Comparison of voluntary and forced digital leaps in higher education - Teachers' experiences of the added value of using digital tools in teaching and learning.

The study examines the benefits of digital tools in teaching and learning as experienced by university teachers in two different time periods: 1) during the controlled digital leap before the Covid-19 pandemic (2017-2019) and 2) during the emergency imposition of remote teaching in response to the lockdown aimed at containing the Covid-19 pandemic (2020). Teachers in different academic fields at a large multidisciplinary Finnish university (N1 = 303 and N2 = 265) responded to two open-ended questions as part of a broader questionnaire. The research identified four kinds of benefits related to digital teaching: (1) practical and administrative and (2) independence of time and place, implying practical and technical benefits; as well as (3) enhancing learning and (4) developing teaching, which are primarily pedagogical benefits, related to teaching and learning. Voluntary and forced digital leaps provided different kinds of consequences in teaching and learning. Digital tools generally provided practical and technological benefits for teaching and learning during the controlled digital leap, but they also had positive pedagogical effects. The forced digital leap, in turn, demonstrated the value of time-and-place-independent online teaching and learning. It also exposed differences among academic fields in how teachers experienced the benefits of using digital tools. Support of and training for university teachers should take into account the different needs of faculties and disciplines, and promote dialogue between pedagogical and technological interests.

Explorations in Reported Moral Behaviors, Values, and Moral Emotions in Four Countries.

University students (n = 758) from Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, and Portugal were given a list of morally relevant behaviors (MRB), the Schwartz Value Survey (PVQ40) and Tangney's TOSCA, measuring empathic guilt, guilt over norm-breaking, and shame. A factor analysis of MRB yielded 4 dimensions: prosocial behaviors, interpersonal transgressions, antisocial behaviors and secret transgressions. Prosocial behaviors were predicted by self-transcendence-self-enhancement (SET) value contrast only while the three transgression categories were associated with both SET and openness to change-conservation (hedonism-conformity) contrast. Norm-breaking guilt was more strongly associated with behaviors than were empathic guilt and shame. However, shame was (positively) associated with secret transgressions in three countries, after controlling for values. The associations were strongest in Bulgaria and Estonia while fewer associations were found in Finland and Portugal. The implications of the findings for the cross-cultural psychology of morality are discussed.

Empathy and values as predictors of care development.

This study investigates values and affective empathy as predictors for care-based moral development. Fifty-three students from a university of applied sciences were interviewed with Skoe's Ethic of Care Interview at the beginning of their studies and two years later. Value priorities were measured by Schwartz et al.'s Portrait Value Questionnaire, empathy variables by Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and feelings of sympathy were rated using a real-life moral conflict. The results showed that students in care-oriented fields progressed in care reasoning. Real-life sympathy and the value of self-direction positively predicted development in care reasoning, whereas personal distress was a negative predictor. The results indicate that care-based moral development is more closely connected with affective empathy than personal values. Individuals who feel empathy for others, and who prefer independent thinking and action, achieve the greatest gains in care development. In conclusion, educators should encourage students' empathy and moral reasoning in authentic moral conflicts.

Care-based ethical reasoning among first-year nursing and social services students.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study conducted to describe nursing and social services students' ethical reasoning at the start of their studies. BACKGROUND: Gilligan argued that there are two modes of moral reasoning - the ethic of justice, focusing on individuals' rights, and the ethic of care, focusing on responsibilities in relationships. Recent research has established the ethic of care as a developmental phenomenon. It has been widely argued that the ethic of care is crucial for nursing, but there has been little international research in this area. METHOD: Participants were first-year nursing and social services students in Finland (N =112). Their care-based moral reasoning was measured using the Ethic of Care Interview, and their ethical reasoning on an abortion-related dilemma was analysed by content analysis. Expressed ethical codes and principles were calculated according to levels. The data were collected over a 5-month period in 2007-2008. FINDINGS: Students' level of care reasoning was varied. Their current level of care reasoning was reflected in their responses to the ethical dilemma. Ethical reasoning at each level and its specific premises constituted a distinct entity. Use of the principle of self-determination was positively related to levels of care development. Care-based moral reasoning constitutes the bedrock for ethical reasoning among these novice students. CONCLUSION: Educators should be sensitive to the variation in students' current developmental levels in care reasoning. Reflective discussion on real-life ethical conflicts should be an explicit part of education and clinical practice in caring professions.

Socio-cognitive conflict, emotions and complexity of thought in real-life morality.

A new taxonomy of real-life dilemmas was tested in two studies. In Study 1, 35 respondents assessed six types of real-life dilemmas in terms of socio-cognitive conflict. Support was found for a classification of dilemmas into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. In Study 2, 191 young women responded to measures of social perspective-taking and emotional empathy and reported a real-life moral dilemma as well as their feelings while making decisions about it. The dilemmas were classified into personal and impersonal and into three levels of socio-cognitive conflict. Dependent variables were the integrative complexity of the arguments and the reported feelings (sympathy, upset, and remorse). Dispositional empathy and perspective taking predicted level of socio-cognitive conflict and feelings of sympathy but not integrative complexity. Personal dilemmas aroused more feelings of upset than did impersonal ones. Low socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas evoked less complex thinking and less intensive feelings of upset and sympathy than did moderate and high socio-cognitive conflict dilemmas.

Everyday value conflicts and integrative complexity of thought.

This study examined the value pluralism model in everyday value conflicts, and the effect of issue context on complexity of thought. According to the cognitive manager model we hypothesized that respondents would obtain a higher level of integrative complexity on personal issues that on professional and general issues. We also explored the relations of integrative complexity to value priorities, measured by the Schwartz Value Survey, and to emotional empathy. The value pluralism model was not supported by the data collected from 126 university students from social science, business and technology. The cognitive manager model was partially confirmed by data from females but not from males. Concerning value priorities, more complex respondents had higher regard for self-transcendence values, and less complex respondents for self-enhancement values Emotional empathy was also significantly related to complexity score.