Moral theme comprehension in children.

Abstract

Although some claim that reading moral stories to children will improve their moral literacy (see, e.g., Bennett, 1993), little research has been done that bears on this question. The purposes of this study were to (a) test the idea that children can extract the theme from a moral story and (b) test for developmental differences in moral theme comprehension. Participants from 3rd and 5th grades and a university were tested on whether they understood the lessons (i.e., the moral themes) from several moral stories. They were asked to identify both the theme from a list of message choices and which of 4 alternative vignettes had die same theme. Participants also rated the set of message and vignette choices for closeness of match to the original story. Reading comprehension was used as a covariate. Developmental differences in moral theme understanding were significant even after accounting for reading comprehension.Although some claim that reading moral stories to children will improve their moral literacy (see, e.g., Bennett, 1993), little research has been done that focuses on this question. Bennett and others (e.g., Kilpatrick, 1992;Lickona, 1991;Wynne & Ryan, 1993) have stated that children need to hear moral stories to develop moral literacy and moral character. Regardless of the paucity of research examining such assumptions or the educational effects of reading moral stories on the reader (Leming, 1997), these assertions raise questions: What do children extract from a moral text? What do they understand as the theme or message? The purposes of this study were to test character educators' implicit claim that children can extract the theme from a moral story and to test for developmental differences in moral theme comprehension. The questions we sought to answer include the following: Do readers understand a moral text in the manner intended by the author? Can any listener extract the theme or message from a moral text? Is reading ability the sole determinant of moral theme comprehension? In this study, we integrated theory from both moral development and text comprehension to examine development in moral theme comprehension.

Be Kind to Three-Legged Dogs: Children's Literal Interpretations of TV's Moral Lessons

“…We focused on an episode that (to adult viewers) appeared to teach tolerance of social differences. In making this choice, we were consistent with Narvaez et al (1999) who argued that the essence of moral stories is that they contain themes about getting along with others (as opposed to themes related to prudence, such as ''don't be vain'' or ''don't be fooled''). In essence, we wanted to examine whether the target audience's understanding of the plot and the lesson of the episode were consistent with the intended effect.…”

“…Williams et al (2002) expanded on this model and argued that readers not only have to attend to the event and the outcome and make a judgment, but must also go beyond the specifics of a story to make a generalization. Similarly, Narvaez et al (1999) suggested that in order to successfully understand a moral theme, the individual must integrate the intention-action-outcome chains of events to derive a message, remember the message, put it into words, and make a generalization.…”

“…However, there is a sizable body of research on children's comprehension of written moral stories, and (as will be discussed further) that research suggests that they typically interpret stories in ways that are inconsistent with the writer's intent (e.g., Narvaez, 1998;Narvaez, Gleason, Mitchell, & Bentley, 1999).…”

The Model and the Measure: An appraisal of the Minnesota approach to moral development

“…Using techniques of discourse processing, she has demonstrated that children's interpretations of moral themes and events were often characterised by signi cant distortions, re ecting the notion that people will readily comprehend what accords with their schemas but will misconstrue what does not. Further ndings have revealed individual variability in moral comprehension or sensitivity as a function of cultural background, domain expertise and developmental level (Narvaez et al, 1998;Narvaez et al, 1999). This line of research could pro tably be extended by classifying, in some way, the different features of common moral situations and exploring developmental patterns in sensitivity to their signi cance.…”

A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach to Morality Research

“…Theme comprehension in moral texts. Narvaez (1999) and Narvaez et al (1998Narvaez et al ( , 1999 merge traditional moral judgement research strategies with text comprehension research methods to illuminate the comprehension of moral themes in stories. Moral educators commonly assume that children understand the moral messages of moral stories, and that reading moral stories leads to moral literacy which in turn leads to moral character (Bennett, 1993).…”