Document Type: Conference Papers
Conference: The 9th Annual Conference of the Asian Pacific Network for Moral Education: Making Moral Education Work: Tradition and Innovation in the Asia-Pacific (2014: Shanghai, China)
Moral education receives much attention in higher education and teacher education around the world. To nurture university students' (including pre-service teachers') moral values and moral awareness is one of the aims of higher education in Europe, America, mainland China and Hong Kong. However, their perceptions of learning moral education and the accompanying curriculum development are at present under-researched. This paper reports on a study aimed at exploring: (i) what are the university students' (and pre-service teachers') perceptions of the learning of moral and values education?; and (ii) how do they learn moral and values education in a curriculum and pedagogy course? This case study took place in an undergraduate class in Hong Kong. It adopted multiple methods to collect data and the results showed that the experience of values education curriculum planning enhanced the university students' learning of moral education. They learnt moral education through traditional and innovative ways, involving (i) discussion/sharing in moral dilemmas and circle time (as university students), and (ii) the related curriculum planning and teaching (as pre-service teachers). With reference to the study, this paper supplements the understanding of the curriculum development and learning of moral and values education in higher education in Hong Kong.