THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT TEACHING STRATEGIES ON THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL-EDUCATION STUDENTS

This study examined the effectiveness of social learning (SL) or struc tural developmental (SD) teaching strategies on the moral development of elementary-age students. Participants were 204 physical education s tudents in Grades 4, 5, and 6; three classrooms in each grade were ran domly assigned to control, SL, or SD groups. Self-report measures asse ssed moral judgment, reason, and intention; teachers rated prosocial b ehavior. By mid-and postintervention class-level analyses, the SL and SD groups scored significantly higher than the control on moral judgme nt and/or intention; by postintervention, the SD group was significant ly higher on moral reason. Mid-and postintervention student-level anal yses showed that the SL and SD groups scored significantly higher on m oral judgment, intention, and behavior; the SD group was significantly higher on moral reason. These results provide support for the effecti veness of both social learning and structural-developmental teaching s trategies on the moral development of children in physical education.