Employing Moral Exemplars in Moral Education: Empirical Evidence and Assessment

In this symposium, we plan to present three papers focusing on employing moral exemplars in education. We will address various aspects related to this topic, including empirical evidence suggesting the effective utilization of moral exemplars; implementation of moral exemplar-applied interventions in college settings; and development and validation of a measurement for moral exemplarity. The authors of the first paper will discuss which types of moral exemplars and instruction methods are effective in moral exemplar-applied education based on the Self-determination Theory. They conducted data syntheses to explore how the relatability and attainability of exemplars, and autonomy of instruction predicted motivational outcomes. The second paper addresses how to implement moral-exemplar applied interventions in college-level curricula. The authors conducted a mixed-method study and demonstrated attainability and relatability of exemplars significantly promoted students’ reliance on exemplars and purpose in general. In the third paper, the authors developed and validated a measurement for moral exemplarity. They invented the Moral Exemplar Scale (MES), which measures the Connection and Function domains of moral exemplars. Our papers will provide researchers and moral educators with useful insights into how to apply moral exemplars to promote positive youth development and character development with empirical evidence.