higher education, moral development, program evaluation, faith-based, prison, rehabilitation, religious, seminary, defining issues test, Kohlberg, Baptist, moral reasoning, moral theology, moral philosophy, college
The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct an outcomes-based program evaluation for the Louisiana State Penitentiary (Angola) campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The study included one primary research question, with two subquestions. The primary research question asked to what extent students in the program developed moral judgment consistent with program goals of rehabilitating students and preparing them for effective ministry. The first subquestion asked whether statistically significant differences existed in the moral reasoning of students of different class years. The second subquestion asked whether statistically significant differences existed in the moral reasoning of students of different personality types. A cross-sectional study was conducted with students during the fall of 2005 using the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instruments. All 101 program students were invited to participate in the study. To provide a benchmark for student scores, 30 Seminary faculty members were asked to complete the DIT-2. The student response rates were 94% for the DIT-2 instrument and 97% for the MBTI instrument. The response rate for faculty was 20%. After removing two outliers from the freshmen class, statistically significant differences were found in the principled moral reasoning scores (P scores) of freshmen (m = 22.146, sd = 12.002) and juniors (m = 30.274, sd = 13.165). No significant differences were found in moral reasoning based upon personality types. The mean P score among faculty members was 34.02 (sd = 15.25). In response to the primary research question, it was determined student scores did show moral reasoning differences consistent with the program goals. Conclusions reached in this study were limited because of the cross-sectional design. Further research is necessary before conclusions may be generalized beyond the sample.
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Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College of Education
Educational Research, Technology and Leadership
Length of Campus-only Access
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
Sabin, Bruce, "A Faith-based Program Evaluation: Moral Development Of Seminary Students At The Louisiana State Penitentiary" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1068.