STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF THE MORAL ATMOSPHERE IN SECONDARY-SCHOOL AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MORAL COMPETENCE AND MORAL ATMOSPHERE

This study of students' perceptions of the moral atmosphere in seconda ry schools was mainly inspired by the Just Community theory of Power, Higgins and Kohlberg (1989). The concepts they used in their intervent ion studies of schools developing into a Just Community were operation alised through a paper-and-pencil instrument for the measurement of st udents' perception of the moral atmosphere in school. To assess the re liability, validity and the power of the instrument a study was carrie d out in which 1553 students from 32 Dutch secondary schools participa ted. The schools were selected from among four types of schools varyin g in educational level: (1) junior vocational secondary education, (2) intermediate secondary education, (3) university preparatory and high er secondary education and (4) schools that were a mixture of intermed iate secondary education, and university preparatory and higher second ary education. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences b etween schools and school types. Analyses of covariance with students' moral competence (assessed with the SROM-sf) as a covariate and moral atmosphere as dependent variable, showed that the effect of school, f or all the schools taken together and for each school type, remained s ignificant. The practical significance of these results is addressed.