Examining the Effects of Instructor Advocacy or Neutrality on Students’ Moral Development

Although whether a teacher of philosophical ethics should explicitly endorse any theory or position has been a topic of decades-long debate, there is little empirical analysis of the effects of instructor advocacy or neutrality on students’ moral development. Our study represents a step toward closing that gap. Using a quasi-experimental design, we found several pretest-posttest differences between students whose instructor strongly advocated a theory/position and those whose instructor was more neutral. Compared to students of neutral instructors, advocates’ students showed a more pronounced decrease in preference for less-defensible ethical theories. Additionally, students of advocates reported an increase in several virtuous qualities, while students of neutral instructors reported a decrease. Finally, students of neutral instructors —but not students of advocates —reported a decrease in their ethically good behaviors. The results will be discussed in light of relevant literature regarding pedagogical college-level ethics instruction as well as broader approaches to moral education.