Moral reasoning assessment for Singapore secondary schools: A review

Lyndon Lim
Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore
Elaine Chapman
The University of Western Australia, Australia

Endeavours to assess moral reasoning in education have largely been via established but less contemporary measures, with recent measures developed more than a decade ago. Together with the call to go beyond assessing cognitive constructs, and the intended learning outcomes of the Singapore Ministry of Education Character and Citizenship Education curriculum that requires teachers to help students progress in their moral reasoning stages, there is a need for a measure that affords consistency when evaluating students' attainment of learning outcomes stipulated in the curriculum. Guided by Messick's unitary concept of validity, this paper reviewed existing measures of moral reasoning for suitability, and found that established measures presented varying degrees of tenability in assessing moral reasoning. Findings related to content appropriateness and group administrability yielded a paucity of measures applicable for large-scale assessment of moral reasoning in Singapore secondary schools. To address some of these issues, this review suggests the development of a fit-for-purpose measure.
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Authors: Lyndon Lim EdD (corresponding author) is a Senior Lecturer in the Teaching & Learning Centre at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Along with his prior research and work experience at the Singapore Ministry of Education and Singapore Examinations & Assessment Board, his research and publications focus on assessment and evaluation, psychometrics, and the social psychology of education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8199-5761 Email: lyndonlimjk@suss.edu.sg Elaine Chapman PhD is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School - Research in the Graduate School of Education at The University of Western Australia. Her background is in psychology, but she has always had an interest in applying knowledge from psychology to education. Her general research interests lie in the areas of applied social and educational psychology, educational assessment, and research methods. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5861-1179 Email: elaine.chapman@uwa.edu.au Please cite as: Lim, L. & Chapman, E. (2021). Moral reasoning assessment for Singapore secondary schools: A review. Issues in Educational Research, 31(4), 1121-1137. http://www.iier.org.au/iier31/lim.pdf