USING MORAL DILEMMAS IN CHILDRENS-LITERATURE AS A VEHICLE FOR MORAL EDUCATION AND TEACHING-READING COMPREHENSION

Moral development research has previously demonstrated that more exten ded discourse is a vital element in effective moral education, althoug h the difficulty of implementing this type of discourse into classroom practice has seldom been discussed. In this study, transcripts of les sons were examined of a teacher systematically assisted to develop a m ore conversational style. These lessons were taped over the course of the school year at different times, beginning in the fall of the year. In addition, writing samples from children who participated in the le ssons were subject to content analysis for themes relating to moral qu estions. Analysis of the lesson transcripts suggests that young studen ts initiate discussion of values-implications of the texts they read i f opportunities for connected discourse are increased Evidence of the impact of more ''conversational'' discussions was found in the essays written by students in the class of a teacher using a more conversatio nal style but not in the essays of students who were caught using a co nventional format.