The Need For Sex Education In Moral Upbringing Among

University Students

Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education

or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality,

including human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual

reproduction, safe sex and birth control, sexual health, reproductive

health, emotional relations and responsibilities, age of consent, and

reproductive rights.

SEX EDUCATION

In the West, at least, the term sex education has been most strongly

associated with a constructivist psychological framework. Sex

education is the attempt to promote the development of children’s

and adolescents’ moral cognitive structures (moral reasoning

stages) in school settings.

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These stages were argued to be universal in nature and sequence.

From an educational standpoint, there were two main, and

interrelated, pedagogical approaches to promoting such

development. The less complex is moral dilemma discussion, which

entails facilitated peer-group discussions of open-ended moral

problem stories. The more complex, which incorporates moral

dilemma discussion, is the Just Community School, a radical

experiment in direct democracy in small sub-school settings or in

small elementary schools. These small democracies are explicitly

focused on promoting justice and community. Important

characteristics of both of these pedagogical strategies are that they

are theory driven, heavily influenced by psychology, designed to

promote the development of moral reasoning stages and well-

researched. One important distinction that remains to be made is

between the psychology of (specifically) cognitive moral development

and moral psychology more generally. Like moral development, the

latter tends to be both empirical and theory-driven, as well as

heavily influenced by psychology; however, it includes many other

psychological concepts beyond those studied by moral development

(i.e. moralreasoning stage development). For example, moral

psychology includes concepts such as conscience. A few attempts

have been made to offer an integrative model of moral psychological

development (including moral reasoning development). Because the

main disagreements between sex education and character focus on

the moral reasoning perspective of the former, we will focus mainly

on the narrower domain of moral cognitive development, although

we will turn to the broader domain of moral psychology as a means

of attempting to integrate these various fields.

APPLICATION OF SEX EDUCATION IN THE CLASSROOM

The promotion of sex education in the classroom can occur in a

variety of ways. Role-playing and the use of children's literature are

two ways educators can promote character education. Picture books

and children's literature have been used over many years to

entertain, inform., engage, and evoke thought in the classroom.

Since teachers are already using literature with pupils, it is

imperative that they make their instruction more meaningful by

engaging their pupils and promoting important moral values. If

children are exposed to character-rich literature in a manner that

can serve those dual purposes, character education can be taught,

encouraged, and promoted in the classroom. Role-playing is a type

of teaching tool that has shown to have positive effects when

promoting values. Sex education can be very effective when used

with role-playing and children's literature since both have such

promising outcome on affecting pupils' value development. There

are many strategies teachers can incorporate when utilizing

literature that have important character-building issues. One

particular study indicates that teachers should preview the books

used carefully. Having background knowledge of the issue involved

in a piece of literature with a moral dilemma helps teachers guide

class discussions. Teachers should ask questions and provide

details that will have children begin thinking about the

circumstances or the story's dilemma.

OBJECTIVES OF SEX EDUCATION

We encountered quite a number of articles that only give general

guidelines for structuring the teaching, learning process and focus

primarily on what sex education should be aimed at. Therefore, we

will first present the objectives of curriculum-oriented sex education

and the learning outcomes intended in terms of knowledge, skills

and attitudes. Focusing on how various authors legitimate sex

education, two aspects can be distinguished. Firstly, the personal

development and welfare of students is considered to be important.

Education must endeavour to guide students towards adulthood

and stimulate their identity development. Secondly, the importance

of sex education is emphasized from the perspective of society. By

enhancing the prosocial and moral development of students, sex

education contributes to the quality of society. Both sides of the

moral task of education are closely linked, even though an

analytical differentiation can be made.

METHODS OF SEX EDUCATION

1. Classroom discussion

Although the importance of classroom discussion seems to be

almost self-evident in studies on curriculum-oriented sex

education, only a few authors elaborate on the specific teaching

strategies it requires. Most suggested formats for discussion take

the form of a dialogue. A dialogue facilitates the development of

critical thinking and independency of mind in particular, as well as

attitudes such as tolerance, respect and responsibility. Most

proposals centred on classroom discussion that we encountered in

the review study make use of the Socratic method derived from
Plato. The teacher leads the students through a series of questions

to a ‘conclusion’, which may be predetermined. It is a relatively

teacher-centred method and calls on the skills and beliefs of

teachers. Several variations, however, can be found in the literature

under the heading Socratic method. We discuss a few exemplary

studies below. In line with the ‘direct approach’ within character

education, the Socratic method is used to reach a moral conclusion

predetermined by the teacher.

2. Drama and literature

The main argument for using literature and drama is that they

provide a stimulating context for students in which they can think

and reason about moral dilemmas. From the perspective of

character education; the use of literature because it confronts

students with moral values and ethical issues. This can help to

avoid moral relativism. He argues that ‘solving’ moral dilemmas is

not a matter of presenting the right arguments but of placing values

in a historical and cultural context. Students can learn the values

of their cultural inheritance through literature.

3. Social group differences

The multicultural dimension of contemporary society is reiterated

again and again in the studies reviewed. Most authors argue that

one of the objectives of sex education is to teach students how to

cope with cultural diversity. However, teaching strategies that take

social differences between students in the classroom into account

are sparse. It is striking that most of the studies depict students as

a more or less homogeneous group in terms of values, prior

knowledge, learning strategies, and so on. As a consequence, little

attention has been paid to the differential learning outcomes of a

specific moral-education curriculum.

MORAL UPBRINGING IN THE MODERN FAMILY

Family is a part of a social and cultural surrounding that plays an

essential role in shaping the child’s personality. Its educative

function is mainly to introduce the child to the widely understood

social and cultural life together with rules, values and moral

standards related to it. In order to fulfil that function, the family

has to meet the basic biological and psychical needs of the child,

the need to be loved, feel safe, appreciated and accepted. It should

also provide the child with socially required patterns of behavior

and emphasize values, norms and rules of coexistence typical in the

society. Parents are the first role models of moral behaviors for

children. The process of their personal development takes place in

the atmosphere of norms, rules and moral principles which are

followed in the family. The child observes what is going in the family

environment and follows certain patterns of behavior. Thus, it can

be stated that the moral system of the child is shaped through

observation and imitation of conducts which were presented to the

child in the course of a family upbringing in which the process of

personality shaping takes place during various life activities.

SEX EDUCATION AND MORAL UPBRINGING OF STUDENTS

The role of religious institutions in the sex education of the child

cannot be overemphasized. Historically, moral teachings have been

central to all religions. For instance, historically speaking, since the

time of the Bible, moral teachings have been central to Judaism.

The Bible is, at its core, a book of ethical teachings. Talmudic sages

are seen as moral exemplars, and medieval writers such as Bahya

ibn Pakudah and Maimonides, Moses Haylm Luzzatto in the 18th

century and the Musar Movement of the 19th century developed a

systematic approach to the ethical teachings of the Bible and

Talmud in order to teach morals. The same goes for the Islamic

religion. Religious institutions have a way of imparting moral

lessons in their adherents and this is no more news to many in our

country today. In fact, the present in focus of both national and

international organization to the exploration of involving and using

religious leaders in the campaign against the hydra-headed monster

called HIV/AIDS because it is believed that the religious leaders

exercise a significant level of control/influence on many people’s

thought process and decision making further confirms the

importance and relevance of the religious organization in the moral

development of the students especially the final year students.