An investigation of the pre-school and primary school students' decisions according to Piaget's moral development theory (Sample of Sakarya)

Morality is described as individual's distinguishing between right and wrong in the society, taking decisions that are already accepted, ability to think freely, and choosing the most accurate way in the encountered situations. In the current study, it is aimed to find out the differences in moral decisions of pre-school (5 years old) and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades primary school learners within the scope of predetermined variables (age, gender, number of siblings). The learners who are studying at Hendek, Sakarya participated in the study. Consequently, six story pairs were arranged including the dilemmas of 'intent' (intentional /unintentional) and 'kind of damage' (personal injury / property damage) in the moral development theory of Piaget in accordance with this aim. The stories prepared by the author were introduced to the expert opinion and remedies were applied. Each story pair in which there was an indicent and caused dilemmas was read to the learners. At the end of the story, the learners were asked to detect the faulty child in the story. Responses from the learners were classified as age, gender, and number of siblings. The data gathered from the participants were analyzed by using the Chi-Square test. The study was conducted with the help of 200 (109 females and 91 males) students as a sample group which includes 40 students from each age group. As a consequence of the research, it was decided that whereas the difference between decisions in the intentional actions and the variables of age and gender was significant, the decisions in the unintentional or accident actions did not differ significantly with age and gender. Also, there were no important difference between the decisions taken and the data obtained according to the number of siblings variable. The data yielded by this study provided convincing comment that the created stories were effective for the students while determining the moral decisions.