A Critique of “Moral and Character Development”

Abstract

A critique was made in this essay about William G. Huitt’s （2004）article titled “Moral and Character Development”. The strong points of his article were discussed with his conclusion that social and cultural values influence the formation of children’s character traits, while school should play its own role as a sub-social unit to develop their characters and morality based on the cognitive, affective, conative and behavioral principles. The obvious weakness was presented by ignoring politics to be a vital factor influencing moral development. This essay aims to discuss why moral principles can be taught in school and how moral education can be practiced in classroom. It proposes what approaches are supposed to be significantly effective. Keywords: Moral education; Character development; Behavioral principles; Cognition; Psychological approaches