MORAL CHOICE OF CHILDREN AGED 6 TO 8 YEARS IN SITUATIONS WITH ETHNOCULTURAL CONTEXT: WHAT ARE THE MOTIVES?

Abstract

The relevance of the presented research is due to the insufficient study of the motives underlying the moral choices made by preschool children in relation to the situations with ethnocultural context. The call to identify these motives and highlight their characteristics became the spring of decision for conducting the investigation. The purpose of the study is to identify, compare, and analyze the motives of the moral choice in children aged 6-8 in situations with ethnocultural context. The results of the study may enrich scientific ideas on the age-specific characteristics of the motives of moral choices made by preschoolers and on the possibilities of factoring the characteristics of these motives in moral upbringing and ethnocultural education. An analysis of the motives of the moral choice in 120 children aged 6-8 in situations with ethnocultural context was conducted by methods of comparison and grouping. The presence of differences in the motives for particular choices made by children aged 6-7 and 7-8 was determined using the non-parametric U Mann-Whitney criterion. The characteristics of the motives of children’s moral choices were revealed by the methods of analysis and generalization. Within the framework of research, the data was obtained on the types of motives for the moral choice in situations with an ethnocultural context in children aged 6-8, as well as on the differences in these motives at the ages 6-7 and 7-8. The features of these motives peculiar to 6–8-year-old children in general, and for each of the groups of children of 6–7 and 7–8 in particular, have been identified and described. The results of the study can serve the basis for the pedagogical regulations project development in the field of the moral choice of children based on the characteristics of this choice.