Skills For Today - Social-Responsibility

Skills for Today:
What We Know about Teaching

and Assessing Social Responsibility
Written by
Jessica Yarbro and Matthew Ventura
Illustration by Lauren Rolwing

About the Authors About Pearson
Dr. Jessica Yarbro is a research scientist in Knowledge and Pearson is the world’s leading learning company. Our education
Skills Research within the Teaching and Learning Research business combines 150 years of experience in publishing
and Design team at Pearson. Through empirical studies and with the latest learning technology and online support. We
synthesizing existing research, Jessica supports the development serve learners of all ages around the globe, employing 45,000
of knowledge and skills frameworks within Pearson products. people in more than seventy countries, helping people to
Jessica is particularly interested in the definition and assessment learn whatever, whenever and however they choose. Whether
of twenty-first-century skills. Jessica received her master’s degree it’s designing qualifications in the UK, supporting colleges in
and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from George Mason University. the United States, training school leaders in the Middle East
or helping students in China learn English, we aim to help
Dr. Matthew Ventura is the Director of Knowledge and Skills people make progress in their lives through learning.
Research in the Teaching and Learning Research and Design team
at Pearson. Matthew leads research around defining and assessing
knowledge and skills in Pearson products. Prior to joining Pearson,
Matthew was a senior research scientist at Florida State University
where he developed simulations and educational games to assess
and support twenty-first-century skills. Matthew received his Ph.D.
in Cognitive Science in 2005 from the University of Memphis.
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Sample reference: Yarbro, J., & Ventura, M. (2019). Skills for Today: What We Know about Teaching and Assessing Social Responsibility. London: Pearson.
Copyright 2019
The contents and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors only
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table of contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
Definitions and Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06
Teaching Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Assessing Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Avenues for Future Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Conclusions and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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Foreword
Social responsibility is broadly defined as taking responsibility a need to further support students in their development of
to behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, these skills. Our hope with this summary is to synthesize best
civic, and environmental issues. Primary and secondary practices for teaching and assessing social responsibility.
schools have traditionally been charged with developing social
Research supports several effective strategies for enhancing
responsibility through character education. Colleges have also
social responsibility. We highlight a number of these strategies
taken up the call to help their graduates be responsible citizens,
in this paper including problem-based learning, case-based
listing associated skills as key graduate outcomes. Following
instruction, interacting with diverse groups of people, and
students’ transition to the workplace, employers will expect
providing structured opportunities to practice and engage with
them to maintain a high standard of ethical behavior, and,
real-world situations relevant to social responsibility. Reliable
in our increasingly globalized society, workers of the future
and valid assessments of social responsibility can also support
will need the skills to work effectively and respectfully with
teaching and learning. Self- and informant-report questionnaires
individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Throughout
are easily administered and interpreted. Rubrics and scenario-
my time in school I participated in everything from pen-pal
based measures are more complex but can also allow for more
campaigns to volunteering in the community, all with the
authentic assessment of social responsibility competencies.
objective of understanding and helping people and communities
different from my own. I find my workplace to be focused
This paper concludes a series of summaries around Pearson’s
on how our actions impact the environment and the lives of
Personal and Social Capabilities (PSCs), the competencies
people around the globe. We are encouraged and supported
outside of academic knowledge that contribute to student
to do big and small things including dedicated days off to help
success in school, work, and life. In collaboration with
students learn, paint a school, or financially support a cause.
P21, Pearson released four papers detailing the skills of
collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity,
Through a review of several frameworks for social responsibility,
along with separate papers focusing on the skills of self-
we have identified four key dimensions of competence:
management and leadership. We at Pearson are excited to
multicultural, ethical, civic, and environmental. Competence in
provide educators, employers, and policy-makers with an
these areas will support student success and is a crucial factor
overview of the best practices for developing these key PSCs.
for developing ethical, just, and well-functioning societies.
While educational institutions and employers emphasize Leah Jewell, Managing Director, Employability Solutions and Services
the importance of social responsibility, research indicates
Image by Debdatta Chakraborty
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Introduction
Social responsibility occurs when an individual takes in high school also had higher grades, fewer behavioral
responsibility to behave ethically and with sensitivity toward problems, and felt more confident in their ability to enact
social, cultural, civic, and environmental issues. Recent large- change in their communities (Schmidt, Shumow, & Kackar,
scale surveys demonstrate the importance employers place on 2007). Likewise, prosocial activities (including attending church
social responsibility. A survey of 400 employers conducted on and participating in volunteer or community-service activities)
behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Grade 10 were associated with better grades and less use
(AAC&U; Hart Research Associates, 2015) found agreement of drugs and alcohol two years later (Eccles & Barber, 1999).
among employers that social responsibility should be taught to Developing character strengths (including honesty, kindness,
college students, regardless of their field of study. Employers and fairness) through a school program was associated with
specifically cited the following aspects of social responsibility: increased life satisfaction and better relationships (Proctor
et al., 2011; Wagner, Gander, Proyer, & Ruch, 2019).
knowing how to solve problems with people
whose views are different than their own; Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, building a nation’s social
responsibility has the potential to create a more involved
building civic knowledge, skills, and judgment;
citizenry and more caring and just communities. For example,
gaining intercultural skills. participating in community-service projects in high school
predicted greater community and civic involvement in adulthood
Regarding hiring decisions, 81 percent of employers rated
(Beane, Turner, Jones, & Lipka, 1981). Social responsibility learned
“ethical judgment and decision-making” as very important, but
and practiced in childhood and young adulthood appears to
only 30 percent thought recent college graduates were well
encourage more active civic engagement across the life span.
prepared in this area. Likewise, 56 percent rated “the ability
Civic engagement is one precursor to building social capital
to analyze and solve problems with people from different
(Hyman, 2002), which Putnam (1995, pp. 664–665) defines
backgrounds and cultures” as very important, but only 18
as “features of social life—networks, norms, and trust—that
percent rated recent college graduates as well prepared.
enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue
Reviewing accreditation and professional competence shared objectives.” Through the mechanism of increased social
guidelines indicates the emphasis professionals in many fields capital, increasing levels of social responsibility can help drive
place on social responsibility. For example, the American stronger communities that promote improved social welfare.
Chemical Society’s (ACS) Guidelines for Chemistry Programs
in Two-Year and Community Colleges (ACS, 2015) details
the importance of ethics to the academic and professional
success of chemists. According to this framework, ethics
in chemistry relates to responsible research conduct and
awareness of the role of chemistry in contemporary societal
and global issues. Likewise, the nursing profession requires
a commitment to society, and this commitment is included in
the code of ethics that regulate nursing activities in the United
States (American Nurses Association, 2003) and globally in
the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics for Nurses
(International Council of Nurses, 2012). More specifically,
nurses “share with society the responsibility for initiating and
supporting action to meet the health and social needs of the
public” and “advocate for equity and social justice in resource
allocation, access to health care and other social and economic
services” (International Council of Nurses, 2012, p. 2).
Engaging in socially responsible behavior also appears to be

directly beneficial to students, both in school and in life more
generally. Students who participated in community service
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Definitions and Models
Social responsibility represents a complex and multifaceted competency,
with different conceptualizations and frameworks emphasizing the different
components to varying degrees. In this section, we provide an overview of
several definitions of social responsibility. We then synthesize across these
definitions to generate our own framework for social responsibility.
Association of American Colleges and Universities

The AAC&U, through their Core Commitments initiative (AAC&U, n.d.),
proposes that colleges and universities should be instrumental in fostering
students’ personal and social responsibility skills. In the context of this work,
they outline five dimensions of personal and social responsibility:
1. Striving for excellence: Developing a strong work ethic and

consciously doing one’s very best in all aspects of college.
2. Cultivating personal and academic integrity: Recognizing and

acting on a sense of honor ranging from honesty in relationships to
principled engagement with a formal academic honors code.
3. Contributing to a larger community: Recognizing and acting on one’s responsibility

to the educational community and the wider society, locally, nationally, and globally.
4. Taking seriously the perspectives of others: Recognizing and acting on the

obligation to inform one’s own judgment; engaging diverse and competing
perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work.
5. Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action:

Developing ethical and moral reasoning in ways that incorporate the other
four responsibilities; using such reasoning in learning and in life.
The AAC&U also addresses social responsibility through their Shared Futures
project. In order to effectively practice social responsibility, students need to
understand the interconnected nature of the world’s human and natural systems.
This can be accomplished through global learning, which AAC&U (n.d., p. 1) defines
as “a critical analysis of and an engagement with complex, interdependent global
systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, and
political) and their implications for people’s lives and the earth’s sustainability.”
Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education

In an effort to guide the work of educators in higher education, the Council for the
Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS; Stayhorn, Creamer, Miller,
& Arminio, 2006) identified and developed standards for sixteen key learning and
development domains. Social responsibility represents one of these domains, and the
CAS focuses primarily on the civic and citizenship components of social responsibility:
“Indicators of social responsibility include participating in service or volunteer activities
and understanding relevant governance systems” (Stayhorn et al., 2006, p. 127).
Examples of ways in which students demonstrate social responsibility include:
They understand and participate in relevant governance systems.
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They understand, abide by, and participate in the development, maintenance,
and/or orderly change of community, social, and legal standards or norms.
They appropriately challenge the unfair, unjust, or uncivil

behavior of other individuals or groups.
They participates in service and volunteer activities.
(Stayhorn et al., 2006, p. 3)
Assessment and Teaching of Twenty-First Century Skills

In 2009, Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft officially sponsored the international research
project Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S), which was led by the
University of Melbourne in Australia and involved collaboration with the countries
of Australia, Finland, Singapore, and the United States (Binkley et al., 2012). The goal
of this partnership was to prepare students for the twenty-first century workforce
by integrating employability skills into curricula through assessment. As part of this
partnership, researchers consolidated existing literature and twenty-first century skills
frameworks into a set of ten key skills, nested within four categories. Personal and
social responsibility represents one of these skills, which is included within the “Living
in the World” category. Their definition of personal and social responsibility includes:
knowledge of the intercultural dimension in their own and other

societies; awareness and understanding of national cultural identity
in interaction with the cultural identity of the rest of the world;
ability to see and understand the different viewpoints caused by

diversity and contribute one’s own views constructively;
willingness to overcome stereotypes and prejudices;
integrity.
(Binkley et al., 2012, p. 58)
The ATC21S working group includes citizenship—local and global—as another skill within
the “Living in the World” category. Their conceptualization of citizenship includes:
knowledge of civil rights and the constitution of the

home country, the scope of its government;
understanding of the roles and responsibilities of institutions relevant to the

policy-making process at local, regional, national, and international level;
knowledge of the main events, trends, and agents of

change in national and world history;
participation in community and neighborhood activities as well

as in decision-making at national and international levels;
voting in elections;
ability to interface effectively with institutions in the public domain;
disposition to volunteer and to participate in civic activities

and support for social diversity and social cohesion.
(Binkley et al., 2012, p. 55)
While not a part of social responsibility within the ATC21S model, these aspects
of citizenship are common to other conceptualizations of social responsibility.
DEFINITIONS AND MODELS
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“
The socially responsible person cares about
others, uses ethical standards in making
judgments, is open to the viewpoints of
others, responsive to the needs of others,
altruistic, politically conscious, informed
and involved, concerned about the welfare
of the community, and acts with integrity.
Sheldon Berman,
a teacher, superintendent,
and education researcher
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Social Consciousness and Social Responsibility
Sheldon Berman, a teacher, superintendent, and education researcher, has written
extensively about social responsibility. His conceptualization of social responsibility
“focuses on the nature of a person’s relationship with others and with the larger social
and political world . . . the personal investment in the well-being of others and the
planet” (Berman, 1997, p. 12). The socially responsible person “cares about others, uses
ethical standards in making judgments, is open to the viewpoints of others, responsive
to the needs of others, altruistic, politically conscious, informed and involved, concerned
about the welfare of the community, and acts with integrity” (p. 12). According to
Berman, social responsibility is driven by a sense of connectedness, understanding
that the “individual is rooted within a larger social network, within interlocking
communities that range from the local to the global” (p. 12). From this understanding
comes a concern for others, which leads to engagement with civic structures that
can improve the well-being of one’s communities. Environmental stewardship and
sustainability is also included in Berman’s conceptualization of social responsibility.
Pearson Social Responsibility Framework

While each of the models and definitions listed above takes a slightly different
perspective on social responsibility, there are several common themes. In
particular, we have identified four key components of social responsibility, which
we have termed “dimensions of competence” (see Table 1). In the following
section, we provide a description of our framework of social responsibility.
Dimension of Competence Definition Example Behaviors
• Seeks out opportunities to work

• Is knowledgeable about different with people having different
Multicultural cultural identities and sensitive backgrounds and perspectives
toward cultural differences • Recognizes one’s own biases and
actively works to counter them
• Is knowledgeable about relevant

• Demonstrates knowledge
ethical standards within one’s field
and awareness of ethical
(i.e. responsible research conduct)
standards and issues
Ethical • Can recognize ethical aspects of a situation
• Applies ethical reasoning and
• Applies ethical standards and reasoning
standards to make decisions in
to determine the most ethical course
ethically ambiguous situations
of action in a given situation
• Votes
• Is an informed and active citizen at
• Participates in community organizations
the local, national, and global level
Civic • Attends town halls addressing local issues
• Understands and acts on issues of
local, national, and global significance • Researches and forms a reasoned
opinion about an international conflict
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Dimension of Competence Definition Example Behaviors
• Is knowledgeable about current issues • Practices sustainable behaviors

of environmental significance • Starts an initiative to reduce the
Environmental • Is concerned about the well- carbon footprint of one’s workplace
being of the planet and engages • Can identify how current environmental
in sustainable behaviors issues are relevant to one’s field
Table 1 Pearson Social Responsibility Framework with example behaviors.
Multicultural Competence
Multicultural competence refers to being knowledgeable about different cultural

identities and sensitive toward cultural differences. Included in this competency is
consideration for a wide variety of cultural identities. Deardorff (2006, p. 247) describes
this competency as “the awareness, valuing, and understanding of cultural differences”
along with “self-awareness of one’s own culture.” Cultural identity can be derived from
many different factors. The American Psychological Association (APA) lists age, gender,
gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation,
disability, language, and socioeconomic status, as several examples (APA, 2003,
“General Principles,” para 6). National origin can also influence cultural values and can
interact with other cultural dimensions to create even more complex cultural identities
(Lowman, 2013). In an increasingly globalized world, socially responsible individuals
will need to understand the particular cultural dynamics of their own country as well
as how those dynamics differ and interact with the cultures of other countries.
While multicultural competence begins with knowledge, it also manifests in a particular

set of behaviors. The APA describes examples of multiculturally competent behavior
which, while directed toward psychologists, are still relevant for individuals across
a variety of settings and professions and provide a useful illustration of behaviors
consistent with our multicultural dimension of competence. These include:
Be aware of and respect cultural, individual and role differences, including those
based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin,
religion, sexual orientation, disability, language and socioeconomic status and
consider these factors when working with members of such groups.
(APA, 2003, “General Principles,” para 6)
Try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and do not
knowingly participate in or condone activities of others based upon such prejudices.
(APA, 2003, “General Principles,” para 6)
Recognize and understand that as cultural beings they hold attitudes and beliefs that
can influence their perceptions of and interactions with others . . . As such, [they] strive
to move beyond conceptualizations rooted in categorical assumptions, biases, and/
or formulations based on limited knowledge about individuals and communities.
(APA, 2017, p. 4)
Ethical Competence
Several definitions of social responsibility highlight the need to act in an ethical or
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moral way. We define this dimension of competence as demonstrating knowledge and
awareness of ethical standards and issues and applying ethical reasoning and standards
to make decisions in ethically ambiguous situations. Also, as a note on terminology,
much research on this topic uses the terms “ethical” and “moral” interchangeably.
For the sake of consistency, we will exclusively use the term “ethical” in this paper.
There are a variety of indicators of ethical competence, including knowledge of

relevant ethical standards, the ability to recognize when a situation requires ethical
considerations, engaging in ethical reasoning, and applying ethical standards and
reasoning to make an ethical decision. A common topic in this research literature
involves ethical codes or standards that are specific to a given field. For example, many
scientific fields have ethical guidelines regarding the responsible conduct of research.
An individual could indicate varying levels of ethical competence in the following ways:
by demonstrating knowledge of the principles of responsible conduct

of research in their field (Goodman, Dias, & Stafford, 2010);
by identifying ethical issues that relate to the responsible conduct of

research when considering research scenarios (Clarkeburn, 2002);
by making decisions in complex research scenarios that uphold principles

of responsible conduct of research (Mumford et al., 2006).
Another strand of research has focused on ethical reasoning or how individuals make
and justify their decisions in ethically ambiguous situations. Kohlberg (1976; 1981) is
one of the most well-known researchers on ethical reasoning. Kohlberg would present
students with ethical dilemmas (i.e. should a man steal medicine to save his dying
wife?) then examine the justification students provided for their choice. Kohlberg
suggests that children initially provide egocentric, or self-focused, justifications. For
example, an action might be considered wrong because it would result in negative
consequences. As ethical reasoning develops, responses become increasingly complex,
referencing social rules or expectations. Kohlberg considers abstract reasoning based
on universal ethical principles to be the most advanced form of ethical reasoning.
Lastly, other conceptualizations of ethical competence suggest that individuals

are ethical in the sense that they demonstrate certain universal virtues.
These virtues could be considered as ethical standards of behavior, but they
are often more general and applicable to a wider variety of situations than
field-based ethical standards. Peterson and Seligman (2004) examined many
historical and current ethical traditions and found evidence for six core virtues,
which are consistently consider “good” across a variety of cultures:
1. Justice: “broadly interpersonal, relevant to the optimal interaction

between the individual and the group or the community” (p. 357);
2. Humanity: “include positive traits manifest in caring

relationships with others” (p. 293);
3. Wisdom: “positive traits related to the acquisition and use of

information in the service of the good life” (p. 95);
4. Courage: “entail[s] the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the

face of opposition, either external or internal” (p. 199);
5. Temperance: “positive traits that protect us from excess” (p. 431);
6. Transcendence: “allows individuals to forge connections to the larger

universe and thereby provide meaning to their lives” (p. 519).
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These virtues are further broken down into twenty-four character strengths which
are the routes or pathways for demonstrating the virtues. For example, displaying
love (“reciprocated relationship(s) with another person,” p. 293) or kindness (“the
pervasive tendency to be nice to other people—to be compassionate and concerned
about their welfare, to do favors for them, to perform good deeds, and to take care
of them,” p. 296), indicates the presence of the virtue of Humanity. Peterson and
Seligman’s framework represents one way in which ethical competence can be defined
by practicing character strengths and virtues across a variety of life situations.
Civic Competence
The civic dimension of social responsibility involves being an informed and

active citizen at the local, national, and global level. It involves understanding
and acting on issues of local, national, and global significance and includes
both knowledge and behavioral components. In order to demonstrate civic
competence, an individual first needs to understand how governments function
and be informed about the rights and duties of citizens as well as current political
issues and problems (Althof & Berkowitz, 2006; Stokamer, 2011; Youniss et al.,
2002). In addition, an individual needs to actually practice civic engagement,
which involves participating in political systems or other civic organizations.
Environmental Competence
Lastly, environmental competence is indicated through caring about the well-being

of the planet, knowledge about current issues of environmental significance, and
the practice of environmentally sustainable behaviors. This area of competence is
particularly important when taking a global perspective of social responsibility. The
Council of Chief State School Officers, in partnership with the Asia Society, discuss
how current world trends will require students to increasingly grapple with “matters of
global significance” (Mansilla & Jackson, 2011, p. 9). They particularly focus on climate
instability and environmental stewardship, stating that “an important job for the
next generations will be that of managing the consequences of climate change and
devising effective solutions for mitigation and adaptation” (p. 11). This is inherently a
global issue because effectively combating climate change and other environmental
issues will require a concerted, worldwide effort. Additionally, the well-being of the
environment and the well-being of the world’s peoples are firmly intertwined, so a desire
to practice socially responsible behaviors includes a concern for the environment.
Values and Dispositions That Contribute to Social Responsibility
Our framework primarily focuses on the knowledge and behaviors that are
indicative of social responsibility. Current conceptualizations of social responsibility
sometimes include values or dispositions as well. These can be thought of as
patterns of belief that motivate socially responsible behavior. For example, Althof
and Berkowitz’s definition of civic competence incorporates dispositions, which
they define as “values and attitudes that create an inclination toward action, in this
case, an inclination toward civic engagement, including the appreciation of diversity,
equality, social justice, and attitudes such as political opinions or feelings about
civic participation generally” (2006, p. 16). Likewise, Lickona (1989, p. 51) stated
that “good character consists of knowing the good, desiring the good, and doing
the good.” Desiring the good represents a disposition toward wanting to behave
in a good or ethical way. While these dispositions are not explicitly part of our
framework, we wish to provide a discussion, since some interventions or assessments
may target dispositions as a method for developing social responsibility.
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“
Values and attitudes that create an
inclination toward action, in this case,
an inclination toward civic engagement,
including the appreciation of diversity,
equality, social justice, and attitudes
such as political opinions or feelings
about civic participation generally.
Althof & Berkowitz,

on the dispositions that underly civic competence
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The relationships between values/dispositions and behavior is complex. There is some
evidence that values do help drive patterns of behavior. For example, adolescent
values about civic responsibility predict civic behavior in adulthood (Finlay, Wray-
Lake, Warren, & Maggs, 2015). Other research suggests that social-activism values
are precursors to charitable behaviors, and that these values are needed to maintain
charitable behaviors and civic engagement over time (Bryant, Gayles, & Davis, 2012).
However, other research has found that values are not perfect predictors of behavior
(Bardi & Schwartz, 2003). For example, valuing benevolence only explained 9 percent
of the variability in self-reported caring behavior, suggesting that other factors are
also relevant predictors of these behaviors. Bardi and Schwartz (2003) suggest that
social norms might be relevant. If there is strong social pressure to act in a caring
way, then someone may act this way without actually valuing this behavior. Overall,
while values do not completely explain social responsibility, they may represent
one important avenue through which social responsibility can be developed.
Image by Christof Van Der Walt
COMMUNICATION MODELS AND SKILLS
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Teaching Social Responsibility
Development of Prerequisite Skills and Competencies
Several dimensions of social responsibility require an ability to understand the
perspectives of others. While social responsibility represents a more advanced
competency, instructors may wish to help students practice perspective-taking
and related skills in order to support future development of social responsibility
skills. Meta-analyses (statistical reviews of research) suggest that social competence
training with children aged three to fifteen has a moderately strong positive effect on
perspective-taking and a variety of other social cognitive skills (Beelmann, Pfingsten,
& Lösel, 1994). The most effective training programs focused on social problem-
solving skills or a combination of social problem-solving, behavioral strategies, and
self-control. Likewise, training also has a moderately strong positive impact on the
related concept of Theory of Mind (ToM), which “refers to knowledge and awareness
of mental states, (perceptions, emotions and thoughts) in oneself and others”
(Hofmann et al., 2016, p. 200). One effective program involved engaging students
in conversations about the mental states of characters in stories (Lecce, Bianco,
Devine, Hughes, & Banerjee, 2014). In particular, each story involved a discrepancy in
the beliefs or knowledge held by the characters, which presented problems for the
main character to solve. This program had a positive impact on ToM as measured
by students’ ability to make inferences about the mental states of characters in a
story (i.e. the Strange Stories task; Happé, 1994; White, Hill, Happé, & Frith, 2009).
While most interventions addressing perspective-taking and related skills focus on

younger children, there is evidence that training in these skills is effective for college
students as well. One meta-analysis found a large positive effect for empathy training
with college students (van Berkhout & Malouff, 2016). In this study, empathy was
defined as “understanding the emotions another person is feeling, feeling the same
emotions another person is feeling, or commenting accurately on the emotions another
person is feeling” (p. 33). Training programs that included the four components of
behavioral-skills training (instruction, modeling, practice, and feedback) were found
to be slightly more effective than programs that did not include these components.
Multicultural Competence
Primary and Secondary School
One method for supporting multicultural competence among primary- and secondary-
school-aged children is to reduce prejudice or other negative attitudes toward other
groups of individuals. In a meta-analysis of eighty-one research studies (published
between 1958 and 2010), Beelmann and Heinemann (2014) found a low to moderate
intervention effect. Interventions were most effective at reducing negative stereotypes
or beliefs about other groups. Most of the interventions focused on views around other
ethnicity groups while some addressed views on individuals with disabilities and the
elderly. Results indicated that interventions had a stronger impact on reducing negative
beliefs about individuals with disabilities compared to individuals of other ethnicities.
Interventions were also most effective when they incorporated direct contact between
individuals of different social groups or when they addressed empathy and perspective-
taking. While only a small subset (ten studies) included follow-up data, these results were
promising as the effect sizes tended to be similar at follow-up (average of four months).
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Other research has examined the impact of multicultural education within primary
and secondary schools. In one meta-analysis, Okoye-Johnson (2011, p. 1256) defines
multicultural education as “programs and curricula dealing with racial and cultural
diversity” that seek to address prejudice and racism while also helping students from
diverse backgrounds experience educational equity. Multicultural education activities
include reading and discussing stories about individuals from a variety of cultural
groups as well as lectures and discussions about cultural identities and values. Okoye-
Johnson (2011) found a moderately strong effect for multicultural education on reducing
negative racial attitudes, with interventions integrated into the school curriculum being
particularly effective. Additionally, these interventions were slightly more effective for
older students (ages nine to sixteen) than for younger students (ages three to eight).
Facing History and Ourselves represents one particular curriculum for middle-school-
and high-school-aged students addressing aspects of multicultural competence. This
curriculum engages students in readings and discussions about the Holocaust, with
a particular focus on the consequences of racism, violence, and antisemitism (Strom,
Sleeper, & Johnson, 1992). Research suggests that Facing History and Ourselves results
in decreases in racist attitudes (Schultz, Barr, & Selman, 2001) along with increases in
tolerance of different political preferences and stronger awareness of the experience
of prejudice and discrimination by different cultural groups (Bouley et al., 2011).
Creativity Compass is another school-based program (designed for children aged six
to twelve years) that can support multicultural competence (Dziedziewicz, Gajda, &
Karwowski, 2014). This program helps students simultaneously develop creativity and
multicultural competence through activities where the class hypothetically travels to
different countries. Students engage in open-ended discussions about cultural themes
including history, myths and legends, and traditions while employing strategies such as
analogy, imagination, and abstraction that stimulate creative thought. One study with
Polish schoolchildren found that Creativity Compass increased cultural sensitivity and
self-awareness compared to students in a control group (Dziedziewicz et al., 2014). The
cultural sensitivity and self-awareness measure focused on national cultural identity.
Higher Education
One meta-analysis by Denson (2009) examined the impact of curricular and cocurricular
diversity activities on the racial bias of college students. These activities included
multicultural coursework, diversity workshops and trainings, and peer-led interventions.
Overall, Denson (2009) found that across the sixteen studies reviewed, diversity activities
had a moderately strong effect on reducing racial bias. Activities were most effective
when they combined enlightenment (i.e. increasing the knowledge people have of
other groups or changing people’s perspective of their relations with other groups)
with cross-racial interaction (having interactions with people of other races). Notably,
many of the studies surveyed lacked random assignment, and activities were less
effective in studies where possible confounds were controlled for, indicating that some
of the effectiveness of these interventions may be attributable to study design. Other
meta-analyses suggest that similar interventions (specifically enlightenment, contact/
interaction, and the combination of enlightenment and interaction) also have a positive
impact on attitudes, emotions, and behavioral intentions toward homosexual and
bisexual individuals (Bartoş, Berger, & Hegarty, 2014; Smith, Axelton, & Saucier, 2009).
College coursework can also support multicultural competence. Eisenberg and

colleagues (2013) examined the impact of a cross-cultural management (CCM)
course for business graduate students. This course emphasized experiential
TEACHING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 16 -
learning (i.e. case studies, simulations, and exercises)
Social Responsibility in Practice and addressed the following learning objectives:
In 2006, the Association of American Colleges common body of knowledge on CCM;
and Universities (AAC&U) began their Core create awareness of one’s culture;
Commitments initiative, a program to help colleges foster appreciation of diverse cultural backgrounds;
support student development of personal and increase competence in interacting with different cultures;
build a global leadership competence.

social responsibility.
Students in this study were enrolled in a master’s in international
They formed a research collaborative examining
management program in one of several European countries (Ireland,
what specific educational practices enable students
Spain, Finland, United Kingdom, Poland, or Austria). Students in
to learn these skills and capabilities. Finding from
a control group who did not take the course were enrolled in a
this collaborative, published in the Promising
master’s in international business administration program. Across
Practices for Personal and Social Responsibility:
the course of a semester, the group who participated in the CCM
Findings from a National Research Collaborative
course experienced gains in several aspects of multicultural
report (O’Neill, 2012), highlight three key educational
competence, while no change was observed in the control group. In
activities and seven specific recommendations for
particular, the course had an impact on awareness of cultural values,
campus practice, which are summarized below:
consciousness of applying cultural knowledge in cross-cultural
situations, and motivation to engage with people from different
Diversity and perspective-taking experiences
cultures, with culture being primarily defined by national origin. It
represents the first educational activity that was
is important to note that the two groups compared in this study
associated with student growth in personal and
were based on program participation, not random assignment, so
social responsibility. This activity involves having
we cannot be certain whether the two groups were equivalent.
frank, substantive, and purposeful conversations
with diverse peers about race/ethnic relations, In addition to coursework, there is evidence that a habit-
social justice, gender, and other intellectual issues. breaking intervention can help reduce biases for college
These conversations can be accomplished within students (Devine, Forscher, Austin, & Cox, 2012). The intervention
college classes (including coursework explicitly consisted of a single, 45-minute instructional session. During
dedicated to diversity topics) or in extracurricular the session, students received information about implicit
settings (such as campus wide discussion series). biases and how they were formed as well as training in five
strategies for reducing implicit biases. These strategies were
Service learning and volunteering is the second drawn from the habit-breaking literature and included:
educational activity. These experiences often
involve connecting course content with hands-on Stereotype replacement: “Recognizing stereotypic
experience solving real world problems within the responses within oneself and society, labeling them, and
community. The importance of giving back to the replacing them with non-stereotypic responses.”
community is highlighted, and students are often Counter-stereotypic imaging: “Imagining examples of out-
asked to reflect on their experiences. These activities group members who counter popularly held stereotypes.”
can integrated within service learning courses or
Individuation: “Viewing others according to their
can be supported by campus-wide organizations.
personal, rather than stereotypic, characteristics.”
Lastly, several other engaged learning practices Perspective-taking: “Adopting the perspective in the
were identified. These practices include “talking first person of a member of a stigmatized group.”
about course content with students outside of class Contact: “Increasing exposure to out-group members.”
and communicating with professors outside of
(Devine et al., 2012, p. 1270)
class; active and collaborative learning; challenging
academic classes and high expectations; and Students were provided with examples of everyday situations
integrative learning” (O’Neill, 2012, p. 44). where the strategies could be used and were asked to generate
their own examples. Students were encouraged to practice the
strategies after the intervention session. Compared to a control
group, the intervention decreased implicit racial bias, which was
- 17 -
maintained at an eight-week follow-up. The intervention also
The report concludes by offering colleges and universities increased participants’ concern about discrimination and their
seven recommendations for campus practice: awareness of their personal biases. A similar habit-breaking
intervention increased gender-bias awareness among university
1. “Take stock of existing opportunities for science faculty and showed a trend toward increasing the hiring
students to engage in personal and social rate of new female faculty (Carnes et al., 2015; Devine et al., 2017).
responsibility-related practices”
The Workshop Activity for Gender Equity Simulation (WAGES)
2. “Determine who participates in these practices, how represents an experiential learning activity targeting sexism. In
often, and why, as well as who does not and why” this activity, two teams compete in a game to advance in one’s
academic career. One team is provided with a series of small
3. “Align existing courses, programs, and cocurricular and ostensibly harmless advantages that mimic the advantages
activities with institutional learning goals men experience in the workplace. These advantages add up by
around personal and social responsibility” the end of the game, and participants engage in a structured
discussion about the activity after the game concludes. One study
4. “Seed personal and social responsibility practices—
found that WAGES increased recognition of the harmful nature of
diversity and perspective-taking, service learning
everyday sexism and behavioral intentions to learn more about
and volunteering, and other engaged learning
gender inequality (Cundiff, Zawadzki, Danube, & Shields, 2014).
practices—where gaps currently exist”
Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) is another technique
5. “Integrate the different instances of these that evidence suggests can improve multicultural competence
positive practices and sequence them (Lillis & Hayes, 2007). ACT includes discussion and experiential
developmentally for students” exercises designed to help students notice prejudicial thoughts,
feelings, and reactions; to accept these as a natural result of living
6. “Assess students along the way”
in a prejudiced society; and to recognize that these thoughts
do not have to lead to negative actions. A key component of
7. “Examine the institutional structures and climate for
ACT is focusing on changing behavior to better align with one’s
educating for personal and social responsibility”
values rather than trying to change one’s thought patterns and
(O’Neill, 2012, p. 63)

reactions. Outcomes for students receiving ACT were compared
to students receiving a standard prejudice-awareness educational
Nancy O’Neill, Promising Practices for Personal intervention. Following ACT, students expressed stronger
and Social Responsibility: Findings from a intentions to seek out diversity experiences compared to the
National Research Collaborative prejudice-awareness intervention. Other research suggests that
ACT may help reduce stigma against certain groups, including
those with mental illness (Hayes et al., 2004; Masuda et al., 2007).
Lastly, multicultural competence is particularly emphasized within the field of mental

health and counseling. Smith and colleagues (2006) conducted a meta-analysis of
forty-five studies of multicultural education programs within this field and found
a strong positive effect on multicultural competence. While some studies focused
on counseling professionals, a majority of the participants were graduate and
undergraduate students. The interventions appear to have an equally strong impact on
general measures of multicultural competence (i.e. racial prejudice and racial identity)
as well as measures specific to multicultural competence in a counseling context.
Both long-term interventions (semester-long course) and short-term interventions
(workshops that lasted less than two weeks) were similarly effective, and interventions
that were explicitly based on a theoretical perspective were more effective.
Ethical Competence
Development of ethical competence in primary and secondary school most often falls
under the purview of character education. Character education refers to the movement
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within schools to foster “ethical, responsible, and caring young people by modeling and
teaching good character through emphasis on universal values” (Character Education
Partnership, 2010, para 1). As such, the goal of character education is to enhance
aspects of ethical competence, particularly behaving in a way that is aligned with general
ethical values such as justice, integrity, and respect. Within the United States, there is a
particularly strong national interest in character-education programs, as evidenced by
the inclusion of character education as a feature of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001).
In a trial with elementary-school students in Hawaii, the Positive Action program

decreased negative social behaviors (Beets et al., 2009). The Positive Action
program represents a schoolwide curriculum designed to improve academics,
student behaviors, and character. In a typical school year, students spend thirty-
five hours on program lessons, which include topics like self-concept, getting along
with others, and self-improvement. The program was intended to be interactive,
encouraging exchanges with teachers and other students through activities such
as games, role-playing, and skills practice. Principals were also encouraged to
promote elements of the program through their schools’ climate. The study by
Beets and colleagues (2009) compared social outcomes between students who
had participated in the program through their school from Grades 1 or 2 through
Grade 5 with students in schools that did not implement the program. Students who
participated in the Positive Action program demonstrated fewer violent behaviors
(as reported by students and their teachers) and reported less substance use.
The Child Development Project (CDP) represents a school reform model for elementary
schools designed to teach social and ethical skills and promote academic achievement
by creating caring school communities (Battistich, Watson, Solomon, Schaps, &
Solomon, 1991). In particular, the CDP emphasized three key classroom components:
1. cooperative learning, where students collaborated on

work and took an active role in the classroom;
2. developmental discipline where classroom and behavior management was achieved

through teaching and problem-solving rather than rewards and punishment;
3. literature-based reading and language arts that focused on using

literature to encourage empathy and understanding of others.
Compared to students in matched control schools, students in schools participating

in the CDP reported stronger levels of caring for others (Muñoz & Vanderhaar, 2006).
The CDP also appeared to have a small positive effect on academic achievement.
The Smart Character Choices (SCC; Vance & Stockwell, 2002) program is designed to
help students manage behavior by linking behavior to individual wants and needs. The
program incorporated progression development and implementation support for faculty
and focused on an American History curriculum emphasizing positive historical role
models. Students were also taught specific classroom and schoolwide social protocols
with the goal of “assist[ing] students in developing effective character traits (e.g.,
kindness, optimism, respect, responsibility, and work ethic) that help them to interact
with others positively and meet basic needs” (Parker, Nelson, & Burns, 2010, p. 820).
Compared to students in schools assigned to a control condition, students in SCC schools
demonstrated fewer negative social behaviors (classroom disruptions and verbal and
physical aggression), as measured by an independent observer (Parker et al., 2010).
A study by Leming (2001) demonstrates the influence of an ethical decision-making

curriculum with integrated community service on ethical competence among high-
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school students. This study utilized the Building Decisions Skills curriculum (Born
& Mirk, 1997). Students learned about ethical issues and how to apply different
decisions paradigms to ethical dilemmas. The curriculum included instruction and
practice. At the same time, students also engaged in community service. Outcomes
for students in this group were compared to two other preexisting groups: students
participating in community service without explicit instruction and a control group.
Students in both community-service groups reported a stronger sense of social
responsibility within their school than students in the control groups. Students in
the community service with integrated ethical decision-making instruction group
generally outperformed students in the other two groups on measures of ethical
competence, including sensitivity to ethical issues and willingness to accept ethical
responsibility (as measured by examining ethical dilemmas). Results suggest that while
community-service participation can support some aspects of social responsibility,
explicit instruction in ethical decision-making is needed to drive strong gains in ethical
competence. It should be noted that because the groups were based on existing classes
and not random assignment, it is unclear whether the groups could be considered
equivalent, although researchers attempted to control for potential group differences.
Storytelling curricula represent another avenue for teaching younger children about
character and ethics. Leming (2000) evaluated the Heartwood Institute’s (1992) “An Ethics
Curriculum for Children,” an approach to teaching children in Grades 1–6 ethical values
and character attributes utilizing a read-aloud literature program. While the program
improved students’ ethical understanding (i.e. their knowledge about the six ethical
values), the program’s impact on ethical decision-making and behavior was inconsistent.
LifeStories for Kids represents another program that utilizes storytelling techniques
to help elementary-school-aged students understand character choices in complex
social situations (Brightwood & DeRosier, 2007). Students listen to stories that highlight
several character traits including integrity, kindness, fairness, and acceptance. After
students listen to the stories, teachers can pick from a variety of follow-up activities
that build on the stories’ lessons. These activities include role-plays, art activities,
creative storytelling, and writing activities linking the story to students’ lives. A study by
DeRosier and Mercer (2007) examined the impact of a semester-long implementation
of this program for students in Grades K–2 and 3–5. For students in Grades K–2, the
program resulted in decreased aggressive behavior and increased prosocial behavior
(i.e. demonstrating empathy and caring for others). Among students in Grades 3–5, the
program resulted in decreased aggressive behavior and immature or impulsive behavior.
Higher Education
Watts and colleagues (2017) conducted a meta-analysis summarizing the results

from 150 studies of ethics training programs in the sciences. Overall, they found
a moderately strong positive effect (ES = 0.48) of training on a variety of ethical
competence outcomes. Effects were strongest on the following outcomes:
ethical knowledge;
perceptions of self;
ethical decision-making;
metacognitive strategies.
Ethical reasoning was a common outcome in these studies, most often measured
using the Moral Judgment Test or the Defining Issues Test, which are general measures
of ethical reasoning. Effectiveness for these outcomes were generally weaker, while
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- 21 -
interventions were strongly effective when the Defining Issues Test was adapted to a
particular field. Shorter programs (less than eight hours) tended to be more effective,
and format (i.e. integrated vs. stand-alone) did not strongly influence effectiveness.
Programs targeting the following content areas demonstrated the largest effects:
sexual harassment, the Nuremberg code, personal integrity, financial compliance,
group biases, data integrity, and field differences. In contrast, the weakest effects were
observed for the following topics: appropriate statistical analysis, power differentials,
diversity, organizational values, peer review, and lab safety. Purely group- or team-
based approaches tended to generate smaller effect sizes. The largest effect sizes
were observed for courses including humor, note-taking, workbooks, debates, and
current events, while games, mentoring, and service learning were associated with
smaller effect sizes. Active participation, case-based instruction, and opportunities
for practice were other features of more effective programs. Notably, participants
in these studies included undergraduate students, graduate/medical students, and
professionals/residents. Generally the effectiveness of ethics-training problems was
similar across groups, with the strongest effects for mixed groups of participants.
A similar meta-analysis was conducted regarding ethics instruction in the field

of business (Medeiros et al., 2017). A small effect (ES = 0.30) was found overall,
but moderate to large effects were found on the outcomes of ethical decision-
making and ethical behavior. The following instructional content produced larger
effect sizes on ethical decision-making and behavior: decision-making strategies,
general compliance, complexity of ethical dilemmas, coverage of stakeholders,
and moral philosophy. Active participation, problem-based learning, and debates
were other features of programs with stronger effects. Notably, participants in
these studies included undergraduate students, graduate students (i.e. MBA),
and working adults, with stronger effects being found for working adults.
Civic Competence
The Student Voices program is a high-school civics curriculum that teaches students
about political systems by exploring problems in the students’ communities and
making connections between these problems and decisions made in state and local
government (Feldman, Pasek, Romer, & Jamieson, 2007). The program also encourages
active classroom discussions about political and social issues along with engagement
with media coverage of politics. One study found that program participation was
associated with short-term gains in political interest, efficacy for political engagement,
and knowledge of state and local government (Feldman et al., 2007). A follow-up
study conducted over a year after students finished the program (during which time
a presidential election occurred) showed that students retained gains in efficacy for
political engagement, political attentiveness, and knowledge regarding presidential
candidates (Pasek, Feldman, Romer, & Jamieson, 2008). It should be noted that class
assignment in these studies was determined by self- or administrator selection, so we
cannot be certain that the two groups being compared were equivalent. Another study
that incorporated random assignment, and that included 1,670 high-school students,
found that Student Voices had a positive impact on “students’ self-reported ability to
cast an informed vote, knowledge of the voter registration process, belief that their vote
matters, communication with others about politics, sense of civic obligation, and media
use and analysis” compared to a standard civic curriculum (Syvertsen et al., 2009, p. 33).
- 22 -
The Madison County Youth in Public Service program integrated small-group
community engagement into high-school government courses (Westheimer &
Kahne, 2004). Students, in small groups, partnered with government agencies
on community-based projects, such as developing a plan for curbside recycling.
Compared to a group of control students, participating in the program resulted
in significant growth in personal responsibility to help others, confidence
that they could make a positive change in their communities, and intention to
read the news (Kahne & Westheimer, 2006; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). It is
important to note that the groups were based on existing class structure, not
random assignment, so we cannot be certain that the groups are equivalent.
Kids Voting USA is a civics curriculum implemented during election years that supports
civic engagement (Battistoni et al., 2003). In addition to classroom lectures, students gain
hands-on experience with the electoral process through activities like participating in Get
Out the Vote efforts and analyzing political advertisements. The program encourages
peer-collaboration activities for students and parental participation. One study found
that participating in Kids Voting USA was associated with increased media use, political
knowledge, and civic and political discussions with parents and friends (McDevitt &
Kiousis, 2006), effects which were retained at a one-year follow-up. Participating in
Kids Voting USA was also related to increased volunteering and campus activism one
and two years following the program. Assignment to condition in this study was based
on whether a school was participating in Kids Voting USA, and analyses suggested that
the two groups were similar on relevant demographic and background variables.
CityWorks is a civics curriculum developed by the Constitutional Rights Foundation that

teaches academic topics of citizenship (i.e. how government functions) with the aim of
making connections to issues that are personally relevant and engaging to students
(Kahne, Chi, & Middaugh, 2006). This curriculum utilized several active-learning strategies
including participating in a simulated city government, meeting with actual community
leaders, and completing service learning projects. Compared to students taking
standards civics courses, students in the CityWorks program demonstrated significant
gains in their commitment to different models of citizenship (Kahne et al., 2006). More
specifically, students in the CityWorks program reported greater commitment to being
active participants in civic affairs and community life and more willingness to engage
with social, political, and economic structures to address causes of injustice. Of note,
the two groups compared in this study were based on existing class structures, not
random assignment, so we cannot be certain whether the two groups were equivalent.
An analysis of a longitudinal dataset following American high-school students from

1988 to 2006 found that a year of coursework in American Government and Civics
increased students’ likelihood of voting after high school (Bachner, 2010). This effect
was particularly strong for students whose families were not politically active.
Another longitudinal study, conducted with Chicago high-school students, found that
discussing civic and political issues with one’s parents, participating in extracurricular
activities other than sports, and living in a civically responsive neighborhood appear to
meaningfully support student commitment to civic participation (Kahne & Sporte, 2008).
Higher Education
College appears to play an important role in developing civic competence among young
people. Increased education predicts political engagement, such as voting (Marcelo,
2007), as well as more general community engagement, such as active participation
in community groups or organizations (Huang, van den Brink, & Groot, 2009). Service
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- 24 -
learning is often proposed as one of the college experiences that supports civic
competence. Research supports this supposition. One meta-analysis of twenty-eight
studies found that participation in service learning predicted civic engagement, which
included outcomes that impacted the community such as altruism, civic responsibility,
and current and future voting behaviors (Celio, Durlak, & Dymnicki, 2011). Another meta-
analysis found that participation in community service was associated with increases
in active involvement in community improvement as well as justice-oriented citizenship
(i.e. addressing societal structures and injustice; Conway, Amel, & Gerwien, 2009).
Other theorists suggest that diversity experiences can drive civic engagement by making
students more aware of issues of difference and inequality. This awareness prompts
civic action as a strategy for addressing injustice. One meta-analysis found that diversity
experiences in college were related to increased civic outcomes (attitudes or skills,
behaviors, or behavioral intentions), with a small- to medium-sized effect (Bowman,
2011). Diversity experiences could include interpersonal interactions with diverse
peers, diversity coursework, or diversity experiences outside of the classroom. Of these
experiences, interpersonal interactions had the strongest impact on civic outcomes. Gains
reported in the studies in this meta-analysis could be based on self-report or differences
in scores between assessments made at different times (longitudinal design), with the
latter reflecting a more rigorous design. While diversity experiences still had a significant
effect in longitudinal studies, the effects were significantly stronger when based on
self-reported gains, suggesting that the overall effect size may be an overestimation.
In addition to more general college experiences, college courses and interventions

have been shown to support civic competence. Active Citizenship through Technology
is a three-day pre-orientation for pre-college students designed to encourage civic
engagement. During the program, students engaged with a 3D virtual world called Zora
(Bers & Chau, 2006) where they collaboratively designed a “campus of the future” and
engaged in simulated civic activities. One study found that students who participated in
the Active Citizenship through Technology program reported increased participation in
activities expressing their political voice or social viewpoint (i.e. writing to an official or
protesting) during their freshman year compared to students who completed other pre-
orientation programs (Bers & Chau, 2010). While participation in different pre-orientation
programs was based on self-selection rather than random assignment, results
indicated that the groups did not differ on measures of civic engagement at baseline.
Krings and colleagues (Krings, Austic, Gutiérrez, & Dirksen 2015) examined the
impact of different social justice education courses. Of the courses compared, one
included a two-hour per week service learning internship, one focused on intergroup
dialogue, and one addressed social justice topics using a lecture style. These courses
were compared to a control, Introduction to Psychology course. Compared to the
control condition, students in the social justice courses demonstrated greater
gains in self-reported political participation, civic engagement, and multicultural
activism. When examining the three social justice courses independently, students
in the intergroup dialogue course demonstrated gains in all three outcomes, and
students in the lecture-based course demonstrated gains in political participation
and multicultural activism. Somewhat surprisingly, students in the service
learning course did not experience gains in any of the outcomes, but this group
had the highest levels of outcomes prior to beginning the course, which may have
contributed to these findings. Notably, participation in these courses was based on
self-selection, not random assignment, which may have impacted the results.
- 25 -
Environmental Competence
Among primary- and secondary-school students, environmental education generally

involves providing students with hands-on experience with nature. Ernst and Theimer
examined the impact of seven environmental education programs on students’
connectedness to nature, a measure of the extent to which “people experientially
view themselves as egalitarian members of the broader natural community; feel a
sense of kinship with it; view themselves as belonging to the natural world as much
as it belongs to them; and view their welfare as related to the welfare of the natural
world” (Ernst & Theimer, 2011, quoting Mayer & Frantz, 2004, p. 505). Two of the seven
programs had a positive impact on connectedness to nature when compared to a control
group, although group membership was not determined by random assignment:
1. A voluntary summer day program (c. thirty hours) for students in

Grades 3–5 that involved environmental observation and exploration,
ecology games, and environmental service learning.
2. A series of three field trips to natural sites for students in Grades 3–6 that focused
on the topics of watershed, food webs, native plants, geology, and wildlife.
At the “Green Classroom,” an experiential learning forum at the University of Ulm

in Germany, students interact with small animals in their natural environment
(Drissner, Haase, & Hille, 2010). This experience is designed to teach students about
the connection between animals and their habitats and to develop an emotional
connection with the animals. After spending a morning at the “Green Classroom,”
Grade 4 and 5 students were less inclined to support the utilization of nature solely
for humans’ benefit, while no change was observed in a control group of students.
Additionally, after engaging with the “Green Classroom,” students reported stronger
motivation for and enjoyment of learning about small animals. It should be noted that
the groups compared in this study were not determined by random assignment.
Exploring Environmental Issues: Focus on Risk is an environmental education program

developed by Project Learning Tree designed to let students explore human environmental
health risk and ecological risk through classroom activities (Project Learning Tree, 1998).
Topics include understanding how environmental risk assessments are conducted (i.e.
considering the placement of a hazardous waste facility) and examining current ecological
risks to coral reefs and mangrove swamps. One study found that the program, when
administered to students in Grades 7–12, increased knowledge of risk concepts as measured
by a multiple-choice test (Covitt, Gomez-Schmidt, & Zint, 2005). The program was also
associated with self-reported change in attitudes regarding risk perception, communication,
assessment, and management. It should be noted that the groups compared in this
study were determined by existing class structure and not random assignment.
Higher Education
Research with undergraduate students suggests that setting implementation intentions

can support the practice of sustainable behavior. Implementation intentions are “if-then
plans that connect good opportunities to act with cognitive and behavioral responses
that are effective in accomplishing one’s goals” (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006, p. 82).
Implementation intentions specify the timing, setting, and processes that will support
goal achievement. In one study, setting an implementation intention increased student
likelihood of trying a new bus route and purchasing organically produced food (Bamberg,
2002). Implementation intentions were set by specifying a date, time, or situation
- 26 -
when they could participate in the focal activity. Another study examined the impact of
mental contrasting plus implementation intentions on decreasing meat consumption
(Loy, Wieber, Gollwitzer, & Oettingen, 2016). The mental contrasting component of the
intervention involved setting a goal around meat consumption, imagining completing
the goal and associated positive outcomes, then contrasting that image with current
obstacles that might prevent goal achievement. This intervention helped students
convert the intention to reduce meat consumption into behavioral change.
Osbaldiston and Schott (2012) conducted a meta-analysis on several behavioral interventions

designed to increase pro-environmental behavior. This meta-analysis is notable in
that the outcomes in these studies were observed behaviors rather than self-reported
behaviors or behavioral intentions. The outcomes included behaviors like recycling
and conserving energy, water, and gasoline. The authors also excluded interventions
conducted in formal classroom settings. The most effective interventions included:
cognitive dissonance: “accessed preexisting beliefs or attitudes and attempted

to make participants behave in ways that were consistent with those beliefs
to reduce the dissonance” (Osbaldiston and Schott, 2012, p. 273);
goal-setting: “process of asking participants to aim for a predetermined

goal, like reducing their electricity consumption by 20%” (p. 273);
social modeling: “any kind of passing of information via demonstration or discussion

in which the initiators indicate that they personally engage in the behavior” (p. 272);
prompts: “noninformational reminders that focused only on

when to perform the next specific action, like ‘turn off lights when
leaving room’ or ‘put recyclables out tomorrow’” (p. 272).
Of note, participants in the studies cited in this meta-analysis included individuals

of all ages, although some studies focused specifically on university students.
Summary of Teaching Social Responsibility

This review identified several research-supported strategies for helping students
develop social responsibility. Regarding multicultural competence, support was found for
multicultural coursework, diversity workshops and trainings, and peer-led interventions,
with interactions with diverse peers and learning about diversity being key features of
effective programs. Cognitive and behavioral interventions like teaching habit-breaking
strategies and ACT can also support multicultural competence. We found evidence
for several different school-based character-education programs for primary- and
secondary-school students. For college students, ethical competence training appeared
most effective for supporting field-specific ethical behavior and decision-making as
opposed to more general ethical reasoning. In particular, active participation, case-
based instruction, and opportunities for practice support effective ethical training.
When teaching civic and environmental competence to primary- and secondary-school

students, allowing them the opportunity to meaningfully engage with relevant topics
is important. For civic competence, this often means civic coursework that integrates
opportunities for practical civic engagement such as participating in elections,
service learning, and meeting with community leaders. Hands-on experience with
nature appears to support environmental competence. For college students, service
learning, diversity experiences, and social justice coursework were all associated with
civics competence. Strategies around goal-setting (including setting implementation
intentions) and other cognitive and behavioral strategies (including social modeling
and prompts) can help college students develop environmental competence.
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Assessing Social Responsibility
To support the development of social responsibility, it is also important to have
reliable and valid measures of these skills. Accurate assessment helps to document
whether social responsibility interventions have a meaningful impact and can
also serve as a tool when teaching social responsibility. Instructors can use social
responsibility assessments to identify where students are in their development
of this skill, which can inform the type and level of intervention that is needed.
Assessments also support students’ self-reflection by providing them with feedback
regarding their practice of social responsibility. Table 2 presents several measures
relevant to social responsibility, along with their alignment to our specific dimensions
of competence. We review many of these measures in more detail in later sections.
We will first provide an overview of evidence-centered design (ECD), which is the
framework we use for our discussion about assessing social responsibility.
Dimension of Competence Representative Measures
• Cultural Intelligence (Ang et al., 2007)
• Intended Behavior Measure (Cameron, Rutland, Brown, & Douch, 2006)
• Educational Testing Service (ETS) HEIghten Intercultural Competency & Diversity

Assessment (Griffith, Wolfeld, Armon, Rios, & Liu, 2016; Liu, Roohr, & Rios, 2018)
Multicultural • Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE rubric (AAC&U, 2009c)
• Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (van der Zee & van Oudenhoven, 2000)
• Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II (PRAM II; Williams,

Best, Boswell, Mattson, & Graves, 1975)
• Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang et al., 2003)
• Defining Issues Test (DIT-2; Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, & Bebeau, 1999)
• Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT; Borenstein, Drake, Kirkman, & Swann, 2010)
Ethical
• Ethical Reasoning VALUE rubric (AAC&U, 2009b)
• Values in Action Survey of Character Strengths (Peterson & Park, 2009)
• CIRCLE measures of civic engagement and civic knowledge

(Flanagan, Syvertsen, & Stout, 2007)
• Civic Competence Composite Indicator 2 (CCCI-2; Hoskins, Villalba, & Saisana, 2012)
• Civic Engagement—Local and Global VALUE rubric (AAC&U, 2009a)

Civic • College Senior Survey—Civic Values (Lott & Eagan, 2011)
• ETS HEIghten Civic Competency and Engagement Assessment (Liu

et al., 2018; Torney-Purta, Cabrera, Roohr, Liu, & Rios, 2015)
• National Assessment for Education Progression—Civic

(National Assessment Governing Board, 2014)
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Dimension of Competence Representative Measures
• Children’s Environmental Attitude and Knowledge

Scale (Leeming, Dwyer, & Bracken, 1995)
Environmental • Environmental Scale (2-MEV; Bogner & Wiseman, 2006)
• Global Learning VALUE Rubric (AAC&U, 2014)
• New Ecological Paradigm Scale for Children (Manoli, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007)
Table 2 Pearson Social Responsibility Framework with representative measures.
Evidence-Centered Design
ECD provides a systematic framework for developing assessment tasks to
elicit targeted skills (Mislevy, Steinberg, & Almond, 2003). ECD is particularly
useful when applied to complex skills like social responsibility because
it supports the development of more authentic activity types.
The ECD framework consists of three models:
1. The Student Model defines the claims to be made about learners’ competencies.
2. The Evidence Model establishes what constitutes valid evidence of the claim.
3. The Task Model determines the nature and form

of tasks that will elicit that evidence.
Within the ECD framework, the targeted competencies and skills are defined within
the Student Model. Our framework of social responsibility competences represents
the Student Model. Next, the assessment designer identifies what evidence, typically
some sort of student behavior, would be a valid indicator of a given competency.
This set of evidence represents the Evidence Model. Lastly, specific activities (the
Task Model) are identified or designed that will elicit components of the Evidence
Model. Crucial to the ECD framework is a thread linking activity features, evidence
elicited from these activities, and claims made about student competencies.
Assessment Task Models

Self-Report and Informant Report
Many measures of social responsibility involve self-report and informant-report

questionnaires that ask individuals to report on their own or others’ characteristics
and behavior. These questionnaires include several items (e.g., “I am interested in
politics,” “I change my actions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it,” or “I can
be trusted to keep my promises”), and respondents rate the extent to which each
item is true for them, typically on a Likert scale. Individuals can also complete a
questionnaire as an informant, meaning that they comment on how true an item is
for someone else (such as a teacher rating the behavior or disposition of a student).
Self-report and informant-report measures are particularly useful when assessing

social responsibility attitudes and values. Student can easily report the degree to which
aspects of social responsibility, such as participating in civic activities, are important
to them. There are concerns that self-report measures of personal qualities may be
susceptible to the social-desirability bias or “faking” (Gonyea, 2005; Bowman & Seifert,
ASSESSING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 30 -
2011; Spencer, 1938). Many aspects of social responsibility (i.e. behaving ethically) are
clearly socially favorable, so the individual taking a self-report assessment may offer
inaccurate responses to appear a good person. In later sections, we will discuss more
authentic assessment tasks that can help address concerns around social desirability.
Scenario-Based and Dilemma-Based Tasks
Another common task model used in the assessment of social responsibility involves
presenting individuals with a hypothetical scenario followed by questions about possible
responses to that scenario. Individuals may be asked to indicate the best response, to
evaluate the response of an actor in the scenario, or to explain their reasoning behind their
selection of a response. While not completely authentic, these types of tasks mimic real-life
situations and provide evidence about how students would behave if placed in that situation.
Ethical Competence Evidence Models
The Defining Issues Test (DIT-2; Rest, Narvaez, Thoma, & Bebeau, 1999) represents
a dilemma-based assessment of ethical competence, particularly the aspect of
ethical reasoning. Students read several ethical dilemmas, each of which presents
a difficult choice for the main actor within the dilemma (i.e. “A father contemplates
stealing food for his starving family from the warehouse of a rich man hoarding food”
(Rest et al., 1999, p. 649)). Then students read through several issues which could
be considered when deciding the best course of action (twelve per dilemma) and
rank the importance of each issue in making their decision. The issues are aligned
to different aspects of moral reasoning and include questions like how other people
might respond to the behavior or whether the behavior would break any laws. Students
are also asked to rank the four most important issues for making a decision.
Rest and colleagues developed scoring protocols that combine the

rankings into the following indices (Rest & Narvaez, 1998):
Personal Interest Schema Score: Proportion of items selected as most

important that appeal to personal interest considerations.
Maintaining Norms Score: Proportion of items selected as most

important that appeal to the maintenance of social norms
such as the legal system or organizational structures.
Post-conventional Schema Score/P-Score: Proportion of items selected

as most important that appeal to post-conventional considerations
such as building consensus and appealing to universally valued ideals
(i.e. majority vote, due process, maintaining basic rights).
N2 Score: Combines information from the P-Score with the degree to

which items representing more sophisticated moral reasoning are rater
higher than items representing less sophisticated reasoning.
Borenstein, Drake, Kirkman, & Swann (2010) adapted the DIT-2 to include dilemmas
and issues specific to the fields of engineering and science (the Engineering
and Science Issues Test; ESIT). The ESIT followed the same format of the DIT-2,
including the presentation of a dilemma and ranking of issues relevant to making
a decision. One dilemma focuses on an engineer who must select a vendor to
stop working with, and she owns stock in the company of one of the potential
vendors. Example issues include, “Will [the engineer’s] decision potentially cause
harm to the public?” (Borenstein et al., 2010, p. 392). The ratings and rankings were
combined into indices analogous to the P-Score and N2 Score of the DIT-2.
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“
An employer you work for has identified
new sustainability measures to reduce
environmental and social impacts as a result
of the business’ practice. These changes
require you to develop new knowledge and
make small changes to your work procedures.
How are you most likely to respond?
Holdsworth, Thomas, & Sandri,

an example vignette from an environmental competence assessment
- 32 -
Mumford and colleagues (2006) applied scenario-based tasks to measure ethical
decision-making. Scenarios were written that reflected the day-to-day work of
researchers and incorporated both ethical and technical issues. After reading the
scenario, students were asked to assume the role of the primary actor in the scenario
and to choose which of two response options would best resolve the situation. Response
options were actions that could be taken in the scenario. Each response option had been
labeled by the assessment developers as either highly ethical, moderately ethical, or
unethical, based on ethical principles outlined in professional codes of conduct. Scoring
occurred by assigning a points weight to each of the two response options selected for
each scenario (3 = highly ethical, 2 = moderately ethical, and 1 = unethical). The scenarios
fell in separate domains (data management, study conduct, professional practices, and
business practices), and students were assigned an ethical decision-making score for
each domain. One example scenario involved a situation where one researcher in a
lab (Reynolds) uses a modified version of another researcher’s (Moss’s) ideas in a grant
proposal. The scenario asked the student to assume the role of the lab director and
choose the best action to take from options like: “Apologize to Moss and indicate that
the proposal must go out as is to meet the deadline” and “Acknowledge Moss in the
grant proposal because the ideas were hers originally” (Mumford et al., 2006, p. 344).
Environmental Competence Evidence Models
Researchers at the RMIT University in Australia developed scenario- or vignette-based tasks

to assess the “environmentally aware and responsible” attribute for university graduates
(Holdsworth, Thomas, & Sandri, 2018). This is one of several generic graduate attributes
that RMIT University wants all students to develop, regardless of the student’s particular
major or discipline. Each vignette presented students with a scenario. For example, the
first vignette stated, “An employer you work for has identified new sustainability measures
to reduce environmental and social impacts as a result of the business’ practice. These
changes require you to develop new knowledge and make small changes to your work
procedures. How are you most likely to respond?” (Holdsworth et al., 2018, p. 129).
Students were given several response options and asked to select which one they
would be most likely to choose. Each response was associated with a different
level of attainment of the “environmentally aware and responsible” attribute,
which ranged from lacking the attribute, to awareness, then responsibility, with
leadership being the highest level. Table 3 depicts the alignment between the
response options, levels of attainment, and descriptors of each level. Students
were assigned a level of attribute attainment based on their response selection.
Level of Attribute
Response Option Attainment Level of Attribute Attainment Descriptor
Do not consider your workplace to Does not recognize social and environmental
Attribute lacking
negatively impact the environment impacts of practice or human activity
Be aware of the impacts but

Recognizes social and environmental impacts of practice or
do not take any action and Awareness 1
human activity; however, does not believe change is necessary
continue with current practice
Be aware of the impacts and Recognizes social and environmental impacts of practice or
let others take responsibility Awareness 2 human activity and sees that some level of change may be
for reducing impacts necessary; however, leaves it to others to take responsibility
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Level of Attribute
Response Option Attainment Level of Attribute Attainment Descriptor
Recognizes social and environmental impacts of

Make the minimum required changes
Responsibility 1 practice or human activity and takes minimum
that the workplace requires
action to make changes to practice
Support change through

Recognizes social and environmental impacts of practice
actively adjusting your practice
Responsibility 2 or human activity and takes active responsibility
in every aspect necessary
for taking action to reduce these impacts
to bring about change
Learn more about the impacts and

measures so that you can take the Recognizes social and environmental impacts of
changes further, and encourage and Leadership 1 practice or human activity and makes changes
support others in your workplace and supports others to do the same
to implement changes also
Develop your own strategy for

reducing environmental and social Recognizes social and environmental impacts of practice
impacts of practice and actively Leadership 2 or human activity and creates and implements change
support others in your workplace projects that influence others in community or workplace
to implement or contribute to this
Table 3 Alignment between vignettes’ response options and level of attribute attainment (adapted from Holdsworth, Thomas, & Sandri, 2018, p. 127 and p. 130).
Multicultural Competence Evidence Models
Assessment developers at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) utilize scenario-

based tasks in their HEighten Intercultural Competence and Diversity assessment
(Liu, Roohr, & Rois, 2018). In this assessment, students are presented with various
cross-cultural scenarios along with several related questions. Students are asked to
select which responses to the scenario will best create or maintain positive cross-
cultural relationships. Scenarios fall into one of the following domains: studying,
teaching, or traveling abroad; international collaboration; guests from other cultures;
and subcultures within the United States. The following sample question and
answer choices illustrates the implementation and scoring of this assessment:
“A group of students from another country is going to visit your university, and each
student will be placed with a local family during the stay. Select the options for the blanks
that, taken together, would produce the best direction for encouraging a positive cultural
exchange. The university should take care to [Blank1] in order to make sure that [Blank2].”
(ETS, 2017, Q3)
Blank 1 options:
introduce each student to their homestay family in advance;
arrange an appropriate meal plan for each student;
provide transportation to and from the university.
- 34 -
Blank 2 options:
the family does not have to adjust their lifestyle in any way.
the family has some information about the students’ background.
the family includes the student in housekeeping chores.
Answer keys for the scenario-based items were determined by consulting

with content experts. For this sample item, the correct answers are “introduce
each student to their homestay family in advance” and “the family has some
information about the students’ background” for Blank 1 and 2 respectively.
Choosing those answers indicates an understanding of what behavior, and
underlying motivation for the behavior, will best facilitate a positive cultural
exchange. Items are scored as correct or incorrect based on the answer key.
Performance-Based Tasks
Assessments of social responsibility can also be based on direct observation of behavior

during an activity that requires social responsibility. These tasks can involve knowledge
assessments, role-playing activities or naturally occurring scenarios. Answer keys
and rubrics represent evidence models often applied to performance-based tasks.
Evidence Model: Answer Key
Most of our dimensions of social responsibility involve certain types of knowledge.

In particular, civic competence involves understanding civic institutions and political
systems and being aware of current civic issues. As a result, several measures
of civic competence presented in Table 2 incorporate knowledge assessments,
including the CCCI-2 (Hoskins, Villalba, & Saisana, 2012), ETS’s HEIghten Civic
Competency and Engagement assessment (Liu et al., 2018), and the National
Assessment of Educational Progress: Civics assessment (National Assessment
Governing Board, 2014). These assessments involve either multiple-choice
questions or free-response questions, which are graded against an answer key.
Evidence Model: Rubric
The AAC&U has published several VALUE rubrics that align to each of our social
responsibility dimensions of competence (Rhodes, 2010; AAC&U, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c,
2014). For example, the “Civic Engagement, Local and Global” rubric can be used to
assess the degree to which a student “is working to make a difference in the civic life
of our communities [and] promoting the quality of life in a community, through both
political and non-political processes” (AAC&U, 2009a). The rubric is meant to be applied
to a student work sample, or a collection of work samples. An example of relevant work
for the Civic Engagement rubric includes “creat[ing] and manag[ing] a service program
that engages others (such as youth or members of a neighborhood) in learning about
and taking action on an issue they care about” (AAC&U, 2009a). There are several
dimensions within the Civic Engagement rubric, each of which can be rated on a scale
of 1 to 4, ranging from Benchmark to Capstone. Table 4 depicts the four descriptors
that align to each level within the dimension of “Civic Actions and Reflections.”
- 35 -
Level of Performance Descriptor
Has experimented with some civic activities but shows little internalized
Benchmark 1
understanding of their aims or effects and little commitment to future action
Has clearly participated in civically focused actions and begins to reflect or

2
describe how these actions may benefit individual(s) or communities
Milestone
Demonstrates independent experience and team leadership of civic action, with
3
reflective insights or analysis about the aims and accomplishments of one’s actions
Demonstrates independent experience and shows initiative in team leadership

Capstone 4 of complex or multiple civic-engagement activities, accompanied by reflective
insights or analysis about the aims and accomplishments of one’s actions.
Table 4 AAC&U VALUE rubric descriptions for Civic Actions and Reflections (AAC&U, 2009a).
The AAC&U has also developed VALUE rubrics for the skills of “Intercultural
Knowledge and Competence” (AAC&U, 2009c), “Ethical Reasoning” (AAC&U,
2009b), and “Global Learning” (AAC&U, 2014), each of which have elements that
align to our multicultural, ethical, and environmental dimensions respectively.
Summary of Assessing Social Responsibility

Many measures of social responsibility involve self-report or informant-report
scales. Given that these types of measures are often susceptible to “faking good,”
it is important to include more authentic social responsibility assessments. To this
end, we review several measures of social responsibility that incorporate scenario-
or dilemma-based tasks. These assessments present students with hypothetical
situations and probe for how students would behave in those situations. There are
also several performance-based measures of social responsibility. These measures
can assess the knowledge component of social responsibility through multiple-
choice or free-response questions. Alternatively, there are several rubrics that can
be used to assess social responsibility from student behavior or work products.
- 36 -
Image by Puranjit Gangopadhyay

Avenues for Future Exploration
Education researchers are increasingly interested in the potential of games and
simulations as assessment and teaching tools (DiCerbo, 2014). Games and simulations
represent more authentic activities than self-report forms because they present
students with complex scenarios that require the application of knowledge and skills.
There is certainly interest in using games and simulations in the context of social
responsibility. For example, researchers at the University of Michigan developed the
Island Telecom simulation that exposed students to ethical dilemmas in international
business (Shami, Box, Fort, & Gordon, 2004). This simulation was used as a teaching
tool in several business courses, and researchers examined how student responses
in the simulation could provide information on student perspective-taking and their
ability to come up with creative solutions for different business trade-offs. There is
limited empirical evidence for the effectiveness of simulations as social responsibility
teaching tools, which represents one important area for future research.
Additionally, in order for simulations to be used as assessments on a large scale,

there is a need to understand how data logged within a simulation can provide
evidence of social responsibility. In the case of the Island Telecom simulation, student
responses were manually coded to provide evidence of outcomes. While important,
this type of manual scoring does not allow for immediate feedback and cannot be
used for assessing a large sample of students. Simulations provide records of student
behavior in the form of log files. Data in these log files can be automatically scored
and combined into indicators of different skills using statistical models (see DiCerbo,
2014, and Ventura & Shute, 2013, for examples). Students can then be provided with
immediate feedback, and scores on these indicators can be used to determine which
information or scenarios a student should receive next as they progress through
the simulation. When developing these types of simulation-based assessments, the
assessments need to be validated against other measures of social responsibility to
insure that in-simulation behaviors do indeed predict real-world behavior. Overall,
simulations represent an exciting avenue for future exploration that could allow for
teaching and assessing social responsibility at a large scale using authentic activities.
- 37 -
Conclusions and Recommendations
The research reviewed here reveals a number of important conclusions regarding
teaching and assessing social responsibility, which are summarized in Table 5. The
recommendations also included in Table 5 provide a general set of best practices that, if
enacted, can help enable effective instruction and assessment for social responsibility.
Conclusion Recommendation
Social responsibility is important for academic

and occupational success and can also support Educators should explicitly teach social
increased social welfare by helping to build responsibility at all levels of education.
ethical and well-functioning communities.
Social responsibility includes several key dimensions of Educators should address each of these specific
competence: multicultural, ethical, civic, and environmental. dimensions of competence in their instruction.
Research indicates that multicultural competence

is supported by multicultural coursework, diversity Educators should consider implementing multicultural coursework,
workshops and trainings, and peer-led interventions, particularly those that incorporate both learning about diversity
with interactions with diverse groups and learning about and having positive interactions with diverse groups.
diversity being key features of effective programs.
Several different school-based character education

interventions for primary- and secondary-school students Primary- and secondary-school educators should integrate
supported ethical competence. Features of effective character education programs that include features like role-
programs included: role-playing and skills practice, playing and skills practice, ethical decision-making strategies, and
ethical decision-making strategies, and storytelling and storytelling and literature-based activities. Administrators can
literature-based activities. There is also support for the also consider whole-school programs with research support, such
effectiveness of whole-school programs like the Child as the Child Development Project and Smart Character Choices.
Development Project and Smart Character Choices.
For college students, ethical competence training appears College instructors should focus on teaching students about how
most effective for supporting field-specific ethical behavior and to behave ethically in particular contexts relevant to their future
decision-making as opposed to more general ethical reasoning. careers as well as ethical decision-making. Instructional strategies
In particular, active participation, case-based instruction, and that particularly support ethical competence include active
opportunities for practice support effective ethical training. participation, case-based instruction, and opportunities for practice.
For civic competence, educators can provide civic coursework

When teaching civic and environmental competence, it that integrates opportunities for practical civic engagement
is important to provide students with the opportunity such as participating in elections, service learning, and
to meaningfully engage with relevant topics. meeting with community leaders. Hands-on experience with
nature appears to support environmental competence.
For college students, service learning, diversity College instructors can encourage students to participate
experiences, and social-justice coursework were in service learning, diversity experiences, and social justice
all associated with civics competence. coursework as ways to develop civic competence.
- 38 -
Conclusion Recommendation
Instructors can incorporate goal-setting (particularly

Strategies around goal-setting and other cognitive
setting implementation intentions) and other cognitive
and behavioral strategies can help students
and behavioral strategies (including social modeling and
practice more sustainable behavior.
prompts) to encourage more sustainable behavior.
Evidence-centered design provides a useful framework

Consider utilizing evidence-centered design to develop
for developing new assessments, particularly those
new assessments of social-responsibility skills.
that focus on socially responsible behaviors.
There are many self-report and informant-report Educators may consider self-report and informant-
questionnaires that assess social responsibility, report questionnaires to measure social responsibility,
particularly relevant attitudes and values. particularly relevant attitudes and values.
Scenario- or dilemma-based measures, performance- Educators may consider scenario- or dilemma-based measures,
based assessments, and the application of rubrics performance-based assessments, and the application of rubrics
to student behavior or work products offer other to student behavior or work products to assess knowledge
avenues for more authentic assessment. and behaviors associated with social responsibility.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- 39 -
Image by Puranjit Gangopadhyay

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Skills For Today - Social-Responsibility

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Skills for Today:

What We Know about Teaching

Illustration by Lauren Rolwing

Definitions and Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06

Teaching Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Assessing Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Avenues for Future Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Conclusions and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

the importance of social responsibility, research indicates

Image by Debdatta Chakraborty

Engaging in socially responsible behavior also appears to be

Association of American Colleges and Universities

1. Striving for excellence: Developing a strong work ethic and

2. Cultivating personal and academic integrity: Recognizing and

3. Contributing to a larger community: Recognizing and acting on one’s responsibility

4. Taking seriously the perspectives of others: Recognizing and acting on the

5. Developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action:

Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education

 They understand and participate in relevant governance systems.

 They appropriately challenge the unfair, unjust, or uncivil

 They participates in service and volunteer activities.

(Stayhorn et al., 2006, p. 3)

Assessment and Teaching of Twenty-First Century Skills

 knowledge of the intercultural dimension in their own and other

 ability to see and understand the different viewpoints caused by

 willingness to overcome stereotypes and prejudices;

(Binkley et al., 2012, p. 58)

 knowledge of civil rights and the constitution of the

 understanding of the roles and responsibilities of institutions relevant to the

 knowledge of the main events, trends, and agents of

 participation in community and neighborhood activities as well

 ability to interface effectively with institutions in the public domain;

 disposition to volunteer and to participate in civic activities

(Binkley et al., 2012, p. 55)

DEFINITIONS AND MODELS

Pearson Social Responsibility Framework

Dimension of Competence Definition Example Behaviors

• Seeks out opportunities to work

• Is knowledgeable about relevant

DEFINITIONS AND MODELS

• Is knowledgeable about current issues • Practices sustainable behaviors

Table 1 Pearson Social Responsibility Framework with example behaviors.

Multicultural competence refers to being knowledgeable about different cultural

While multicultural competence begins with knowledge, it also manifests in a particular

(APA, 2003, “General Principles,” para 6)

(APA, 2003, “General Principles,” para 6)

Several definitions of social responsibility highlight the need to act in an ethical or

DEFINITIONS AND MODELS

There are a variety of indicators of ethical competence, including knowledge of

 by demonstrating knowledge of the principles of responsible conduct

 by identifying ethical issues that relate to the responsible conduct of

 by making decisions in complex research scenarios that uphold principles

Lastly, other conceptualizations of ethical competence suggest that individuals

1. Justice: “broadly interpersonal, relevant to the optimal interaction

2. Humanity: “include positive traits manifest in caring

3. Wisdom: “positive traits related to the acquisition and use of

4. Courage: “entail[s] the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the

5. Temperance: “positive traits that protect us from excess” (p. 431);

6. Transcendence: “allows individuals to forge connections to the larger

They understand and participate in relevant governance systems.

They appropriately challenge the unfair, unjust, or uncivil

They participates in service and volunteer activities.

knowledge of the intercultural dimension in their own and other

ability to see and understand the different viewpoints caused by

willingness to overcome stereotypes and prejudices;

knowledge of civil rights and the constitution of the

understanding of the roles and responsibilities of institutions relevant to the

knowledge of the main events, trends, and agents of

participation in community and neighborhood activities as well

ability to interface effectively with institutions in the public domain;

disposition to volunteer and to participate in civic activities

by demonstrating knowledge of the principles of responsible conduct

by identifying ethical issues that relate to the responsible conduct of

by making decisions in complex research scenarios that uphold principles

In 2006, the Association of American Colleges common body of knowledge on CCM;

build a global leadership competence.

cognitive dissonance: “accessed preexisting beliefs or attitudes and attempted

goal-setting: “process of asking participants to aim for a predetermined

social modeling: “any kind of passing of information via demonstration or discussion

prompts: “noninformational reminders that focused only on