Benchmarks for Science Literacy: Chapter 15 THE RESEARCH BASE

7 HUMAN SOCIETY

    7C) SOCIAL CHANGE

Some research has investigated student notions of laws. Findings indicate that elementary-school students mix legal and moral norms (Berti, 1988). In addition, students at that age often have an authoritarian view of laws. They believe that laws are automatically right and "are handed down from on high" (Moore et al., 1985).