Teaching morality as an inclusive competence in higher education: Effects of dilemma discussion and contribution of empathy

Abstract

Inclusive pedagogies belong to the diversity agenda in higher education and so their teaching methodologies should be tested to ensure the effective training of students in democratic and inclusive citizenship competencies, such as moral competence. Moral-dilemma based methods have proven to be effective in learning about morals in specific programmes, but there is still no evidence for their cross-cutting application in regular courses. These methods could also be enriched by strategies aimed at learning competences that have been identified as predictive factors in theories of moral judgement and development, such as empathy. The current study examines the effects of a 10-hour teaching intervention on learning moral competence using a version of the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD), either applied in isolation or using a mixed strategy of dilemma discussion and narrative persuasion activities, this last method with the aim of verifying the contribution of empathy to moral learning. The hypotheses regarding the two methodological approaches were tested using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group in the ecological context of the first semester of teacher training. Data were collected using the Moral Competence Test and were analysed with linear mixed models. The results did not support the expected empathy-induced moral learning. However, significant progression in moral competence when using KMDD is shown. The discussion considers the disassociation between empathy/altruism and moral competence in order to interpret the ineffectiveness of the mixed strategy. The need to apply pedagogies with a more experiential focus is suggested in order to foster moral learning by means of activities in community diversity environments.