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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Improvement of Moral Development Through an Increase in Reflection. A Training Programme

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Abstract In this study a training programme was implemented to increase reflectivity in 13‐and 14‐year‐old children in the 8th grade of a primary school in Spain. We hoped to confirm that an increase in reflectivity would promote moral development in these children. We did not use classical techniques for improving moral development (values clarification, moral dilemmas, etc.) but, rather, cognitive techniques to increase reflectivity‐‐ problem‐solving, self‐instruction, scanning strategies, and so on. We used Cairns and Cammock's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF20) (1978) and Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT) (1986) as measuring instruments. As we had supposed prior to the intention, we succeeded in increasing reflectivity in the children in the experimental group in comparison with those in the control group and, as a result, in significantly improving their moral development in scores of post‐conventional levels and in the P index. We think that this investigation opens new ways for interventions in...