Fairness, Educational Value, and Moral Development in the Student Disciplinary Process

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between college students' perceptions of the fairness and educational value of the discplinary process and their moral development. Participants were undergradaute students charged with minor disciplinary violations. The research sample displayed lower levels of moral development than normative Defining Issues Test samples of undergraduates. Additionally, the higher students' levels of moral development, the more likely they perceived the process as having educational value, independent of perceptions of fairness. The perception of educational value was therefore found to be a function of moral development.

Student conduct, restorative justice, and student development: findings from the STARR project: a student accountability and restorative research project

“…Swinton (2008) identified only one other study that pertains to student development in conduct administration. That study also suffers from a small sample size of 39 students who completed an assessment of moral development and a questionnaire about the fairness and educational value of the conduct process (Mullane, 1999). While Mullane (1999) found that the majority of students believed that their conduct hearing was fair and educational, she did not specify what it was they had learned.…”

“…In some cases, printed versions of the surveys were completed by students, and subsequently entered into SurveyMonkey by the research team. In order to ensure the validity of the survey questions, the study used several items that were established from previous research (Bazemore & Elis, 2007;Dannells, 1997;Howell, 2005;Mullane, 1999;Stimpson & Stimpson, 2008) and each instrument was piloted with small groups of students at two of the participating institutions. Upon completion of the conduct meeting, student offenders were provided a brief 28-item survey indicating key demographic data and measures of student development.…”

Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research

“…Four of these studies (Guthrie, 1985;Felton, 1984;Murk and Addleman, 1992;Whiteley and Associates, 1982) report significant relationships between the DIT and the Internal-External scale, with correlations ranging between Ϫ0.22 and Ϫ0.14. Mullane (1999) explored the relationship between college students' perceptions of the procedural fairness and educational value of the disciplinary process and moral reasoning among 73 students at a private university. By contrast, Ritchie (1991) reported that postconventional moral reasoners were more likely than conventional moral reasoners to have external rather than internal locus of control orientations.…”