Assessing Moral Reasoning and Moral Judgement Among Junior High School Students Violating Disciplinary Codes Within the Cape Coast Metropolis

Abstract

Violation of disciplinary codes, which is an inappropriate behaviour or immoral act, has become the order of the day among the youth in today’s century, and such behaviour is destroying the moral fibres of society and the country as a whole. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine moral reasoning and moral judgement among junior high school students violating disciplinary codes within Cape Coast metropolis. The study employed the ex post facto design and also used the quantitative approach for the study. Also, 400 students from ten (10) public junior high schools within the Cape Coast Metropolis were selected to respond to the self-administered questionnaire which was the measuring tool for the study. The data were analysed using the descriptive statistical tools (frequency and percentages) and the independent t test was used with the help of SPSS version 26.0. In the findings, the researcher found out that students who tend to violate disciplinary codes in schools within the Cape Coast Metropolis were said to have moderate levels of moral reasoning and moral judgement. Thus, they were identified to be within the category of the heteronomous stage of moral reasoning and the conventional stage of moral development. Therefore, the study recommends that teachers should help students better learn and understand that to be able to arrive at a well-informed decision, it would be very important to consider The Four Component Model developed by Rest in moral decision-making to avoid violating laid down disciplinary codes of an institution.