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Comparing Moral Education Models at a Military Academy in Taiwan

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Abstract

This study compared the effects of three education models, namely, the bag-of-virtues (BV), values clarification (VC), and virtue ethics (VE) models, through qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the quantitative study (Study 1), a between-subjects design was adopted in sampling 120 freshman cadets from a Taiwanese military academy. For the qualitative study (Study 2), focus group interviews were conducted with 10 freshman cadets. The results show that the VC model was the most effective among the three moral education models, followed by the VE and BV models.

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Notes

  1. Credit courses and zero-credit courses are official curricula, whereas noncredit courses are hidden curricula.

  2. According to Yu (2015), BV was adopted for ME, VC was adopted for SQ, and VE was adopted for SD. However, field observations indicated that VC was adopted in ME and BV was adopted in SQ.

  3. Yu (2014) also sampled military cadets and investigated the self-evaluations of junior cadets and peer-evaluations of senior cadets. The results indicated a low level of disciplinary acceptance, whereas the level of influence significantly exceeded those engendered by ME and SQ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, R.O.C. National Defense University, No. 70 Sce. 2, Zhongyang N. Rd, Taipei, 11258, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Yi-Ming Yu

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  1. Yi-Ming Yu
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Correspondence to Yi-Ming Yu.

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Yu, YM. Comparing Moral Education Models at a Military Academy in Taiwan. J Acad Ethics 16, 173–193 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-018-9301-x

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