Comparisons of Moral Judgement between Science-gifted and General students and Analyses of the Tendency in Moral Judgement between Middle and High school Science-gifted Students

Abstract

In this research, we compared middle and high school science-gifted students with general students in morality using DIT (Defining Issues Test) developed by Rest and translated by Moon, which is based on Kohlberg¡¯s moral development theory. First of all, P (%) score which means moral judgement was compared. And then, the scores at each stage of morality development were compared and analyzed. Also, the tendency of moral development between middle and high school science-gifted students was analyzed. The results showed that P (%) score for the science-gifted students was significantly higher than that for the general students. This result coincides with the view of cognitive development theory that the more cognitively developed person shows higher development stage response. And science gifted students' score of 5B stage in morality development was significantly higher than that of gen eral students. Science-gifted students were more highly distributed at the upper level being classified by P (%) score in moral judgement test. But, by the crosstab analysis, it revealed that this distribution dif ference was not statistically significant. There were no significant differences in moral judgement score, in score of each stage in morality development and in three classes' score distribution between middle and high school science-gifted students.