Development of indicators and moral intelligence scales for junior high school students: mixed-method research

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to study the indicators of moral intelligence for junior high school students, (2) to develop moral intelligence scales for junior high school students, and (3) to assess the needs of moral intelligence for junior high school students. By the mixed-method research, the sample group used in the research was 11 key informants for in-depth interviews, 100 students in mixed classes of 20 schools, 1,997 students in total. The results show the following: 1. The moral intelligence indicators for junior high school students consisted of 6 indicators: Equality, Empathy, Morality, Tolerance, Self-control, and Kindness. 2. To create moral intelligence scales for junior high school students, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for each section were.939,0.920 and.841, respectively. With corroborative component analysis classified by the overall composition, it was found that the mean was at a high level (M = 3.955), with a low distribution with a standard deviation (SD) of 0.576 and a distribution coefficient (C.V.) of 14.566. 3. For needs assessment of moral intelligence for junior high school students, it was found that the third component of morality had the most needs (PNImodified=0.095), followed by the 5th component of self-control (PNImodified=0.081), the second component of empathy (PNImodified=0.075), the 4th component of tolerance (PNImodified=0.073), the 6th component of kindness (PNImodified=0.055) and the first component of equality (PNImodified=0.053).