CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS
Conclusions
A one-way ANOVA and correlational analyses were used to examine the association between teachers’ moral reasoning and their sense of self-efficacy. To address the hypothesis that teachers consolidated on postconventional or maintaining
norms will exhibit higher scores on self-efficacy domains, an exploratory one-way
ANOVA was used to compare the self-efficacy scores of four groups based on DIT2 Type Indicators. The mean for the TSES total score, student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management increased from personal interests to maintaining norms transitional. This suggests that as teachers move from Kohlberg Stages 2 and 3 to Stage 4, the changes are likely to be accompanied by a positive change in their self- efficacy beliefs. There were no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the TSES and each of the subtests across the moral reasoning groups. The absence of findings between transitional versus consolidated levels of moral reasoning and self-efficacy may be due to low power.
A follow-up ANOVA using two groups to increase power included two levels of maintaining norms. There was an increase in the mean from low to high maintaining norms for the TSES total score and each of the subtests. This is an indication that as teachers maintaining norms scores increase, likewise their scores in self-efficacy beliefs tends to increase. There was a statistically significant positive difference in the mean scores of the TSES total score and statistically significant positive difference in the mean
classroom management scores for levels of maintaining norms. The results support the claim that as teachers develop higher levels of Stage 4 moral reasoning abilities, their self-efficacy beliefs concerning their ability to effectively manage the classroom also increase. In the maintaining norms phase individuals recognize that rules and norms are essential to a cooperative society; thus, as teachers’ moral reasoning focuses more on preserving rules and norms in ethical situations, they may feel more confident about their ability to keep order in the classroom.
The second follow-up ANOVA used two levels of postconventional. There was a decrease in the mean from low to high postconventional for the TSES total score and each of the subtests. This is an indication that as teachers postconventional scores increase, their scores in self-efficacy beliefs tend to decrease. There was a statistically significant negative difference in the mean scores of the TSES total score and statistically significant negative difference in the mean classroom management scores for levels of postconventional. The results indicate that as teachers develop higher levels of
postconventional thinking, their self-efficacy beliefs concerning their ability to
effectively manage the classroom tend to decrease. Individuals in postconventional stage of moral reasoning recognize that rules are not static and can be challenged when
necessary for the greater good of society. As teachers transition into postconventional moral reasoning, where rules and norms are more apt to be questioned or challenged, they may have difficulty balancing moral reasoning with rigid classroom and/or school rules regarding student behavior.
As a final analysis to examine the relationship between the moral schemas as defined by DIT2 and teacher sense of self-efficacy, a correlational analysis was
completed using the three moral schemas and four categories of TSES. Consistent with the outcomes of the follow-up ANOVAs, the correlational analysis showed a statistically significant positive relationship between maintaining norms and TSES, maintaining norms and classroom management, and a statistically significant negative relationship between postconventional and TSES, and postconventional and classroom management. This, too, is an indication that as teachers develop their moral reasoning abilities
consistent with Kohlberg Stage 4 or maintaining norms, there is an increase in their beliefs concerning their ability, particularly dealing with classroom management, and while as teachers develop moral reasoning abilities consistent with postconventional thinking (Stage 5 & 6), there is a decrease in their beliefs regarding their ability to deal with classroom management.
An HLM analysis was used to examine the association between teachers’ moral reasoning and their sense of self-efficacy on the gains in NCE scores of the academic achievement of their students. NCE scores are normalized standard scores, ranging from 1 to 99, with a mean of 50. The differences between two consecutive NCE scores are the same throughout the scale. When NCE gain is equal to zero – meaning no change in NCE, this is an indication that students maintained their relative position. However, if all students grow at the same rate (assuming the average growth is an indicator of one year’s worth of growth), then the average NCE gain score would equal zero, because that would mean all the students maintained their relative position in comparison to each other.
To address the hypothesis, teachers with high moral reasoning scores and high
self-efficacy scores will show greater gains in the academic achievement levels of their students, three progressive HLM models were used to test the amount of variation in
students’ math NCE gain scores that could be explained by teachers’ moral reasoning and self-efficacy scores. The results showed that at the classroom level, the regression
coefficient for maintaining norms was significantly positive (b = 3.56, p < .05). NCE gain scores were higher for students whose teachers were classified in the maintaining norms group. In other words, teachers who chose maintaining norms argument most often tended to have a positive association with gains in their students’ math
performance. In consideration, maintaining norms was shown to have a positive
association with classroom management; thus, the results of the HLM could suggest that teachers who predominately utilize maintaining norms arguments may experience fewer distractions or interruptions during instruction, which could contribute to higher gains in achievement. Postconventional schema and the predictors related to the TSES were not statistically significant.
Implications
Studies in professional ethics have shown a positive link between levels of moral judgment development and professional behavior (Bebeau & Thoma, 1999; Klinker & Hackmann, 2005). However, there is a gap in the body of empirical research that
specifically explores the link between how teachers’ reasoning about moral dilemmas and their ethical behavior. Despite the National Education Association’s strong efforts to promote a community of professionalism, there have been and will continue to be
educators at the center of legal cases resulting from ethical violations. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between teachers’ levels of moral judgment and their professional behavior based on the theoretical framework of Rest’s four component model.
In Rest’s four component model of morality, four psychological processes interact with each other in order for a moral action to occur. Moral judgment development and moral character and implementation (as measured by perceptions of self-efficacy) are two of the four processes examined in this study. Moral judgment is the decision concerning right and wrong or good and bad, and the reasons that support the decision, while moral character and implementation is the ability to carry out a moral action. Based on Kohlberg’s stages of moral judgment development (1976), the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2) was used to measure the reasoning process teachers employ when making
decisions about moral dilemmas. Founded in the work of Bandura (1993), Component 4 processes were measured using the short form of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) to assess teachers’ beliefs about their ability to influence and manage student behavior.
Although there was no statistically significant difference found to support hypothesis 1, teachers consolidated on postconventional or maintaining norms will
exhibit higher scores on self-efficacy domains; the mean scores of the self-efficacy
domains increased from personal interest to maintaining norms transitional. The increase in mean score from personal interest to maintaining norms transitional is consistent with previous studies which have shown a positive link between moral behavior and moral
action (Bebeau, 2002, 2009a, 2009b; Bebeau & Thoma, 1999; Klinker & Hackmann, 2003). When power was increased, by combining the four groups of DIT2 into two groups to increase the sample size, the analyses showed a statistically significant positive difference between classroom management scores by levels of Kohlberg’s Stage 4 (maintaining norms). These findings provide further support for a positive link between specific stages of moral judgment and moral character and implementation. In particular, as teachers develop through maintaining norms stage of moral development, there is a positive association with their beliefs about their ability to manage and influence student behavior.
There was a significant, though small, change in students’ math NCE gain scores, which was accounted for by the variance in teachers’ maintaining norm status. The regression coefficient of 3.56 for maintaining norms suggests that those students, whose teachers were identified as predominantly using maintaining norm arguments, scored an average of 3.56 points higher than those students whose teachers were not identified as using maintaining norms. So, how does the moral development of teachers relate to student achievement? Is there a relationship between the moral development of teachers and student-teacher interactions, which impacts student achievement? These findings call for further examination of the relationship between stages of moral development and its association to change in student achievement.
Limitations
There were several limitations to this study that could have contributed to the non-significant results. First, the achievement variance for classroom only (no
predictors) was 5.3%. This is a fairly small amount of variance to explain, which indicates that the classrooms were very similar in terms of gains in achievement. Future studies using random assignment or case-control method for cohort data may yield different results. Second, students may have performed similar to one another due to the state’s controversial issues surrounding the high-stakes exam. The state elected to fully implement the Common Core State Standards curriculum for the 2013-2014 academic year; however, the benchmark assessment administered was not aligned to the Common Core curriculum, but assessed the old state standards. Thus, students may have
performed poorly because the test used was not designed to measure the new
performance standards that were implemented in classroom instruction throughout the school year. Third, the DIT2 was significantly correlated with only one of the three sense of self-efficacy domains. Given the exploratory nature of this study, the association found between moral reasoning and self-efficacy may need to be confirmed using other measures of self-efficacy construct. Fourth, self-efficacy was measured by perceptual data versus actual teacher effectiveness. Teachers’ perceptions about behavior in the classroom may differ from their actual performance. Further, there was a ceiling effect in the measurement used to assess self-efficacy; with 7 percent of the teachers scoring at the highest level of efficacy (9.0) measured by the TSES, (meaning “a great deal” of
confidence/belief). Other measures may better estimate the variance among those teachers who rated themselves at the highest maximum level allowed.
In conclusion, these findings bring attention to the need to conduct more research on teachers’ moral reasoning development. For example, teachers with high
postconventional scores had a negative association with beliefs about their ability to manage classroom behavior. Further research could aid educators in designing professional development programs that will provide teachers with the skills to
effectively balance their higher-order moral reasoning while allowing for the promotion of positive equilibrium in the classroom. In addition, other measures of students’
academic achievement that includes factors of autonomy, creativity, as well as analyzing and synthesizing information may provide a better alignment between teachers’
postconventional thinking and student performance. Lastly, only the maintaining norms schema was significant for gains in students’ math performance. Additional research could increase the understanding of nuances concerning the direct impact of teachers’ ethical behavior or moral actions on the learning environment.
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