Research Summary

Abstract:

This experimental research examines how moral values are constructed, tested, and enacted by Moroccan high school students not through direct instruction but through their digital interactions on a WhatsApp class group. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study contrasts a control group receiving traditional philosophy instruction with an experimental group in which the teacher, acting anonymously under the supervision of the educational inspector for philosophy, intentionally triggers value-based controversies to observe students’ discursive reactions. Findings reveal that values are not internalized when merely declared or repeated; they emerge as discursive acts shaped by confrontation, justification, and peer recognition. The study identifies a critical axiological dysfunction: students struggle significantly to respect the right to difference during digital exchanges. Thus, values appear not as static moral contents but as negotiated practices, becoming meaningful only when enacted within real communication. Despite its contextual limitations, the research highlights the pedagogical potential of digital spaces as laboratories for moral formation when integrated into a structured intervention rather than left to spontaneous use.