Commutative Justice in School:

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Commutative Justice in School Adults Beliefs
on How Learning, Test, and Contest Situations
Should Be Prioritized Theresa A. Thorkildsen
and Amy Weaver Departments of Education and
Psychology
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Abstract This poster represents work in progress
and is part of a larger research program on
students moral engagement in school. Moral
engagement is an aspect of moral agency that
involves the application of personal values to
the interpretation of social experience. We
explored adults reasoning about the purposes of
school by determining how they prioritize the
features of learning, tests, and contests.   In
the area of motivation, researchers have
contrasted the effects of mastery and competitive
values on academic performance. Outcomes in
learning situations that focus on the acquisition
of new knowledge and contest situations that
focus on outperforming others tend to nurture
particular values and orientations toward school.
We explored whether adults would classify the
features of learning, test, and contest
situations in ways that correspond to different
kinds of social comparison. Direct forms of
social comparison are essential to determining
superiority over others and individuals cannot
avoid discovering their relative social position
in contests. Social comparison is not essential
for learning, but may offer information in a
mastery situation. And, because solitary work is
required for a test, and because test scores can
remain private, indirect forms of social
comparison may be most salient in a test
situation. The features of learning were
clustered and involved no social comparison. The
features of tests formed an indirect social
comparison cluster. The features of contests were
clustered on the direct comparison end of the
distribution. Clusters were consistent regardless
of whether adults considered importance,
effectiveness, fairness, and harmfulness.   Moral
reasoning about the role of school in society
involves the coordination of concerns with
procedural, distributive, and corrective justice
as well as with commutative justice. By asking
adults to classify the features of learning,
tests, and contests, and asking them to justify
their decisions we were able to determine their
views about the role of school in society. We
have not completed the analysis of adults
justifications for their rankings, but they
clearly assert that schools should focus
primarily on opportunities to learn, that tests
are necessary in the educational enterprise, and
that contests are least essential.   Taken
together, these findings suggest that to
understand moral engagement in educational
settings requires knowledge about individuals
understanding of motivation and morality.
Practically speaking, most adults said that
schools should focus primarily on learning, place
a moderate emphasis on testing, and little or no
emphasis on contests.   For additional
information about this project, please contact
the authors at thork_at_uic.edu or weave1_at_uic.edu.
Mail can be sent to College of Education, MC-147,
1040 West Harrison, UIC, Chicago, IL 60607-7133.
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• Purposes and Objectives
• The primary purpose of this study is to determine
  adults reasoning about the role of school in
  society and to determine how they coordinate
  knowledge of epistemology (what knowledge is of
  most worth), motivation (what makes students feel
  successful in school), and fairness (how should
  school be organized) when representing their
  beliefs.
• We extended previous work to determine if adults
  would consistently classify educational practices
  as reflecting learning, test, and contest
  situations. (Pre-research and Study 1)
• We determined how adults ranked practices
  associated with learning, tests, and contests and
  confirmed that they would classify practices
  along this dimension. (Study 2)
• We determined if there were clear references to
  epistemology, motivation, and fairness in adults
  justifications for their ranking decisions.
  (pending for Study 2)
• We determined if adults interest in teaching was
  related to their classification and ranking of
  educational practices. (Study 2)

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Global Framework This research is part of a
larger project exploring individuals moral
engagementa knowledge-driven force that compels
social participationin educational settings.
Such work can enhance knowledge of individuals
moral agency by assessing patterns in their
educational values. In schools, individuals
moral engagement involves the coordination of
knowledge about epistemology, motivation, and
fairness. The studies reported here involve the
design of a new tool for measuring reasoning
about commutative justice and the establishment
of adults knowledge about the role of school in
society.
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Epistemological Concerns To draw conclusions
about what forms of school-related knowledge
adults value, we plan to explore adults
references to facts, evidence, and opinions when
prioritizing the features of learning, tests, and
contests. We also plan to determine whether
adults differentiate becoming a good person from
acquiring new knowledge when justifying their
decisions.
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• Properties of knowledge
• School should teach students
• Facts
  References to answers, truth,
  facts, correct/incorrect, right/wrong, or real
  reasons.
• Opinions
  References to personal beliefs, ideas,
  views, opinions, or an indication that there are
  no answers.
• Evidence
  References to support, evidence, back up,
  proof, reasons not represented as facts, results,
  or experimentation.

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• Purposes of School
• School should help students learn
• To Improve Society
• To help students learn how to build a better
  world (e.g., become socially active, help others,
  improve the lives of others, vote wisely,
  sacrifice and respect authority).
• To Understand the World
• To help students learn how the world works (e.g.,
  understand science, think critically, creatively
  face challenge).

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• To Foster Wealth and Status
• To enhance opportunities for obtaining wealth and
  status (e.g., get into the best colleges jobs,
  earn money for luxuries and status, compete
  against others).
• To Consider Family First
• To help students learn to accept the values of
  their families and be able to perpetuate those
  values into the next generation (e.g., take care
  of family members, place family at the center of
  their lives, make their parents and relatives
  proud).

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Motivational Concerns To highlight motivational
concerns in adults reasoning, we determined if
they ranked educational practices in a manner
consistent with the common definitions of social
comparison and asked them to think about the
effectiveness of each practice. When exploring
adults justifications, we plan to explore
whether these rankings reflect differential
concerns with self-determination, competence, and
affiliation needs or whether task and ego
competence orientations adequately represent
adults beliefs about motivation in school.
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• Forms of Social Comparison
• School should offer students opportunities to
  engage in
• No Social Comparison
• The absence of comparison between persons.
• How does one discover new ideas without
  considering the performance of others?
• Indirect Social Comparison
• Comparison between persons using information that
  is usually kept private.
• How does ones test score fall within the overall
  distribution?
• Direct Social Comparison
• Comparison between persons using information that
  is usually public.
• Who wins a contest?

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• Competence Orientations
• Schools should help students sustain a
• Task Orientation
• To feel successful when experiencing the
  intrinsic pleasure of engaging in particular
  activities.
• Ego Orientation
• To feel successful when establishing their
  superiority over others.
• Work Avoidant Orientation
• To feel successful when minimizing effort and
  escaping the expectations of others.

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Predicted Assumptions about Motivation
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Fairness Concerns To determine the ethical
features of adults moral engagement, we asked
them to rank the fairness and harmfulness of each
practice while imagining an ideal
school. Relying on an Aristotelian definition of
social justice, we accepted that adults
reasoning about commutative justice would involve
the coordination of their knowledge of
procedural, distributive, and corrective justice.
Classifying adults justifications for their
decisions will illuminate whether they coordinate
all or some forms of justice when making their
decisions.
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• School and Society
• Schools should foster
• Commutative Justice
  Fairness in the function of institutions in
  society
  What roles do schools serve?
• Procedural Justice
  Fairness in the organization of particular
  situations or institutions
  How should learning, tests,
  and contests be organized?

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• Distributive Justice
  Fairness in the dissemination of resources.
  How should
  materials and ideas be allocated?
• Corrective Justice
  Fairness in the regulation of conduct.
  How should students behavior be managed?

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Social Justice
Procedural Justice
Commutative Justice
Corrective Justice
Distributive Justice
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Participants Pre-research This project began with
interviews of educators and researchers, followed
by item writing sessions to identify common
phrases that are used to represent learning,
tests, and contests in schools. Those sessions
were followed by three pilot studies in which
individuals were asked to classify statements
about students activities in school as
representing learning, test, or contest
situations. Once we identified at least 15 items
representing the various aspects of education, we
began more systematic research.
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Study 1 Undergraduates (n718 ages 18-42, 458
females, 260 males 277 white/Caucasian, 124
Asian American/Pacific Islanders, 90
Hispanic/Latinos, 87 Black/African Americans 25
dual ethnic, and 115 another ethnic group)
classified 84 items by determining if they were
most common in learning, test, or contest
situations.
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Study 2 Three groups of adults completed Q-sorts
of 30 cards containing statements representative
of learning, tests, and contests. Members of one
group were currently teaching (n29, 10 males, 19
females 13 white/Caucasian, 8 Hispanic/Latinas,
6 Black/African Americans 1 Asian
American/Pacific Islanders, and 1 other). A
second group consisted of individuals who planned
to teach (n43 8 males, 35 females 25
white/Caucasian, 8 Hispanic/Latinas, 2
Black/African Americans 2 Asian American/Pacific
Islanders, and 6 other). Members of a third
group had no plans to teach (n31 19 males, 12
females 15 white/Caucasian, 9 Hispanic/Latinas,
6 Black/African Americans and 1 other). Each
participant sorted statements 4 times and
justified their decisions on audiotapes. They
decided which practices were most/least
important, fair, effective, and harmful.
Problems were presented in counterbalanced orders
across participants. After completing all the
Q-sort activities, participants classified each
item as reflecting learning, tests, and contests
on a survey.
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General Findings Undergraduates classified
educational practices with a high level of
agreement. Percent agreement ranged from 97 to
72 (M88). There was no support for the
prediction that professional educators or those
preparing to become teachers might hold different
values than adults who never plan to work in
schools. Adults reasoning was similar across
groups, so the groups were combined in subsequent
analyses.
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Practices Classified as Common for Learning
Percent indicates the percent of agreement when
practice was classified in each study.
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Practices Classified as Common for Tests
Percent indicates the percent of agreement when
practice was classified in each study.
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Practices Classified as Common for Contests
Percent indicates the percent of agreement when
practice was classified in each study.
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• Social Comparison and Motivation
• Adults seemed to recognize the opportunities for
  social comparison implicit in items constructed
  to reflect learning, tests, and contests.
• Features of learning clustered along the no
  social comparison dimension of each of the
  following graphs.
• Features of testing clustered around the indirect
  social comparison dimension of the following
  graphs.
• Features of contests clustered around the direct
  social comparison dimension of the following
  graphs.

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Each data point represents a practice that adults
classified. The l, t, or c at the end of the
item indicates that the item was classified as
common in a learning, test, or contest situation.
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Each data point represents a practice that adults
classified. The l, t, or c at the end of the
item indicates that the item was classified as
common in a learning, test, or contest situation.
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Each data point represents a practice that adults
classified. The l, t, or c at the end of the
item indicates that the item was classified as
common in a learning, test, or contest situation.
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Each data point represents a practice that adults
classified. The l, t, or c at the end of the
item indicates that the item was classified as
common in a learning, test, or contest situation.
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Commutative Justice Decisions The adults ranked
learning practices more highly than test and
contest practicesindicating that schools should
focus primarily on the process of acquiring new
ideas, tests should be used in moderation, and
contests should be used rarely. These decisions
were similar regardless of whether adults
considered the most important things school
should do, how to construct an effective school,
how to construct a fair school, and how to
minimize harm in school (scoring of the
harmfulness responses was reversed).
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Mean Ranking of Practices for Three Educational
Situations
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Epistemological Decisions The analyses of
adults justifications reflects work in progress.
Analysis of these justifications will illustrate
adults rankings of the properties of
knowledge. Consideration of adults decisions in
combination with their justifications will
illuminate their beliefs about the purposes of
school.
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• Available Conclusions
• Adults recognized a that educational practices
  reflect complex values and beliefs.
• Their responses cluster across all four quadrants
  when reasoning about importance, effectiveness,
  fairness, and harmfulness.
• They seem to recognize that active learning
  involves undetectable forms of social comparison,
  tests involve indirect forms of social
  comparison, and contests involve direct forms of
  social comparison.
• They place greater value on learning, moderate
  value on testing, and little or no value on
  contests.

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Importance Whenever educators and parents select
an activity for school, they implicitly teach
students something about the role of school in
society. If adults are unconscious of the values
they convey, they can inadvertently nurture
feelings of alienation and disengagement as well
as more positive forms of moral agency. Knowing
how adults consolidate their knowledge of
epistemology, motivation, and fairness when
reasoning about school can illuminate essential
features of moral engagement in educational
settings. Later it will be possible to compare
students reasoning with the knowledge and
beliefs of adults to identify commonalties and
discrepancies.
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