TY - JOUR
T1 - Biology Students’ Morality When Engaged With Moral Dilemmas in the Human-Nature Context
AU - van der Leij, Tore
AU - Avraamidou, Lucy
AU - Wals, Arjen
AU - Goedhart, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science under the DUDOC program.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 van der Leij, Avraamidou, Wals and Goedhart.
PY - 2021/9/13
Y1 - 2021/9/13
N2 - Framed within the Four Component Model (FCM) of morality, this case study investigates the nature of Dutch 15–16 years old biology students’ morality in socioscientific issues in the human-nature context. In doing so, we discuss the morality of 12 students with data collected through individual semi-structured interviews following the implementation of a specially-designed curriculum. During the interviews the students discussed a moral dilemma related to the rehabilitation of seals. The findings indicate that students demonstrated aspects of all four FCM components. The students placed themselves in the perspectives of involved stakeholders, both affectively and cognitively. In addition, the students exhibited both rationality-based and emotion-based moral reasoning. A number of students experienced an “inner conflict” between cognitive and emotional reasoning, which affected their moral motivation and–as such–represented their moral reflection process. Students’ moral emotions were often decisive in their moral decision-making. Among the different kinds of moral emotions (compassion, guilt, duty, respect), compassion appeared most. The findings are discussed alongside implications for future research with a focus on encouraging aspects of students’ morality, which are an important part of citizenship skills.
AB - Framed within the Four Component Model (FCM) of morality, this case study investigates the nature of Dutch 15–16 years old biology students’ morality in socioscientific issues in the human-nature context. In doing so, we discuss the morality of 12 students with data collected through individual semi-structured interviews following the implementation of a specially-designed curriculum. During the interviews the students discussed a moral dilemma related to the rehabilitation of seals. The findings indicate that students demonstrated aspects of all four FCM components. The students placed themselves in the perspectives of involved stakeholders, both affectively and cognitively. In addition, the students exhibited both rationality-based and emotion-based moral reasoning. A number of students experienced an “inner conflict” between cognitive and emotional reasoning, which affected their moral motivation and–as such–represented their moral reflection process. Students’ moral emotions were often decisive in their moral decision-making. Among the different kinds of moral emotions (compassion, guilt, duty, respect), compassion appeared most. The findings are discussed alongside implications for future research with a focus on encouraging aspects of students’ morality, which are an important part of citizenship skills.
KW - biology education
KW - four component model of morality
KW - human-nature context
KW - morality
KW - socioscientific issues
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115856741&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/feduc.2021.729685
DO - 10.3389/feduc.2021.729685
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115856741
SN - 2504-284X
VL - 6
JO - Frontiers in Education
JF - Frontiers in Education
M1 - 729685
ER -