STUDY ON THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL EDUCATION INCLUDED IN THE CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS FOR PRESCHOOL EDUCATION IN ROMANIA (2000-2022)

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào

The research examines how moral education is reflected within preschool curriculum documents in Romania from 2000 to 2022, in the context of rapid social change and ongoing findings from educational sciences and psychology. It analyzes official program editions, curricular and methodological benchmarks, and ministry-approved documents, supported by comparative reviews with similar foreign approaches. Results indicate moral education is not treated as a distinct preschool subject; its elements appear indirectly in other areas and the moral model receives limited emphasis, requiring teachers to develop their own references for didactic activities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research objectives and methodology

Research results

Aspects regarding moral education in the 2000 program

STUDY ON THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL EDUCATION INCLUDED IN THE CURRICULUM DOCUMENTS FOR PRESCHOOL EDUCATION IN ROMANIA (2000-2022) Nicoleta-Alina PETCU-NICOLA, Dorin OPRIŞ Abstract: The particularly complex issue of the curriculum for preschool education remains an open one, given the rapid social changes of the current period, but also the results of research in educational sciences and psychology. All of theses force reconsiderations from multiple perspectives, especially related to the cognitive training-development and from the perspective of the child's moral education. The present research aimed to analyze the editions of school programs, the curriculum and methodological benchmarks, official documents approved by the Romanian Ministry of Education, from 2000 to 2022, considering the moral aspects they include. At the sametime, a series of comparative analyzes were carried out, at the level of trends, purposes or approach, with similar documents from other countries. The conclusions show that in Romania moral education is not addressed in preschool education as a distinct subject, with its own objectives and contents, some of its own elements are found in other areas addressed by these documents, and the moral model is very little addressed in these documents. Under these conditions, teachers are forced to draw up their own reference documents for the didactic activities they carry out in relation to this classical dimension of education. Key words: moral education; intercultural education; curriculum; school programs; preschool education. 1. Introduction Moral education in a person's life most often begins in the family, is formed during kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, develops during high school and continues through an accumulation and transformation of values, models, attitudes and norms throughout life. The need for the foundations of moral education in the formation of moral behaviors ofthe individual to be laid in kindergarten is supported by various theories of human development and the stages of moral development proposed by Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. Thus, in the second stage of moral development in Jean Piaget's conception, called the stage of moral realism (5-7 years), the idea of respecting the rules imposed by others appears, children do not question the authority of important mature people in their lives, parents and teachers, and the rules imposed by them are respected, children evaluating moral situations only from the perspective of their consequences and objectives. In the description of moral development proposed by the American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, preschool matches to the first level of preconventional morality (3 - 7 years) which includes two stages: orientation through punishment and compliance and that of naive instrumental hedonism: payment for a benefit (Harwood, Miller, & Vasta, 2010) . Recent analyzes propose two perspectives on moral values. The biblical one, supported by the revealed origin of the religious structures that generate them, and that of the behavioral and social sciences, for which the values are promoted and selected in relation to the representative models for a certain historical era, with social development and with the wishes regarding the formation of the students' personality (Opriș, & Opriș, 2015) . These represent the two essential benchmarks in the design of curriculum documents, with a presence within the school curriculum that depends on the defining set of values promoted at the official level and accepted at the societal level. 2. Research objectives and methodology The present work aims to present, from the perspective of moral education, an analysis of official documents, school programs, curriculum editions for preschool education from the beginning of the 3rd millennium until now: the school curriculum from 2000, the school curriculum from 2005, the curriculum from 2008, the RFIDT document from 2010, the curricu

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study on Romanian preschool curriculum documents (2000–2022)?

To analyze curriculum editions and official documents approved by the Romanian Ministry of Education for preschool education, focusing on the moral aspects they include, and comparing trends and approaches with similar documents from other countries.

Is moral education presented as a separate subject in Romanian preschool education documents?

No. The conclusions state that moral education is not addressed as a distinct preschool subject with its own objectives and contents; some elements are found within other curriculum areas.

Which theoretical frameworks are used to support the importance of moral education in early childhood?

The study refers to theories of human development and moral development stages proposed by Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, linking kindergarten and preschool to early stages of moral realism and preconventional morality.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào