Measurements Matter: Does Taking the Defining Issues Test 2 Multiple Times Affect College Students' Moral Reasoning Development?

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-24 - Moral Development and Education SIG Roundtable on Moral Reasoning

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine differences between undergraduate students who had multiple exposures to an assessment of moral reasoning development (DIT-2) and those of the same cohort who had fewer exposures to the same assessment. Controlling for a host of individual covariates, the analysis determined that students who took the DIT-2 three times scored statistically significantly higher than those who took this measure only twice. Effects were similar across two sets of analyses for two cohorts of students. These results suggest a relationship between taking the DIT-2 and long-term moral development gains. Implications are discussed.

Authors

• Matthew Mayhew, New York University

• Ernest T. Pascarella, University of Iowa

• Teniell L. Trolian, University of Iowa

• Benjamin Scott Selznick, New York University