ORTAÖĞRETİM ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN AHLÂKİ YARGI YETERLİLİKLERİ: TÜRKİYE-SAMSUN VE İNGİLTERE-LANCASHIRE KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI

SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDEDENTS’ MORAL JUDGMENT COMPETENCE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN SAMSUN-TURKEY AND LANCASHIRE-ENGLAND

Özet

Bu araştırmanın amacı, Türkiye (TR) ve İngiltere (UK) ölçeğinde ortaöğretim öğrencilerinin ahlâkî yargı yeteneklerinin ampirik olarak karşılaştırılmasıdır. Bu kapsamda, Türkiye ve İngiltere'de ortaöğretim öğrencilerinin ahlâkî-bilişsel gelişimleri; ülke, cinsiyet, okul türü ve sınıf düzeyi açısından karşılaştırmalı olarak ortaya konulmuştur. Çalışma, araştırıcı tarafından 2012 yılı Haziran ayında Türkiye-Samsun ile İngiltere-Lancashire bölgesinde bulunan benzer yapıya sahip 4 ayrı ortaöğretim okul türünde okuyan 10, 11 ve 12. sınıf öğrencileri üzerinde yapılmıştır. Araştırmada, Kohlberg'in bilişsel gelişim teorisine dayanan (Çağdaş ve ark.2002; Çiftçi, 2003a, Ekşi 2006) ve Georg Lind (1978) tarafından geliştirilen, temel olarak işçi ve doktor olmak üzere iki ahlâkî ikilemden oluşan ahlâkî yargı yeteneğini veya ahlâkî yeterlilik ölçüsünü C-skora göre ölçen Moralischer Urteil Test (MUT)'un yine Lind tarafından İngilizceye uyarlanan versiyonu olan Moral Judgament Test (2009 yılı versiyonu) (MJT) kullanılmıştır. Nermin Çiftçi (2001a) tarafından Türkçeye uyarlanan "Ahlâkî Yargı Testi" (AYT) uygulanmıştır. Böylelikle İngiltere ve Türkiye ortaöğretim kademelerinde öğrencilerin performansları MJT/AYT kapsamında ele alınmıştır. MJT/AYT'nin Lind tarafından geliştirilen değerlendirme ölçütü, Ahlâkî Yargı Puanı olan bilişsel/yapısal C-puanı hesaplanmış, verilerin analizinde ölçeğin ikili karşılaştırmalarda bağımsız gruplar için t testi; çoklu karşılaştırmalarda ise tek yönlü varyans analizi (ANOVA) kullanılmıştır. F değerinin anlamlı olduğu durumlarda post-hoc test olarak HSD kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada hata payı, 05 olarak alınmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda öğrencilerin ahlâkî yargı yeteneği puanlarının cinsiyet, okul türü ve sınıf değişkenlerine göre farklılaştığı belirlenmiştir. Araştırma bulguları, daha önce yapılan yerli ve yabancı çalışmaların bulguları doğrultusunda tartışılarak yorumlanmıştır. Araştırma sonunda elde edilen çıktıların kültürlerarası değer ve ahlâkî eğitim karşılaştırmalarına, eğitim öğretim süreçlerine, ortaöğretim programlarının geliştirilmesine ve ahlâkî gelişime ilişkin yapılacak düşünülmektedir. çalışmalara kaynaklık etmesi açılarından önemli olduğu düşünülmektedir

Abstract

Introduction and Purpose: Piaget's theory of moral development wasestablished based on the positive relationship between the present status ofcognitive development and biological maturation, as well as the cognitive andmoral development. Kohlberg, who reconsidered and expanded Piaget's theory ofmoral development, based the moral development on the development of moraljudgment rather than moral action.Kohlberg's moral judgment competence is based on the principle of finding thefairest solution in a dilemma situation in which there is evidence of conflictingvalues and judgments. This is defined as an individual's moral principles degree ormoral concerns. Two of the most important studies, developed to measure ethicalcompetence or moral judgment competence based on Kohlberg's theory of cognitivedevelopment, are the Defining Issues Test (DIT) by James Rest and MoralischerUrteil Test (MUT) by Georg Lind. Lind says that the moral judgment competenceforms the "democratic personality" as well. Likewise Lind defines the MUT as"Democratic Personality and Attitude Scale" and indicates that the MUT iscompatible with the structural-dynamic personality model and it is an objective,rational, and an experimental scale.During the process of Turkey's integration into the European Union, interculturalcomparative education studies played an important role particularly in theperceptions and implementations of the education and teaching. This study wasundertaken to compare the moral-cognitive development of students similarlystructured secondary schools in Samsun-Turkey and the Lancashire-UK regions,in terms of gender, type of school, and grade levels. The goal was a cross-culturalcomparison of the performance of students in the United Kingdom and Turkeyschools within the context of Lind’s C-score based Moralischer Urteil Test (MUT),which includes dilemmas relating to workers and physicians, including two ethicaldilemmas of moral judgment competence or moral competence.Method: The project was a descriptive study to determine the capabilities of moraljudgment competence for the students attending secondary schools in LancashireUKand Samsun-Turkey. The Moralisches Urteil-Test (MUT) was used because it is a highly preferred scale in cross-cultural comparison studies. The certified English version ofthe MUT validated by Lind, and the certified Turkish version of the MUT translated andvalidated by Nermin Ciftci, were implementedThis study was conducted in June 2012 with 10th, 11th, and 12th degree studentsin 4 similarly structured different types of secondary schools in Lancashire-UK andSamsun-Turkey.Conclusion and Suggestions: For students in Turkey and in the UnitedKingdom, there was no significant difference when total scores of moral judgmentcompetence were compared. However, there was a significant difference betweenthe two countries in the responses to dilemmas involving of workers andphysicians. When examining the means of the scores (C-score) from the MoralJudgment Test from Turkey and the United Kingdom, the moral judgmentcompetence of the English students was higher than that of the Turkish students.When examining the means of total scores (C-score) from the Moral Judgment Testbetween Turkey (M =17) and the United Kingdom (M =18), both countriesscored in the low range. However, the C-scores corresponding to dilemmas ofworkers and physicians were observed at high levels (between 30 and 40). Theseresults lead to following conclusions: (1) the acquisition of moral principles insecondary school curricula were not internalized; (2) judgment and assessmentbased on universal moral principles and rules were not performed; and (3) thestudents did not develop sufficient democratic attitude. Moral Judgment Teststudies conducted in Turkey have yielded very low arithmetical averages of thetotal points (C-score), while Moral Judgment Tests in other countries have alsoyielded a large proportion of low scores.In comparison by gender, there was no significant difference in scores of moralvalue judgment in either of the two countries, as observed in the previous studies.The mean MJT scores of female students were higher than the mean scores those ofmale students in the UK, while there was no such a difference in Turkey. Thisfinding is consistent with research findings in the literature.When the mean scores of moral education judgment competence were comparedbased on the types of high school in Turkey and the United Kingdom, the totalscore of Moral Judgment Competence for public high school students was higherthan that for students in the religious and Anatolian high schools in the UK, butthere was no differences found between the public high school and the science highschool. In Turkey, there was no difference among the students in the science highschool and the Anatolian high school. However, science high school students had ahigher level of moral judgment competence than students in public schools andreligious schools.When the mean scores for moral education judgment competence were investigated based on the class level in Turkey and the UK, while there was no difference amongstudents on grade level in the scores relating dilemmas of physicians.Based on the results of the study, the following undertakings are suggested:1. Training programs should be prepared for the development ofmoral judgment competence at different educational levels, and the effectiveness ofthese programs need to be tested in experimental studies.2. School environments that contribute to the moral judgmentcompetence of students, educators and administrators should demonstratedemocratic attitudes.3. Students should be supported in their moral development processesthrough discussions of concrete moral dilemmas in society starting with their ownsituations.4. Comparative studies of differe