = 41, CFI = .998, RMSEA = .007, SRMR = .004). Accordingly, goodness-
of-fit indicators, especially the standardized root-mean-square residual (.009), met the
criteria for good fit very well (Hu and Bentler 1999). The good fit primarily indicated
the validity in identifying the level and growth factors to summarize variation across
the three waves.
Regarding the prediction of moral commitment, the expected effects of exposure to
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Moral education 583
Table 2 Direct effects on moral commitment level and growth
Level Growth
b β b β
Exposure to moral discussion, 6 months before 7.744 .101∗∗ 3.725 .123∗
Exposure to moral discussion, 1 year before .122 .002 −1.810 −.063
Having moral education lectures, 6 months before −.771 −.040 −.273 −.035
Having moral education lectures, 1 year before .289 .013 .272 .032
1 parent (vs. 2 parents) −.211 −.007 −.490 −.042∗
No parent (vs. 2 parents) .037 .001 −.248 −.014
Father education .090 .036∗∗ .032 .032
Mother education .014 .006 .019 .019
Born in Mainland China .481 .021 .105 .011Age −.024 −.004 .188 .086∗∗∗
Female (vs. male) −1.866 −.110∗∗∗ −.600 −.089∗∗∗
Group size .002 .015 .000 −.001
R2 .244
L2 41
df 22
CFI .998
RMSEA .007
SRMR .004
# p < .10;∗ p < .05;
∗∗ p < .01;∗∗∗ p < .001
six months before would be 7.744 points higher on moral commitment than another
student who did not have exposure to moral discussion. Nevertheless, the standardized
effect was small (.101), suggesting far greater variation in the scale of moral commit-
ment than in the scale of exposure to moral discussion. However, exposure to moral
discussion one year before did not exhibit a statistically significant positive effect on
moral commitment level. The combined metric effect of exposure to moral discussion
in the previous six months and previous year was 7.866, which was statistically signif-
icant at the .01 level (based on the procedure of M plus for testing combined effects).
Hence, exposure to moral discussion generally engendered a statistically significant
positive effect on moral commitment level.
Findings about the effects of exposure to moral discussion were in sharp con-
trast with those about the effects of having moral education lectures. The latter were
statistically insignificant and somewhat negative based on the model that included
exposure to moral discussion as a predictor (see Table 2). However, another model
that discarded exposure to moral discussion as a predictor found that the effect of hav-
ing moral lectures six months before was statistically significant (β = .040), whereas
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584 C. Cheung, T. Lee
esis 2 concerning the contribution of moral lectures to moral commitment. However,
the delayed contribution of moral lectures one year before was very weak (b = 0.290).
In support of Hypothesis 3, exposure to moral discussion six months before offered
a statistically significant positive effect on moral commitment growth (β = .379, see
Table 2). The growth would be 3.725 points higher for a student exposed to moraldiscussion six months before than another student not exposed to moral discussion six
months before. Nevertheless, exposure to moral discussion one year before did not
accelerate moral commitment growth.
Hypothesis 4 receives some support when having moral education lectures six
months before showed a statistically significant effect on moral commitment growth
(β = .061, not shown in tables), with the exclusion of exposure to moral discussion
as predictors. Having moral education lectures six months before tended to raise
moral commitment growth by 0.471 point. However, the inclusion of moral discussion
reduced the contribution of having moral education lectures six months before to bestatistically insignificant (β = -.035, see Table 2). Moreover, having moral education
one year before did not offer a statistically significant positive effect, with or without
exposure to moral discussion in the analysis. These findings indicate that the contribu-
tion of moral discussion was greater than that of moral education lectures. Moreover,
the contribution of moral education lectures required mediation by moral discussion.
5 Discussion
The striking findings show that attending moral education lectures contributed little
to the Hong Kong secondary school student’s moral commitment directly. At most,
exposure to moral education lectures six months before corresponded to moral com-
mitment level that was 0.764 points higher, in the absence of moral discussion in
the predictive model. The effects of having moral education lectures previously were
very weak in standardized terms (< .041). All these findings suggested that moral
education lectures in general did not lead to a remarkable increase in moral commit-
ment. Even though the contribution of moral education lectures six months beforewas statistically significant, Hypotheses 2 and 4 therefore do not receive wholesale
support because the statistically significant contribution tended to depend on exposure
to moral discussion.
In contrast, Hypotheses 1 and 3 about the contribution of exposure to moral dis-
cussion receive support from the statistically significant effects of exposure to moral
discussion sixmonthsbeforeon moral commitment level andgrowth. Moreover, expo-
sure to moral discussion six months before and one year before combined to produce
a statistically significant effect on moral commitment level. Moral discussion is then a
social-interactional factor conducive to the development of moral commitment. These
findings about the mediating role of raised moral reasoning by moral discussion for
the promotion of moral commitment are supportive of cognitive-developmental theory
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Moral education 585
The findings about the weak effects of moral education lectures tend to be a realistic
one in view of variation in school and moral education resources for moral develop-
ment. They concur with the view that the routine delivery of moral education activities
is unlikely to generate appreciable progression in moral development (Colby et al.
2003; Richmond and Cummings 2004). Unlike demonstration projects, routine edu-cational activities do not take advantage of special design, expertise, close monitoring,
and creative techniques and do not recruit volunteers and selected students promising
for moral development. When these educational activities involve students in gen-
eral, the activities appear to contribute sparingly to students’ moral development. In
contrast, specially designed and monitored educational programs may display impres-
sive effects due to their selected and experimental nature. Even though experimental
effects found in existing studies are statistically significant (De Haan and Hanford
1997; Halstead and Taylor 2000a, b), their practical significance is limited if their
standardized effects are weak. When standardized effects are under consideration, theweak effects of moral educational activities in general would not be exceptional. The
weak effects are also justifiable when they apply to all secondary school students, at
least those in Hong Kong, rather than to a small segment of the student population
selected for some experimental moral education lectures.
The weak contribution of moral education lectures in Hong Kongmay also be due to
thedidacticandeven authoritarian andboring educational tradition there (Cheng 2004;
Ip et al. 2000). Moral education lectures tend to cram students with factual knowledge
about moral values and virtues, which may have limited application in everyday life.
They may be deficient in fostering a liberal approach to promote discursive under-standing and cognitive disequilibrium favored by the cognitive-developmental theory
of moral development. Such an approach tends to be instrumental to moral devel-
opment in view of the contribution of moral discussion to moral commitment. This
finding lends support to the claim that the liberal, discursive approach broadens one’s
moral mind and thus prepares for favorable moral outcomes even without imposing
a clear direction for the content of moral development. The cognitive-developmental
emphasis on structure rather than content in moral development is thereby sustain-
able. Nevertheless, such a liberal, discursive approach is difficult to implement, as it is
contingent on the moral educators’ skills that may not be widely available (Halsteadand Taylor 2000a, b). The lack of educational talent and resources would be inevitably
responsible for the limited success of moral education in general. These arguments
are presently speculative, in need of empirical research on the meditational impacts of
teacher andclassroomcharacteristics. Nevertheless, thefindings areconsistent with the
view about the ineffectiveness of traditional approaches of moral or character educa-
tion (Leming 2008). All these observations champion the incorporation of discussion,
interactive, service learning, and other strategies in moral or character education to
boost its effectiveness (Berkowitz et al. 2008; Lapsley and Narvaez 2006).
The weaker contribution of moral education lectures than moral discussion to the
adolescent student’s moral commitment is compatible with the Aristotelian princi-
ple of moral education. Accordingly, the principle suggests that moral lectures are
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586 C. Cheung, T. Lee
lectures. This is because boredom can arise from the adolescent’s knowledge about the
subject (Waterman and Archer 1993). The findings therefore reinforce the condition
for the cognitive-developmental approach to moral education, which benefits from
adolescents’ interpretative and deliberative capability (Colby et al. 2003; Joseph and
Efron 2005).Apart from moral education lectures and discussion, the student’s sex made a statis-
tically significant difference in both moral commitment level and growth. This finding
is consistent with some existing findings (Gillis and Hagan 1990), but contradictory
to other findings (Mihalic and Elliott 1997; Wentzel 2003). Because of the suspicion
about the sex differential in moral development (Wark and Krebs 1996), the pres-
ent finding may imply that the boy is more assertive or self-confident in expressing
commitment than is the girl (Catsambis et al. 1999; Heyns 1996).
A student who was older and had both parents in the family tended to have higher
growth in moral commitment. Besides, moral commitment was higher in a studentwhose father had higher education. The contribution of age is consistent with research
and theory based on cognitive development, which increases with age to facilitate
moral development (Markoulis and Valanides 1997). Moreover, the contributions of
family structure and paternal education for moral development are consistent with
related research and theory about family socialization (Raw and Marjoribanks 1991).
5.1 Further research
Research aiming to demonstrate the contribution of moral education in general would
benefit from incorporating data from various contexts to enhance the generality of
findings. The multiplicity of contexts would consist in the pooling of data from dif-
ferent places, peoples, and times. Importantly, research in this direction can explore
contextual factors that make a difference in the impact of moral education. It can also
provide a justification for the findings revealed in the present study in Hong Kong. In
this juncture, further research using data from multiple contexts can examine whether
the authoritarian educational tradition, egotistic and amoral societal ethos, and other
unique features in Hong Kong (Ikels 1989; Ip et al. 2000; Lau and Kuan 1988) areresponsible for the weak contribution of moral education. Moreover, further research
can tap the possibility that authoritarian teaching fosters compliance with school-spe-
cific regulations, without translating it into moral action. This investigation would
draw on the case about foreclosure in identity development (Marcia 1980; Berzonsky
1988). To facilitate such investigation, further research needs to gather data from con-
texts with clear variation in education tradition, societal ethos, and other contextual
features. Preferably, further research needs to show how moral education can raise the
student’s moral commitment and moral action in order.
Another path for further research is the elaboration of factors conducive to the
success of moral education activities. This is an approach to elucidate specific rather
than general features about moral education. The approach is a proliferation of many
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Moral education 587
will involve a closer examination of the effectiveness of the cognitive-developmental
approaches and social-cognitive approaches. To study the cognitive-developmental
approach, disequilibrium and the just community, involving a liberal, democratic, and
equitable stance would be essential factors (Kohlberg 1985; Snarey and Pavkov 1992).
Essentially, further research needs to specify the mediating role of moral reasoningassociated with different developmental stages for the contribution of moral discus-
sion to moral commitment and behavior. For assessing the social-cognitive approach,
role modeling, enactive or experiential learning, cognitive restructuring, and reward
and punishment would be relevant (Bandura 2002; Hoffman 1991; Siegal 1982).
5.2 Implications
Findings indicate that moral discussion implemented in school can be promising formoral and character development. However, such a conclusion inevitably involves
two caveats. Firstly, findings about the weak contribution of moral education lectures
and discussion imply that one cannot expect too much success from the current deliv-
ery of moral education generally in Hong Kong (β < .11). Nevertheless, the second
implication holds, that because moral education at least demonstrated a weak positive
effect on moral commitment, an improved design and implementation of moral edu-
cation may achieve enhanced effectiveness. The first implication does not support
treating moral education, at least in its present form and practice, as a panacea for
moral problems in young people. This implication is consistent with the contentionthat schooling contributes little to youth development, other than the academic and
intellectual aspect (Larson 2000). One of the clues to success is the democratic set-
ting in youth organizations, as opposed to the authoritarian one inherent in schools
(Kahane 1997; Larson 2000; Lerner 2004). Hence, authoritarian teaching, as in many
forms of character education (Smagorinsky and Taxel 2005), would be a hurdle to the
student’s moral development. For moral education to be effective, it needs to change
in form and practice along the line of the cognitive-development approach to moral
development. Apparently, the didactic, indoctrination approach is not enough to fuel
structural changes required for moral development (Veugelers 2000). Moral educa-tion would not be merely a means to transfer moral information across generations.
It also needs to strip off its authoritarian atmosphere to bring in a liberal, discursive
one instead. Conversely, the fundamental problem with moral education in general is
the lack of educational resources, notably talented moral educators who are skillful to
implement the above changes. Apart from conveying didactic content, such educators
need to play a crucial role in facilitating moral discussion under a just-community con-
text. According to cognitive-developmental theory, effective moral discussion would
require discussion among peers who are at adjacent stages of moral development
(Kohlberg 1985; Powers and Higgins 1992). To enable cognitive stimulation, educa-
tors need to ensure that discussants are not equally low in moral stages.
The school may not be a very effective place for moral development, in view of the
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588 C. Cheung, T. Lee
such, partnership with the family and community, service learning, and developing a
care atmosphere in the whole school would be necessary to enhance the effectiveness
of moral or character education (Berkowitz et al. 2008; Lapsley and Narvaez 2006).
These implications therefore champion the generalization of lectures from the West
and other places.
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Author Biographies
Chau-kiu Cheung is an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, China. He has recently
published articles concerning social change, character education, peer influence, and class mobility. His
current research addresses issues of patriotism, drug abuse, social harmony, and intercity cooperation.
Tak-yan Lee is an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, China. He has recently pub-
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