moral development

Human flourishing is a term that relates to the full development of people and societies, something we all long for, especially in times of crisis. It is widely accepted that education is an indispensable resource to promote human flourishing. The main aim of this article is to investigate whether human flourishing can be considered as the aim of character education in the virtues development approach. Publications on the subject of flourishing have proliferated in recent years. For this study we select ones that link flourishing and the aim of moral education from the perspective of the philosophy and theory of education, developed in the Anglo-American field. Assertions by David Carr (2021) and Kristján Kristjánsson (2020) on the subject of flourishing and character education provide a starting point and guide for the discussion that mainly revolves around the following questions. What notion of flourishing can be theoretically sustained as an educational goal? Why is character education not considered sufficient to promote flourishing? Why is it not considered necessary either? We conclude by underlining the value of educational theory based on a realistic view of flourishing as an attainable aim of character education. Some essential components of flourishing and moral education are absent from the theories reviewed.

Please, cite this article as follows: Bernal Martínez de Soria, A., & Naval, C. (2023). El florecimiento como fin de la educación del carácter | Flourishing as the aim of character education. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 81 (284), 17-32. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP81-1-2023-01

The lie has been studied in the field of social sciences for several years and from different perspectives. Children and adults have been the most investigated and adolescents the most forgotten. The investigation of psychology and education reveals, independently of the sociocultural aspects, how recourse to lying by adolescents tends to be associated with risk behaviours. Thus, understanding the contexts that trigger its use in adolescence is actively contributing to the prevention of these behaviours. In the present study, we seek to identify what adolescents are lying about; perceive if there are differences between boys and girls regarding the contents of the lie; study the causes and consequences of this behaviour in the adolescent, the next educational community and, finally, reflect on the importance for the educator of looking more deeply at this question. In this work a scale of contents of lies was applied to a sample of 871 Portuguese adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age (mean = 13.8, SD = 1.6). The results show that the lies of Portuguese teenagers are associated with affection, money and health. The results also suggest that the fear of punishment and the shame of admitting publicly their problems, doubts and longings end up throwing them into a whirlwind of feelings of guilt, where they condemn and reprimand themselves, ending up opting for lies, something they recognize as immoral, improper and reprehensible from the social point of view, to the detriment of the truth. The complexity and the consequences sometimes end up not justifying the lie. This work showed a reality that we live in Portugal on a cross-cutting issue for all countries and easily associated with antisocial behaviours that can be prevented with teachable and assertive educational responses.

This is the English version of an article originally printed in Spanish in issue 273 of the revista española de pedagogía. For this reason, the abbreviation EV has been added to the page numbers. Please, cite this article as follows: Martins, M., & Carvalho, C. (2019). ¿En qué mienten los adolescentes? | What do teenagers lie about? Revista Española de Pedagogía, 77 (273), 245-260. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP77-2-2019-07

Kohlberg’s theory about the development of moral judgement is regarded as bein very important in educational practice. This article addresses his legacy and his influence in the current educational setting, especially at university level. It will also try to note possible criticisms and misinterpretations of his ideas. To this end, relevant literature relating to the author will be analysed and discussed. There are two areas of the current university pedagogical model that draw on Kohlberg as a source: an increase in methodologies that address ethical dilemmas and the idea of bringing the university closer to reality, promoting it as a community service. The article concludes with a discussion of possible deficiencies resulting from Kohlberg’s theories. Areas discussed include the current approach to university education in terms of competencies, the pursuit of utility as a trend in university pedagogy, and the importance of understanding cultural formation linked to moral education and the vital system of community ideas.

Cite this article as: Caro Samada, C., Ahedo Ruiz, J. and Esteban Bara, F. (2018).  La propuesta de educación moral de Kohlberg y su legado en la universidad: actualidad y prospectiva | Kohlberg’s moral education proposal and its legacy at university: present and future. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76 (269), 85-100. doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP76-1-2018-04