PBL fosters moral imagination, judgment, and empathy in Chinese application-oriented universities: a normative framework

PBL fosters moral imagination, judgment, and empathy in Chinese application-oriented universities: a normative framework | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article PBL fosters moral imagination, judgment, and empathy in Chinese application-oriented universities: a normative framework Zhong Wei, Genlei Zhang, Guofang Zhang, Meiping Zhang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Project-based Learning (PBL) is widely used in Chinese application-oriented universities to enhance professional competencies. However, its potential to cultivate moral capacities (moral imagination, judgement, and empathy) remains underexplored, with a lack of theoretical frameworks explaining its mechanisms in the Chinese context. This study aims to address this gap by constructing a normative framework integrating Dewey’s pragmatism, Kohlberg’s cognitive development theory, and empathy research, and exploring how PBL fosters moral capacities. Through theoretical analysis and case illustration, this study proposes three core mechanisms: PBL can promote moral imagination through authentic community projects, may strengthen moral judgement through peer critique, and may enhance empathy through interdisciplinary/intergenerational collaboration. It also notes boundary conditions such as exam-oriented assessments and insufficient teacher training. The framework proposes testable propositions that offer a foundation for future empirical research and practical guidance for curriculum reform to integrate moral education into professional training in Chinese application-oriented universities. Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Social science/Education Humanities/Philosophy Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology project-based learning application-orientated universities moral imagination moral judgment empathy Figures Figure 1 1. Introduction In recent years, Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been widely promoted globally and has emerged as one of the core pedagogical approaches for enhancing students’ overall competencies in higher education (Wang, 2023 ). With the deepening of educational reforms in China, the implementation of PBL in application-oriented undergraduate institutions has attracted increasing attention. Characterized by the integration of knowledge and practice, PBL creates a learning environment conducive to developing students’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities (Suryawati et al., 2020 ), which encourages them to tackle real-world problems and foster active learning and critical reflection. Empirical studies have confirmed that PBL can significantly improve students’ critical thinking skills, with improvement rates ranging from 2.87% to 33.56% (Setiawan et al., 2023 ) while also contributing to the cultivation of employability. Moral education, as an essential component of the educational system, aims to nurture students’ moral awareness, ethical judgement, and sense of social responsibility (Khairani et al., 2023 ; Solheri et al., 2022 ). However, within the current framework of application-oriented undergraduate education, many courses prioritize the transmission of academic and technical knowledge, resulting in the significant neglect of moral education. Van Stekelenburg et al. ( 2023 ) emphasize that practical application is crucial for guiding students to reflect on ethical issues, develop cognitive moral judgement, and identify appropriate solutions to moral dilemmas. As an innovative pedagogy, PBL stimulates students’ active participation and critical thinking, prompting them to reflect on ethical dimensions and reconstruct personal value systems. In this way, PBL strengthens the moral and humanistic functions of education (Gong & Yanchar, 2019 ) and provides a vital platform for moral growth beyond academic competence development. Nevertheless, moral education remains isolated from disciplinary and professional training in most Chinese application-oriented universities (Chen et al., 2023 ). This structural separation between academic learning and moral cultivation has led to a critical gap: although students acquire strong technical and problem-solving abilities, they often lack key moral capacities, such as moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy (Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). Existing research has extensively examined the cognitive and vocational outcomes of PBL (e.g., improvements in critical thinking and employability) (Setiawan et al., 2023 ), but there is a paucity of theoretical work explaining how specific PBL mechanisms foster moral imagination, judgement, and empathy (Asif et al., 2020 ; Obeidat et al., 2022 ). Within the Chinese cultural and institutional context, where exam-oriented assessment and vocational skill prioritization prevail, theoretical articulation and empirical validation of how real-world projects, peer collaboration and critique, and interdisciplinary/intergenerational teamwork mediate moral development are still underdeveloped (Zheng, 2020 ). In recent years, China’s educational reform has gradually shifted toward competency-based and practice-oriented models, with application-oriented undergraduate institutions specifically emphasizing students’ practical skills and social engagement (Chen, 2021 ; Lean, 2015 ). However, curriculum design in many of these institutions still focuses heavily on technical training, with limited attention to moral education (Chen, 2021 ). Even when some courses incorporate moral education elements, the cultivation of moral capacities has not received the priority it deserves (Cristovão et al., 2022 ), and students’ moral imagination, judgement, and empathy are often underemphasized or underdeveloped in real-world PBL projects (Zhao, 2021 ). In this context, this study addresses the following core research questions: RQ1: How do real-world PBL tasks foster moral imagination among students through perspective-taking mechanisms? RQ2: How do team collaboration and peer critique shape students’ social moral judgement? RQ3: How do interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaborations enhance empathetic agency among students? RQ4: How do institutional, assessment, and faculty-related factors moderate the operation of these mechanisms in the Chinese educational context? 2. Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations This section outlines the theoretical foundations of moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy, and explains how each construct connects to project-based learning. 2.1 Moral Imagination Moral imagination is a fundamental concept of moral education. It refers to an individual’s capacity to envision multiple courses of action, possible alternatives, and ethical consequences when facing moral dilemmas (Siddiqui & Soomro, 2022 ). This requires individuals to transcend their immediate experiences and adopt diverse perspectives to understand others’ situations, thereby making decisions that are more ethically sound (Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). As Nussbaum ( 1997 ) emphasized, moral imagination enables individuals to go beyond the limitations of personal experience by understanding the feelings and needs of others, fostering empathy, and exploring multiple moral possibilities within complex ethical contexts. Moral imagination is not merely a cognitive process; it is deeply intertwined with emotions and serves as a vital instrument in moral decision making. Zhou and Hu ( 2020 ) further argue that moral imagination significantly helps students respond to social issues such as hate speech with tolerance and inclusivity. By cultivating self-awareness and acceptance of the strengths and weaknesses of their moral character, students can develop genuine confidence and learn to embrace others with empathy and understanding. In the context of project-based learning (PBL) in Chinese application-oriented universities, students are often engaged in authentic community or social projects that require them to balance technical feasibility and ethical responsibility (Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). For instance, when addressing issues related to community development or environmental protection, students must consider the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, envision different intervention plans, and evaluate the moral implications of each. Thus, the experiential and participatory nature of PBL provides students with fertile ground for cultivating moral imagination, enabling them to move beyond the narrow moral frameworks of traditional classrooms and develop a more pluralistic and comprehensive moral understanding (Blumenfeld et al., 1991 ; Chen, 2021 ). This pedagogical approach not only enhances students’ awareness of the ethical dimensions of their decisions but also stimulates creative thinking, encouraging them to imagine and design action plans that embody greater social responsibility (Asif et al., 2020 ). 2.2 Moral Judgment Moral judgement refers to an individual’s ability to evaluate situations and make ethical decisions based on established moral standards (Obeidat et al., 2022 ). It involves the integration of cognitive processes and personal values, and the criteria for moral evaluation may vary across cultural and social contexts (Kohlberg, 1981 ). In higher education, particularly in moral and ethical education, developing students’ moral judgement is considered a fundamental goal, as it strengthens their capacity to make ethical decisions and effectively navigate moral dilemmas (Wang & Yan, 2023 ; Sukisno & Nurtjahyani, 2024 ). Both cognitive development and social factors influence the formation of moral judgment. Cognitive development enables individuals to comprehend and evaluate moral issues, linking abstract ethical principles with specific real-world situations to discern right from wrong (Honeycutt, 2021 ; Modak, 2024 ). At the same time, moral judgement is shaped by prevailing moral values within one’s social environment, including the institutional ethics of schools, social media exposure, parental involvement, and peer influence (Lashire & Ringmu, 2024 ). According to Kohlberg ( 1981 ), moral judgement evolves through progressive stages of cognitive development, from obedience and punishment orientation to the social contract stage, eventually reaching a principled reasoning level. However, subsequent research has revealed that moral judgment is not merely a cognitive outcome; rather, it is an emergent product of the dynamic interaction between reasoning, emotion, and social intuition (Moon, 2023 ). From this perspective, moral judgement is increasingly viewed as a socially embedded process that extends beyond internal deliberation to include collaboration, dialogue, and cultural interactions within social contexts (Turiel & Dahl, 2019 ). In a project-based learning (PBL) environment, students develop moral judgement through peer interaction, public presentation of project outcomes, and feedback from stakeholders, all of which occur in authentic social settings. When projects engage communities, businesses, or other social organizations, students directly encounter the needs, expectations, and value orientations of external stakeholders. The authentic feedback provided by these stakeholders exposes students to the social consequences of their moral decisions, helping them connect abstract ethical principles with concrete social realities. Engagement with community stakeholders also encourages students to reflect critically on their learning and personal growth, particularly in areas such as cultural humility and community preparedness, which are key dimensions for understanding the moral implications of one’s actions. Through iterative teamwork and reflective practices, PBL fosters deep value-based learning, enabling students to make ethical judgments in complex and uncertain contexts (Corsa, 2021 ). Furthermore, collective deliberation and group decision-making within PBL settings enhance students’ understanding of pluralistic values and competing interests, thereby broadening their moral reasoning capacity (Kautz et al., 2020 ). 2.3 Empathy Empathy, understood as both cognitive and affective perspective-taking, supports prosocial judgement and actions. In PBL, teamwork and community engagement expose students to diverse stakeholders and real-world consequences, strengthening perspective-taking and socially responsible designs (Batson, 2011 ; Zucchelli & Ugazio, 2019 ; Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). In essence, empathy cultivated in PBL settings functions as both a cognitive mechanism, enabling perspective-taking and moral reasoning, and an emotional bridge, facilitating genuine concern and ethical responsiveness toward others. This combination of intellectual understanding and emotional resonance is fundamental to the moral dimensions of professional education. 2.4 Project-Based Learning in Chinese Application-Oriented Universities In China’s application-oriented universities, project-based learning (PBL) holds significant pedagogical and practical value because it emphasizes students’ real-world engagement and the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge. PBL is typically implemented through partnerships with enterprises, community organizations, and governmental institutions, addressing social and industrial challenges that demand both technical competence and ethical awareness (Sa et al., 2024 ). Unlike traditional teacher-centered approaches that prioritize theoretical knowledge transmission, PBL promotes active student participation and the experiential application of learning concepts (Wang, 2021 ). This learner-centered paradigm aligns closely with China’s higher education reform goals, particularly in cultivating students’ innovation, practical competence, and social responsibility. Students at application-oriented universities often face strong career-oriented and hands-on training demands. PBL thus provides an effective platform through which students can enhance their comprehensive abilities via practice-based projects, social interaction, and teamwork (Rehman, 2023 ). Through collaboration with industries and local communities, students not only acquire technical expertise, but also develop a nuanced understanding of ethical norms and societal expectations, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and social morality (Doran et al., 2010 ). The integration of moral reflection within PBL tasks encourages students to internalize values such as integrity, accountability, and empathy, which are critical for both personal development and professional ethics (Yu, 2024 ). Situating PBL within the Chinese context requires a cross-cultural moral education perspective to explore how moral capacities—moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy—are cultivated through project-based learning across different cultural and institutional frameworks. This issue forms the central theme of the following section: “Cross-Cultural Dialogue between PBL and Moral Education”. 2.5 Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between PBL and Moral Education The analysis above reveals the potential of PBL in the context of Chinese education. However, the function of moral education requires further exploration within an international comparative framework. Moral education is inherently shaped by the cultural context. Western practices tend to use PBL to teach people how to think morally, be socially responsible, and become involved in their communities (Ronzhina & Matasheva, 2024 ). On the other hand, Chinese practices have long been shaped by exam-oriented and outcome-driven paradigms, leading to a split between moral education and professional learning (Feng, 2015 ; Zheng, 2020 ). Against this backdrop, PBL can serve as an intermediary mechanism that links technical learning with moral development. Through engagement with authentic issues, stakeholder participation, and collaborative decision-making, students are guided to practice value trade-offs and moral reasoning within concrete contexts, thereby cultivating empathy in culturally comprehensible environments (Cai, 2023 ; Huang, 2020 ). This path of cross-cultural integration provides an alternative model and comparable theoretical evidence for moral education research in non-Western institutional contexts. 2.6 Designing Moral Education Curricula Through PBL To fully leverage the moral education potential of project-based learning (PBL), curricula must embed ethical elements in four interconnected dimensions: objectives, tasks, processes, and assessments (Castro & Medina, 2022 ). (1) Authentic tasks with ethical dimensions: Projects should be designed around themes such as environmental justice, data ethics, and social inclusion to ensure that students engage with moral imagination and ethical reasoning amid value conflicts and consequence considerations (Ghozali & Amin, 2024 ). (2) Integrated collaboration–reflection mechanisms: Through peer evaluation, ethical debates, and reflective journals, diverse value perspectives can be transformed into explicit moral positions and revisable reasoning processes (Bartholomew et al., 2018 ; Xu et al., 2020 ). (3) Community and interdisciplinary participation: Collaboration with NGOs, industries, and local communities can establish stakeholder feedback loops that foster empathy through cross-boundary communication and perspective taking (Hudson & Brandenberger, 2022 ). (4) Integrated assessment: Evaluation should encompass not only technical performance but also ethical reasoning, empathic engagement, and public responsibility (Polmear et al., 2018 ). Framework for Designing PBL-Based Moral Education Courses. (1) Clarity of learning objectives: Moral education objectives must be clearly defined when designing PBL curricula. These objectives should include helping students identify ethical issues (Han, 2024 ), proposing moral action plans (Tramowsky et al., 2022 ), and analyzing the consequences of moral decisions (Shadi, 2024). For example, the course can explicitly emphasize that students are expected to gradually develop imagination, judgement, and empathy when facing moral dilemmas during project implementation (Maslikova, 2024 ). (2) Authenticity and ethical dimensions of tasks: Ensuring task authenticity enables students to recognize the value of their learning and prepare them for real-world applications (Hrivnak, 2019 ). The authenticity feature of PBL situates students in realistic contexts in which they confront ethical issues such as environmental protection and social justice while applying theoretical knowledge. Through this process, students develop moral judgments and a sense of responsibility in practice (Kim, 2023 ; Gouveia & Ayres, 2021 ). (3) Collaboration and reflection mechanisms: PBL emphasizes teamwork, providing abundant opportunities for emotional and cognitive interactions in moral education (Surjanti et al., 2018 ; Wang, 2016 ). Within teams, students can broaden their moral perspective through dialogue and feedback. Bartholomew et al. ( 2018 ) suggest incorporating peer assessment activities that require students to share and critique moral viewpoints within their teams. Through public reflection and constructive criticism, students strengthen their ethical reasoning and sense of social responsibility (Xu et al., 2020 ). (4) Interdisciplinary collaboration and social engagement: Moral education requires extensive social participation, and PBL achieves this through interdisciplinary cooperation and community interaction (Tonato Farinango et al., 2024 ). Courses can involve students working with external communities, industry experts, and NGOs to deepen their understanding of societal needs, empathize with others’ circumstances, and collaboratively develop solutions (Li et al., 2016 ). Engagement in community services is among the strongest predictors of moral and prosocial development (Hudson & Brandenberger, 2022 ). (5) Reflection and Evaluation: Reflection is a central component of PBL that helps students distill moral insights from experience, reinforces learning outcomes, and enhances both academic performance and disciplinary understanding (Sembiring, 2024 ; Wahyuni et al., 2024 ). Regular reflective journals, ethical discussions, and self-assessment activities can be incorporated in PBL-based moral education to encourage students to examine their moral decisions throughout project implementation (Sullivan et al., 2020 ). Evaluation criteria should encompass not only technical achievement, but also moral reasoning, social responsibility, and teamwork (Polmear et al., 2018 ). Case Analysis: Application of PBL in Moral Education. To develop students’ moral imagination, ethical judgment, and empathy effectively in project-based learning (PBL) courses, it is essential to incorporate ethical education components throughout the entire framework. This ensures that students can consider critical ethical issues relevant to their work (Edelson et al., 2021 ). First, course objectives must explicitly state the intent of moral education, guiding students not only to identify ethical problems but also to propose multiple alternative solutions and analyze their potential consequences (Sopian et al., 2023 ). Second, the authenticity of the task is essential. Embedding real-world social issuessuch as environmental protection, social justice, and data privacyinto learning contexts enhances the practical value of moral education and encourages students to develop a deeper understanding and critical reflection on these challenges (Rambaree, 2020 ; Starlet, 2024 ). PBL and Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) have been widely adopted in Western universities to foster moral education by developing students’ independent problem-solving abilities, self-directed learning, and sustainable learning capacities (Caratozzolo et al., 2023 ). Their core feature lies in embedding authentic societal challenges within curricular contexts and integrating interdisciplinary collaboration with industry resources, thus promoting the integration of technology and ethics (Okoli et al., 2024 ). At Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), a mandatory first-year CBL course includes a data ethics module, where the central question is “How can data value and privacy protection be balanced in a campus health monitoring system?” (Shuffrey et al., 2022 ; Knapp et al., 2023). Student teams conducted research from technical, legal, and user perspectives and produced a Campus Health Data Ethics Handbook, which was later reviewed by university administrators and the ethics committee (Gooding & Kariotis, 2021 ). This case shows that students not only acquired compliance knowledge, but also developed moral imagination and ethical reasoning through negotiations among multiple stakeholders. At the University of Lübeck (Germany), the CREATE Project collaborated with a robotics company to present students with real research and development challenges, such as the design of ethical risk control frameworks for elderly care robots (Hu et al., 2019 ). By engaging with engineers, ethicists, and nursing home residents, students proposed “emotional intervention boundary rules” (McKeown et al., 2023 ), which were later adopted by the company that developed the chatbot. This instance demonstrates a transformation from passive compliance with norms to active ethical design, highlighting the significant progress in students’ moral judgement (Edelson et al., 2021 ). In Spain, ESADE Business School, in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and other institutions, launched the “CBI-Fusion Point” program (Larrieu-Let, 2021 ), focusing on the medical application of CERN technologies. Interdisciplinary teams have explored technical feasibility, economic models, and design solutions (Kerr et al., 2012 ). Under the evaluation of experts and nonprofit organizations, they proposed solutions that prioritize the interests of vulnerable populations. This project enabled students to understand that equity and distributive justice are key dimensions of technology application, thereby deepening their empathy, both cognitively and emotionally (Hartati et al., 2019 ). These cases had three common characteristics: Real-world moral complexity as the driver: Students are placed in situations involving genuine social issues and complex value conflicts, encouraging moral reflection that extends beyond the classroom (Macalalag et al., 2024 ). Deep stakeholder participation: Students must navigate diverse value systems to achieve fair and sustainable decisions, strengthening multidimensional ethical reasoning. As moral judgment is context-dependent, such experiences indicate the importance of adaptive, multi-perspective approaches in ethical decision making (Bartels et al., 2015 ). Actionable and outcome-oriented results: Final outputs such as manuals, ethical guidelines, or applied solutions build a closed loop from moral cognition to ethical practice (Kryvonos & Chernyakova, 2021 ). In summary, the design principles of moral education and practical examples from Western universities create a logic that supports each other: the first provides a systematic framework, and the second shows that it works and is possible. Experiences from these three institutions demonstrate that PBL can systematically develop students' moral imagination, ethical judgment, and empathy (Papoyan, 2023 ) through the incorporation of authentic tasks, stakeholder engagement, and outcome-oriented design. Research further indicates that PBL contributes to the holistic development of ethics, morality, and character as students demonstrate stronger moral awareness and social responsibility upon completing such projects. These insights provide operational guidance for Chinese application-oriented universities, and serve as empirical support for building normative frameworks in subsequent research. Building on the above conceptual synthesis, we now describe the reproducible methodology used to construct and validate the framework. 3. Methods 3.1 Research paradigm and scope This study adopts a normative conceptual (i.e., non-empirical) framework-building paradigm. The analysis has been conducted in the institutional and cultural context of application-oriented Chinese universities, for which we specify boundary conditions and formulate propositions. Unlike empirical research, we did not collect individual-level data or conduct statistical inference; instead, we ensured reproducibility through explicit concepts and procedures so that other scholars could reconstruct the framework using the same sources and steps and subsequently test the propositions empirically (Khairani et al., 2023 ; Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). 3.2 Materials and sources We have relied exclusively on two types of openly accessible textual materials. First, scholarly literature (journal articles, book chapters, and authoritative reviews) focuses on PBL, moral imagination, moral judgement, empathy, peer critique, team heterogeneity, and ethics governance in higher education. Second, course/project documents (syllabi, project briefs, and peer-reviewed instructional cases) are used to map and check the feasibility and external consistency of the framework (Van Stekelenburg et al., 2023 ). The inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) the text provides supporting or counter-evidence for at least one of the three mechanisms; (b) the source is traceable with a clear version; and (c) it offers direct or comparable application-oriented implications for Chinese universities. The exclusion criteria were: (a) unverifiable provenance or apparent academic irregularities; (b) reports of learning outcomes without mappable instructional/interactional structures; and (c) no substantive connection to the three moral capacities or their psychological processes. No identifiable personal information or classroom intervention data were included. 3.3 Procedure: framework construction To support reproducibility, the framework was constructed in six steps, which other researchers can replicate using the same materials and rules. (1) Theoretical integration: Using Dewey’s experiential learning and Kohlberg’s cognitive–moral development as the backbone and incorporating contemporary accounts of the cognition–affect dual structure, we established three-segment mappings from design features to psychological processes to capacity outcomes—for example, “authentic tasks → stakeholder perspective-broadening and anticipation of consequences → moral imagination”, “structured peer critique → public reasoning and role-based defense → social moral judgement,” and “interdisciplinary/intergenerational teams → cognition–affect coupling → empathy” (Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ; Obeidat et al., 2022 ). To standardize the P2 pathway (structured peer critique → role-taking & justification → moral judgement), we used a five-criterion, 1–4 scale rubric with weights (30/25/20/15/10). The full rubric is provided in Rubric S1 (Supplementary). (2) Mechanism distillation: Through systematic reading, we extracted mediators and moderators (e.g., quality of public reasoning, strength of role rotation, assessment regime, and ethics-governance devices), formulated directional judgements for the mechanism chains, and marked constraints linked to institutional conditions in Chinese universities (Chen, 2021 ; Shui, 2024 ). (3) Proposition formation: Mechanistic statements are translated into testable propositions (P1–P3 for the three mechanisms; P4 for institutional moderation). Propositions are anchored in observable instructional/interactional behaviors such as number/diversity of perspectives, turns in public reasoning and revision trajectories, team roles, and evidence of conflict mediation, thereby leaving operational space for subsequent empirical studies. (4) Cross-context mapping: Key practices documented in domestic and international courses/projects (stakeholder referencing; articulation of ethical impacts; iterative peer critique and role-play; configuration of team heterogeneity) were mapped to the mechanism chains with concordant/discordant evidence recorded and proposition wording refined accordingly. To operationalize cross-context mapping, Table 1 lists the core checklist fields and coding rules used to extract comparable evidence from course/project texts. Table 1 Core fields of the course/project mapping checklist (concise). Field Definition / What to look for Record format Course/Project ID Unit of analysis; link to source Text/URL Authentic need Real client/beneficiary; problem origin Y/N/Notes Peer critique cycles Iterative sessions; rubrics; role-based debate Y/N/Notes Team heterogeneity Discipline/age mix; role rotation Y/N/Notes Ethics oversight Approvals; risk mitigation Y/N/Notes Observable outputs Perspectives; justifications; empathy markers Examples/quotes Mapped mechanism(s) M1/M2/M3 selection M-codes Notes: Fields align with indicators in Section 3.3 (e.g., stakeholder perspectives, public-reasoning turns and revision magnitude, role rotation, and empathic statements). (5) Boundary delineation: We articulated how institutional factors—exam-oriented assessment, teachers’ preparation for ethics facilitation, project ethics review, and university–community collaboration— amplified or attenuated each mechanism, producing a mechanism-by-context boundary-condition matrix (Zheng, 2020 ). (6) Consistency checks: A small-scale expert co-reading/Delphi-style review was used to check the consistency of the definitions, pathway directions, and proposition phrasing, and a versioned framework document was then produced. As shown in Fig. 1 , there are three proposed paths from the design features of problem-based learning (PBL) (authentic tasks; structured peer assessment and public reasoning; heterogeneous teams) to moral capabilities (moral imagination; moral judgement; empathy). Contextual moderating factors included assessment systems, teacher ethical promotion preparation, ethical governance, and community cooperation. The arrows indicate the proposed paths. 3.4 Rigour and falsifiability checks To mitigate the confirmation bias, we implemented three safeguards. First, ruling out rival explanations: We examined alternatives such as “product-oriented grading induces strategic behavior” or “teacher-centered scaffolding prompts passive acceptance” and required each mechanism to specify potential failure conditions with corresponding evidence (Zhao, 2021 ). Second, cross-context consistency: whenever course/project texts from different cultural/institutional settings exhibited the same key components and interactional structures, we treated this as external consistency support. Systematic inconsistencies were used to revise the propositions and extend boundary conditions. Third, transparent reconstruction: Key concepts, pathway directions, proposition texts, and revision records were version-controlled so that others could reproduce the reasoning chain and framework construction using the same materials and steps. To make the moderation logic explicit, a concise mechanism-by-context matrix is provided in Table 2 , with a detailed version including the impacted aspects, rationales, and strengthening/mitigation strategies in Table S1 . Table 2 Mechanism × context (concise matrix of boundary effects). Mechanism Context factor Effect (+/−) Notes M1: Authentic → Imagination Exam-oriented assessment − Shifts focus to marks over public reasoning M1: Authentic → Imagination Teacher ethics-facilitation + Improves justification/role-taking M2: Peer critique → Judgment Project ethics governance + Ensures stakeholder engagement & reflection M3: Heterogeneous → Empathy Community partnerships + Raises authenticity & perspective diversity Notes: “+” indicates an amplifying effect; “−” indicates attenuation. Mechanism codes—M1: Authentic tasks → Moral imagination; M2: Structured peer critique → Moral judgement; M3: Heterogeneous teams → Empathy. The effects reflect conceptual synthesis and do not test causal estimates. 3.5 Open materials and versioned documentation To facilitate review and reuse, we provide a reproducibility package comprising (a) the concept–mechanism diagram (with an editable source file); (b) a proposition list (P1–P4) and a mechanism-by-context boundary-condition matrix; (c) a course/project-mapping checklist (field definitions, decision rules, and illustrative excerpts); (d) a sample rubric for structured peer critique and public reasoning; and (e) a version log documenting the rationale and textual differences for each revision. The study includes no individual-level datasets; all materials are derived from public texts and author-developed tools, fulfilling a “reproducible, not repeatable experiment” paradigm (Asif et al., 2020 ). 4. Normative Framework: Mechanisms Linking PBL to Moral Capacities 4.1 Construction of the Normative Framework Project-Based Learning (PBL) has become prominent in application-oriented universities in China (Zhou, 2020 ). Although it improves practical and problem-solving skills, its moral education potential remains underexplored. This section develops a normative framework that specifies how PBL cultivates moral imagination, judgment and empathy. PBL emphasizes practical competence and problem-solving ability (Huang et al., 2024 ), and has achieved significant results in cultivating students’ innovation and professional skills (Pradhananga et al., 2020 ). However, while its advantages in skill development are widely recognized, the moral educational potential of PBL remains largely unexplored. The normative framework proposed in this study seeks to explain how PBL fosters students’ moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy. This framework integrates classical theories of moral education, such as Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (Kohlberg, 1981 ) and Dewey’s experiential learning philosophy (Dewey, 1986 ) with the pedagogical characteristics of PBL. We focused on three mechanisms that link PBL to moral capacities. In the following sections, each mechanism is examined in detail, including its theoretical foundation, pedagogical processes, and practical implications. 4.2 Core propositions Building on the pathways synthesized in Fig. 1 , this subsection presents four propositions (P1–P4) that render the framework auditable and testable for subsequent empirical work. To make the mechanism auditable, Table 3 summarizes the four propositions (P1–P4) aligned with Fig. 1 . Table 3 Summary of propositions (P1–P4) aligned with the mechanistic pathways. ID Proposition Mechanism Observable indicators P1 Authentic tasks → richer moral imagination M1 Perspective count/diversity; scenario depth P2 Structured peer critique → stronger moral judgment M2 Public reasoning turns; revision magnitude P3 Heterogeneous teams → greater empathy growth M3 Role rotation, conflict mediation; empathic statements P4 Supportive assessment/governance moderates M1–M3 Context Ethics review; rubric alignment; stakeholder engagement Notes: P1–P3 correspond to the three pathways in Fig. 1 (M1–M3); P4 specifies contextual moderation. Indicators are observable instructional/interactional behaviors for later operationalization. As visualized in Fig. 1 , P1 posits that authentic tasks cultivate moral imagination via perspective broadening and consequence envisioning; Table 3 aligns this belief with indicators such as perspective count/diversity. P3 connects heterogeneous teams to empathy through role rotation, conflict mediation evidence, and empathic statements. P4 stated that these effects are moderated by the assessment regime, teacher preparation for ethics facilitation, ethics governance, and community partnerships (see Table 2 ). P1 (Authentic tasks → Moral imagination). When PBL tasks are embedded in authentic community or industry settings that surface value conflicts, students’ moral imagination is enhanced through perspective broadening and consequence envisioning (Nussbaum, 1997 ; Gerrits et al., 2023 ; Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). In practice, this pathway is traceable via indicators such as perspective count/diversity and scenario-generation depth, which capture how students articulate stakeholder views and anticipate ethical ramifications (see Table 3 ). P2 (Structured peer critique → Moral judgement). Iterative, rubric-guided peer critique and public reasoning foster the maturation of moral judgement by exposing learners to competing claims and requiring reason-giving, counterargument handling, and revision (Corsa, 2021 ). Observable indicators include public reasoning turns, reason quality, and revision magnitude, which index how students justify positions and modify them across critique cycles. P3 (Heterogeneous teams → Empathy). Interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration promotes empathy by combining cognitive perspective-taking with affective responsiveness, as students work across disciplinary, age, and role boundaries (Ulvestad et al., 2023 ). This mechanism can be traced through role rotation, conflict-mediation evidence, and empathic statements documented in team processes and outputs (see Table 3 ). P4 (Contextual moderation in the Chinese application-oriented setting). The operation and strength of P1–P3 are moderated by institutional and cultural conditions, notably exam-oriented assessment regimes, teachers’ preparation for ethics facilitation, ethics governance of projects, and university–community partnerships (Zheng, 2020 ; related sources cited in Sections 3.4 , 4.5 ). As summarized in Table 2 and elaborated in Table S1 , process-oriented assessment and basic ethics-facilitation training tend to amplify P2, and community partnerships often strengthen P3 via perspective diversity, whereas high stakes and product-centric grading may attenuate P1 by crowding out stakeholder exploration. Together, P1–P4 constitute a coherent, testable normative framework: authentic tasks → imagination; peer critique → judgement; heterogeneous teams → empathy; contextual factors → moderation of all three. The operational anchors listed in Table 3 enable transparent replication and future empirical evaluation. 4.3 Mechanism 1: From “Authentic Community Engagement Projects” to “Moral Imagination” Moral imagination requires individuals to understand others’situations and envision the ethical consequences of alternative choices (Gerrits et al., 2023 ). In traditional educational models, students often passively receive moral instruction and learn moral judgement standards primarily through theoretical studies (Mosalanejad et al., 2021 ). However, such approaches tend to lack contextualization and practical engagement, resulting in the underdevelopment of students’ moral imaginations (Fu, 2020 ; Kanzal et al., 2016). By contrast, project-based learning (PBL) provides students with authentic moral contexts in which they actively engage with real social problems and directly confront ethical dilemmas and value conflicts (Shao et al., 2023 ). One of the core features of PBL is the authenticity of a task. In applied undergraduate institutions, PBL frequently requires students to participate in projects connected to real communities, societies, and industries (Sun et al., 2023 ). These projects often entail ethical and social responsibility. While completing such projects, students are expected to apply their academic knowledge and address moral and ethical issues. For example, in an environmental protection project, students must not only think about whether their work is technically possible, but also about how it will affect different community groups, especially those that are vulnerable or marginalized. These real-world ethically embedded PBL tasks compel students to integrate moral considerations into their problem-solving processes, thereby stimulating their moral imagination and encouraging them to incorporate social, cultural, and ethical dimensions into their moral reasoning (Baker et al., 2023 ). Based on the analysis above, the mechanism can be summarized as follows: authentic task → perspective taking → construction of moral context → expansion of moral imagination. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P1: When PBL tasks are embedded in authentic community settings and involve ethical conflicts, students’ moral imagination is significantly enhanced through perspective-taking and consequence envisioning (Nussbaum, 1997 ; Gerrits et al., 2023 ). This suggests that PBL, by situating students within real social interactions and moral problem-solving contexts, stimulates them to understand ethical issues from multiple perspectives and to explore potential moral courses of action. 4.4 Mechanism 2: From “Peer Collaboration and Public Critique” to “Moral Judgment” Traditional moral education tends to treat “judgment” as an individual rational process, often overlooking its socially constructed nature (Tian et al., 2022 ). However, moral decisions frequently emerge from interactions among multiple stakeholders, where value conflicts and consensus-building occur (Haidt, 2001 ). PBL’s mechanisms of team collaboration and peer critique create a “community of moral reasoning,” in which students expose the limitations and biases of their judgements through collaborative discussions and public feedback, thereby refining their moral reasoning (Keshmirian et al., 2021 ). Through iterative exchanges, debates, and peer reflections, students not only rationally understand others’ perspectives but also emotionally experience the uncertainty and social consequences of their judgments (Thomson, 2011 ). Teacher guidance and collective evaluation provide a platform for meta-moral reflection, enabling individuals to reconstruct their judgement standards through social dialogue (Corsa, 2021 ). Through sustained interaction and reflection, students gradually develop socially constructed moral judgments–a form of ethical reasoning that balances personal values with public interests. This type of judgement is no longer a purely cognitive decision, but a synthesis of emotional resonance and rational evaluation, highlighting the social-contextual nature of moral judgement (Turiel & Dahl, 2019 ). Based on this analysis, the mechanism can be summarized as follows: peer collaboration and critique → exposure to value conflicts → moral discussion and deliberation → maturation of moral judgement. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P2: Within PBL contexts that emphasize peer collaboration and public critique, students’ moral judgment is enhanced through the interactive process of reflecting on and revising moral positions amid diverse value conflicts (Haidt, 2001 ). This study indicates that PBL fosters mature moral judgement by combining emotional empathy with rational analysis through peer interactions and critical feedback. 4.5 Mechanism 3: From “Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Collaboration” to “Empathy” In contemporary higher education, empathy is often understood as an emotional response, rather than a product of cognitive and social learning (Batson, 2011 ). The lack of diverse interaction experiences makes it difficult for students to understand others’ perspectives in complex social contexts (Lehner et al., 2022 ). Through interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration, PBL creates an experiential diversity field that allows students to work with individuals from different disciplines, ages, and cultural backgrounds. This diversity of interaction requires students to engage in cognitive empathy—understanding others’ knowledge frameworks and social-emotional experiences—which broadens their cognitive structures (Ulvestad et al., 2023 ). Moreover, intergenerational collaboration encourages students to develop an understanding of and respect for individuals across different age groups and life experiences (Li & Maalla, 2020 ). Guided reflection by instructors transforms these experiences into sustainable moral emotions (Makal & Çepni, 2024 ). The empathy developed in this context is no longer a passive emotional resonance, but active empathy is generated through cognitive processing and social collaboration. It equips students to participate in social affairs as ethically sensitive actors rather than technically proficient but ethically disengaged actors in their future professional practices (Normasari & Sjabadhyni, 2020 ). Based on this analysis, the mechanism pathway can be summarized as follows: interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration → understanding others’ needs → emotional resonance → enhancement of empathy. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P3: PBL tasks involving interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration through the sharing of diverse social experiences stimulate both cognitive and emotional empathy, ultimately fostering action-oriented empathy (Ulvestad et al., 2023 ). This indicates that PBL, through multicultural and intergenerational collaboration, enables students to understand others’ needs while cultivating strong social responsibility and emotional resonance. 4.6 Boundary Conditions in the Chinese Context Although PBL demonstrates a significant potential for cultivating moral capacities, several boundary conditions in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions may influence its effectiveness. In China’s exam-oriented assessment culture, the emphasis on measurable knowledge testing constrains students’ moral reflection and judgment; accordingly, assessment reform is integral to P4’s boundary conditions (Naydenova & Shaposhnikova, 2016 ). Teacher Preparedness: Many instructors have not received sufficient training in moral education and lack the ability and experience to integrate ethics into PBL (Sopian et al., 2023 ). Teachers must master how to facilitate moral discussions (Ribchester & Healey, 2017 ), embed ethical elements in PBL projects (Baharun & Ummah, 2018 ; Kirkman, 2017 ; Soro et al., 2023 ), and evaluate students’ moral capacities (Kisselburgh et al., 2016 ; Liu et al., 2021 ; Sporre et al., 2023 ). Based on the above analysis, Proposition P4 is proposed, and the effectiveness of PBL in promoting moral capacities is moderated by China’s higher education system, which includes exam-oriented assessment pressures, teacher moral education training, and industry orientation (Skvortsov, 2024 ). This report indicates that educational structures, assessment models, and teacher-training programs in China influence the efficacy of PBL in moral education, particularly in balancing technical competence, moral judgement, and empathy. Together, these four propositions formed a testable normative framework: Real-world task driven → Perspective taking → Enhancement of moral imagination (P1); Peer collaboration/public critique → Judgment revision → Maturation of moral judgment (P2); Interdisciplinary/intergenerational interaction → Cognitive-emotional integration → Generation of empathy (P3); Institutional conditions and teacher effectiveness → Moderation of the three mechanisms (P4). This structure clarifies the argument’s coherence and testability in line with Kristjánsson’s ( 2013 ) evaluative criteria. 5. Discussion The normative framework proposed in this study suggests that PBL can help cultivate students' moral imaginations through authentic community engagement projects, especially when tackling social issues that encompass ethical dilemmas. Students exhibit enhanced perspective-taking and consequence-imagining abilities (Gerrits et al., 2023 ; Nussbaum, 1997 ). Students must deal with technical problems and think about the moral consequences of their choices when working on real social projects. During this process, students' moral imagination is greatly enhanced, allowing them to analyze issues from various viewpoints and suggest a range of solutions when faced with ethical challenges. For instance, in environmental protection projects, students must consider the needs and values of various social stakeholders and evaluate the ethical consequences of various proposals (Sahid & Hashim, 2024 ). This cross-perspective training enhances students’ moral imagination in complex ethical contexts and strengthens their practical moral judgment capabilities (Li & Amin, 2024). Therefore, although PBL provides a practical platform for moral education, its long-term and broad effects require further validation across the diverse educational systems in China. Through peer collaboration and open critique, PBL may promote and support the development of students’ moral judgment. In team collaboration, students must balance individual and group interests and make ethically sound decisions when facing diverse value systems (Corsa, 2021 ). This practical moral judgement training aligns closely with Kohlberg’s ( 1981 ) stages of moral development, indicating that moral judgment maturation is closely associated with cognitive development. Through moral reasoning and peer discussion, students not only comprehend others' viewpoints but also contemplate their own moral stances, perpetually revising and enhancing their evaluative criteria (Haidt, 2001 ). Nevertheless, cultural and social background differences may introduce potential tension between the two groups. Moral judgement standards can vary across social groups, particularly in contexts involving conflicts between collectivist and individualist cultures, potentially leading to culturally adaptive differences in students’ moral judgements (Asghar et al., 2020 ). Therefore, designing more inclusive and cross-cultural moral discussions within PBL curricula is important for future research. This study also highlights the unique advantage of PBL in enhancing students’ empathy, particularly through cross-disciplinary and intergenerational collaboration. Such collaborations allow students to engage deeply with individuals from diverse backgrounds, thereby strengthening their understanding of the needs and emotions of others. Working with peers of different disciplinary and age backgrounds, students gain not only technical insights, but also emotional resonance and understand the challenges and needs of others (Li & Maalla, 2020 ). For example, when completing social service projects, students must integrate social responsibility with personal moral responsibility and collaborate as a team to propose ethical solutions that balance multiple interests (Batson, 2011 ). This collaborative model can enhance students’ active empathy, enabling them to respond to social issues in ways that align with the ethical standards. However, as research indicates, cultural and educational backgrounds play a critical role in shaping empathy. In different cultural contexts, students’ moral emotions and empathic capacities may vary considerably (Kristjánsson, 2013 ). Future research should explore how to integrate diverse cultural moral education resources in a globalized context to provide students with rich and varied moral learning experiences. Furthermore, institutionalized evaluation systems and insufficient teacher training constrain PBL implementation in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions (Skvortsov, 2024 ). While PBL can help students develop both technical and moral skills, the exam-based evaluation system tends to focus on technical skills and professional knowledge, while ignoring the growth of moral judgment and social responsibility (Chen, 2021 ). In addition, teachers’ professional knowledge and capacity to guide moral education require enhancement. Teachers must possess the ability to transmit disciplinary knowledge and facilitate students’ moral reflection and ethical reasoning (Saharuddin et al., 2021 ). These factors suggest that Chinese application-oriented undergraduate education has not fully embraced the moral education function of PBL. Moreover, the influence of evaluation systems on PBL implementation cannot be ignored. Therefore, to maximize the effectiveness of PBL in moral education, educational reforms in China should emphasize the integration of moral and skill-based education and promote the reform of teacher-training systems, ensuring that instructors can effectively guide students in moral reflection and practice within PBL. Overall, this discussion suggests that while PBL has significant advantages in cultivating students’ moral imagination, moral judgment, and empathy, its effectiveness is moderated by cultural-, institutional-, and educator-related factors. Future studies should explore the application of PBL across diverse cultural and institutional contexts to achieve a systematic and sustainable moral education. 6. Conclusion Summary of the Study. This study explored the role of project-based learning (PBL) in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions and proposed a normative framework centered on real community engagement, peer critique, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Existing empirical studies indicate that PBL promotes students’ academic competence and can have positive effects in the moral education domain (Shek & Zhu, 2019 ), and the framework developed here builds on these insights. By embedding projects within authentic social contexts, students’ moral imagination can be expanded, enabling them to engage with real-world outcomes and professional expectations, while deepening their understanding of and connection to disciplinary content (De Bruin et al., 2019 ). Through peer interactions and teacher guidance, students develop diverse and sophisticated moral judgments (Mustafa et al., 2021 ). Moreover, cross-disciplinary and intergenerational collaboration may foster empathy at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels. Taken together, this analysis addresses the long-standing issue in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate education of emphasizing technical skills over moral development and suggests that PBL can serve as a promising pathway to bridge the gap between vocational training and moral education (Chen et al., 2023 ; Huang & Huang, 2023 ). Theoretical Contributions. At the theoretical level, this study makes three key contributions to existing moral education research. First, it articulates the generative mechanisms of moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy through embedded practice, thus enriching the content dimension of moral education theory. While traditional studies often emphasize cognitive reasoning or emotional experiences, this study highlights that these three capacities may be more effectively supported through authentic social interactions (Nussbaum, 1997 ; Haidt, 2001 ). Second, this study supplements existing theories. Kohlberg’s ( 1981 ) stage theory relies heavily on linear developmental logic, whereas Haidt’s ( 2001 ) intuitionist approach emphasizes the role of emotion, but underestimates the value of group collaboration and social practices. The proposed framework addresses these gaps by conceptualizing moral capacity as an integrated outcome of cognition, emotion, and social interaction. Third, by conducting this study within the Chinese educational context, this research seeks to complement and extend the largely Western-centric focus of moral education scholarship and provides an additional reference point for globalized moral education theory. Practical and Policy Contributions. Practically, the framework proposed in this study offers actionable principles for curriculum reform in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions. In terms of curriculum design, PBL should deliberately incorporate value conflicts and ethical issues rather than focusing solely on technical objectives (Huang & Wang, 2022 ). Regarding teacher development, universities play a crucial role in cultivating educators who can combine reflective practices with instruction and guide students toward critical ethical reflection (Novella-García & Cloquell-Lozano, 2021 ). For the assessment system, students’ moral judgement, empathy, and social responsibility should be integrated into the evaluation criteria to prevent an overemphasis on exam-oriented or purely skill-based metrics. At the policy level, the findings suggest that educational authorities should use policy guidance and resource allocation to encourage universities to integrate PBL with moral education, thereby promoting the convergence of ethical and professional training. These measures could support students’ holistic development and respond to societal demands of professionals who possess technical competence and moral literacy. Cross-Cultural Contributions. China’s moral education system provides important lessons for international research by demonstrating how traditional values can be integrated into modern educational frameworks to address local and global challenges (Ning, 2024 ). Unlike Western educational traditions, which emphasize individual rationality and liberal values, Chinese educational practices highlight collectivism, social responsibility, and practical action (Li & Lu, 2024 ). In this context, PBL supports skill development and serves as a vehicle for educating students on social responsibility. The findings of this study suggest that moral education should not be confined to a single cultural framework but rather seek integration through cross-cultural dialogue to enhance understanding and collaboration among diverse cultural contexts. By incorporating Chinese cases into global research, this study enriches the existing moral education theories and provides new experiences and insights for international comparative research. Limitations and Future Directions. Despite offering an insightful framework, this study has several limitations. First, the framework should be understood as a theoretical proposal grounded in existing literature and illustrative cases rather than as a model whose effectiveness has been systematically tested. The analysis is primarily based on theoretical argument and case illustrations and therefore lacks large-scale empirical validation. Future studies should employ large-scale surveys, experimental research, and classroom observations to test and refine the framework’s practical effects. Moreover, this study focuses on Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions, and its external validity in other educational levels and cultural contexts is uncertain. Future research should expand the scope to include research universities, vocational-technical colleges, and secondary education, and explore PBL’s moral education functions across settings. Cultural differences constitute a limitation of this study. Chinese education emphasizes social responsibility, whereas Western education emphasizes individual autonomy, which may influence how PBL supports moral development. Cross-cultural comparative studies can help identify similarities, differences, and complementary aspects across educational systems. Finally, the long-term impact of PBL on students’ moral competence has not been examined. Subsequent research should utilize longitudinal methodologies to monitor students' moral performance following graduation and during professional practice, thereby yielding a more thorough evaluation of its educational significance. Future Empirical Pathways for Theoretical Propositions. The four theoretical propositions (P1–P4) proposed in this study offer a normative framework for understanding the mechanisms by which PBL fosters moral competence in students. Future empirical research could pursue the following directions. Multilevel empirical model validation: Methods such as structural equation Modelling (SEM) or hierarchical linear Modelling (HLM) can be used, with variables such as “participation in real collaboration”, frequency of peer collaboration”, and “breadth of interdisciplinary interaction” as predictors and “moral imagination”, “moral judgement,” and “empathy” as outcome variables (Byrne, 2016 ). Such studies could quantify the effects of these three mechanisms under different teaching conditions and test the applicability of P1–P3. Longitudinal tracking and qualitative triangulation: As moral competence develops over time, future studies could adopt longitudinal designs to trace students’ moral trajectories across successive PBL projects. Combining qualitative interviews and reflective journals captures internal cognitive changes during perspective-taking and empathy formation (Denzin, 2018 ). This approach helps to validate PBL’s long-term moral effects and reveals its dynamic evolution. Cross-cultural and contextual comparative research: Given that this framework is rooted in Chinese application-oriented universities, future studies could conduct cross-cultural comparisons to examine how boundary conditions (P4) affect the three mechanisms of teacher creativity. For example, comparing European CBL and Chinese PBL outcomes could test how cultural dimensions (e.g., collectivism and power distance) moderate moral education effects (López Duarte & Vidal Suárez, 2012 ; Kristjánsson, 2013 ). In summary, this normative framework highlights PBL’s uniqueness in moral education, enriches non-Western perspectives, and offers practical insights into global educational practice. Future research should validate its cross-cultural applicability and explore intersections with emerging fields such as AI education and social-emotional learning (SEL). Declarations Ethical approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Informed consent This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors. Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article. Author Contribution Author Zhong Wei conceived the research and led the framework construction; Author Genlei Zhang conducted literature synthesis and cross-context mapping; Authors Guofang Zhang and Meiping Zhang prepared the figures and public data. All authors contributed to the writing and approved the final manuscript. Acknowledgement All authors wish to thank the editors and reviewers of this journal for responsibly pointing out the shortcomings of this paper to ensure that this paper meets the requirements of publication. Data availability Data sharing is not applicable to this research as no data were generated or analysed. References Asghar, S., Torrens, G. E., & Harland, R. (2020). 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8072450","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":613887114,"identity":"66fae734-d0b1-4346-8718-69e9e6e175bf","order_by":0,"name":"Zhong Wei","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAsElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNmbGhgMfDGwYGBsYEg4QpYWPnfngwRkFaSRokeNnSz7M8+EwSQ7jMTjAY3A+j3l2w8MDDDV3iNQiYXC7mHHOAaDDjj0jUouBwe3ExhkJCQcYG4hwIVhLgsE5krSwJRw4YHCAJC3MBw42GCQnNoL8knCMCC3y/QebP//5Y5e4cXZP8ocPNaSEtuEMngSGBBI0AK2TYD9AkoZRMApGwSgYOQAAahdC7hjc50EAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University Pujiang Institute","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhong","middleName":"","lastName":"Wei","suffix":""},{"id":613887118,"identity":"1e7810d9-3707-4ce0-a3e4-bd881c1cbed6","order_by":1,"name":"Genlei Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University Pujiang Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Genlei","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":613887120,"identity":"d6890cf9-1213-40b3-b76e-d0d2c1204a3d","order_by":2,"name":"Guofang Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Anhui University of Finance and Economics","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guofang","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":613887121,"identity":"d9ce4974-6d1c-41f6-ade8-1c7df3d60209","order_by":3,"name":"Meiping Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nanjing Tech University Pujiang Institute","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Meiping","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-11-10 03:53:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105905122,"identity":"eb4b6ccf-af2d-4cb3-a7ad-06269553cf34","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 10:11:29","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":120686,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConcept–mechanism map with contextual moderators.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8072450/v1/cacfc91fd4b3604408c66483.png"},{"id":105906589,"identity":"6fe16b13-ca35-4a8c-8220-579d3d92d2b9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-01 10:23:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1498293,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8072450/v1/6b7ba052-e581-428b-8334-3646e69d0252.pdf"},{"id":105843964,"identity":"96b72dcb-dcb7-4dfb-8bef-508a5a436ad6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-31 17:29:16","extension":"docx","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":52543,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"RubricS1Supplementary.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8072450/v1/7995cf9dcb6b7d33787a65ee.docx"},{"id":105843966,"identity":"8ae4fc73-2a53-4523-af65-5c6f825c4660","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-31 17:29:16","extension":"xlsx","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":12194,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TableS1.Mechanismcontext.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8072450/v1/6508de6cd7223100af642b1e.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"PBL fosters moral imagination, judgment, and empathy in Chinese application-oriented universities: a normative framework","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn recent years, Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been widely promoted globally and has emerged as one of the core pedagogical approaches for enhancing students\u0026rsquo; overall competencies in higher education (Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR114\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). With the deepening of educational reforms in China, the implementation of PBL in application-oriented undergraduate institutions has attracted increasing attention. Characterized by the integration of knowledge and practice, PBL creates a learning environment conducive to developing students\u0026rsquo; critical thinking and problem-solving abilities (Suryawati et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR104\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e), which encourages them to tackle real-world problems and foster active learning and critical reflection. Empirical studies have confirmed that PBL can significantly improve students\u0026rsquo; critical thinking skills, with improvement rates ranging from 2.87% to 33.56% (Setiawan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR87\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) while also contributing to the cultivation of employability.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoral education, as an essential component of the educational system, aims to nurture students\u0026rsquo; moral awareness, ethical judgement, and sense of social responsibility (Khairani et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Solheri et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR95\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). However, within the current framework of application-oriented undergraduate education, many courses prioritize the transmission of academic and technical knowledge, resulting in the significant neglect of moral education. Van Stekelenburg et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR111\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) emphasize that practical application is crucial for guiding students to reflect on ethical issues, develop cognitive moral judgement, and identify appropriate solutions to moral dilemmas. As an innovative pedagogy, PBL stimulates students\u0026rsquo; active participation and critical thinking, prompting them to reflect on ethical dimensions and reconstruct personal value systems. In this way, PBL strengthens the moral and humanistic functions of education (Gong \u0026amp; Yanchar, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) and provides a vital platform for moral growth beyond academic competence development.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNevertheless, moral education remains isolated from disciplinary and professional training in most Chinese application-oriented universities (Chen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). This structural separation between academic learning and moral cultivation has led to a critical gap: although students acquire strong technical and problem-solving abilities, they often lack key moral capacities, such as moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy (Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Existing research has extensively examined the cognitive and vocational outcomes of PBL (e.g., improvements in critical thinking and employability) (Setiawan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR87\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e), but there is a paucity of theoretical work explaining how specific PBL mechanisms foster moral imagination, judgement, and empathy (Asif et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Obeidat et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR74\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Within the Chinese cultural and institutional context, where exam-oriented assessment and vocational skill prioritization prevail, theoretical articulation and empirical validation of how real-world projects, peer collaboration and critique, and interdisciplinary/intergenerational teamwork mediate moral development are still underdeveloped (Zheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR120\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn recent years, China\u0026rsquo;s educational reform has gradually shifted toward competency-based and practice-oriented models, with application-oriented undergraduate institutions specifically emphasizing students\u0026rsquo; practical skills and social engagement (Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Lean, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). However, curriculum design in many of these institutions still focuses heavily on technical training, with limited attention to moral education (Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Even when some courses incorporate moral education elements, the cultivation of moral capacities has not received the priority it deserves (Cristov\u0026atilde;o et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), and students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination, judgement, and empathy are often underemphasized or underdeveloped in real-world PBL projects (Zhao, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR119\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this context, this study addresses the following core research questions:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eRQ1: How do real-world PBL tasks foster moral imagination among students through perspective-taking mechanisms?\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eRQ2: How do team collaboration and peer critique shape students\u0026rsquo; social moral judgement?\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eRQ3: How do interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaborations enhance empathetic agency among students?\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eRQ4: How do institutional, assessment, and faculty-related factors moderate the operation of these mechanisms in the Chinese educational context?\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis section outlines the theoretical foundations of moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy, and explains how each construct connects to project-based learning.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1 Moral Imagination\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoral imagination is a fundamental concept of moral education. It refers to an individual\u0026rsquo;s capacity to envision multiple courses of action, possible alternatives, and ethical consequences when facing moral dilemmas (Siddiqui \u0026amp; Soomro, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR93\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). This requires individuals to transcend their immediate experiences and adopt diverse perspectives to understand others\u0026rsquo; situations, thereby making decisions that are more ethically sound (Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). As Nussbaum (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR73\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e) emphasized, moral imagination enables individuals to go beyond the limitations of personal experience by understanding the feelings and needs of others, fostering empathy, and exploring multiple moral possibilities within complex ethical contexts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoral imagination is not merely a cognitive process; it is deeply intertwined with emotions and serves as a vital instrument in moral decision making. Zhou and Hu (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR122\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e) further argue that moral imagination significantly helps students respond to social issues such as hate speech with tolerance and inclusivity. By cultivating self-awareness and acceptance of the strengths and weaknesses of their moral character, students can develop genuine confidence and learn to embrace others with empathy and understanding.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the context of project-based learning (PBL) in Chinese application-oriented universities, students are often engaged in authentic community or social projects that require them to balance technical feasibility and ethical responsibility (Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). For instance, when addressing issues related to community development or environmental protection, students must consider the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, envision different intervention plans, and evaluate the moral implications of each. Thus, the experiential and participatory nature of PBL provides students with fertile ground for cultivating moral imagination, enabling them to move beyond the narrow moral frameworks of traditional classrooms and develop a more pluralistic and comprehensive moral understanding (Blumenfeld et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1991\u003c/span\u003e; Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis pedagogical approach not only enhances students\u0026rsquo; awareness of the ethical dimensions of their decisions but also stimulates creative thinking, encouraging them to imagine and design action plans that embody greater social responsibility (Asif et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2 Moral Judgment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoral judgement refers to an individual\u0026rsquo;s ability to evaluate situations and make ethical decisions based on established moral standards (Obeidat et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR74\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). It involves the integration of cognitive processes and personal values, and the criteria for moral evaluation may vary across cultural and social contexts (Kohlberg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e). In higher education, particularly in moral and ethical education, developing students\u0026rsquo; moral judgement is considered a fundamental goal, as it strengthens their capacity to make ethical decisions and effectively navigate moral dilemmas (Wang \u0026amp; Yan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR114\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Sukisno \u0026amp; Nurtjahyani, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR100\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth cognitive development and social factors influence the formation of moral judgment. Cognitive development enables individuals to comprehend and evaluate moral issues, linking abstract ethical principles with specific real-world situations to discern right from wrong (Honeycutt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Modak, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR65\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). At the same time, moral judgement is shaped by prevailing moral values within one\u0026rsquo;s social environment, including the institutional ethics of schools, social media exposure, parental involvement, and peer influence (Lashire \u0026amp; Ringmu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to Kohlberg (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e), moral judgement evolves through progressive stages of cognitive development, from obedience and punishment orientation to the social contract stage, eventually reaching a principled reasoning level. However, subsequent research has revealed that moral judgment is not merely a cognitive outcome; rather, it is an emergent product of the dynamic interaction between reasoning, emotion, and social intuition (Moon, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR66\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). From this perspective, moral judgement is increasingly viewed as a socially embedded process that extends beyond internal deliberation to include collaboration, dialogue, and cultural interactions within social contexts (Turiel \u0026amp; Dahl, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR109\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn a project-based learning (PBL) environment, students develop moral judgement through peer interaction, public presentation of project outcomes, and feedback from stakeholders, all of which occur in authentic social settings. When projects engage communities, businesses, or other social organizations, students directly encounter the needs, expectations, and value orientations of external stakeholders. The authentic feedback provided by these stakeholders exposes students to the social consequences of their moral decisions, helping them connect abstract ethical principles with concrete social realities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEngagement with community stakeholders also encourages students to reflect critically on their learning and personal growth, particularly in areas such as cultural humility and community preparedness, which are key dimensions for understanding the moral implications of one\u0026rsquo;s actions. Through iterative teamwork and reflective practices, PBL fosters deep value-based learning, enabling students to make ethical judgments in complex and uncertain contexts (Corsa, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, collective deliberation and group decision-making within PBL settings enhance students\u0026rsquo; understanding of pluralistic values and competing interests, thereby broadening their moral reasoning capacity (Kautz et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3 Empathy\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmpathy, understood as both cognitive and affective perspective-taking, supports prosocial judgement and actions. In PBL, teamwork and community engagement expose students to diverse stakeholders and real-world consequences, strengthening perspective-taking and socially responsible designs (Batson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Zucchelli \u0026amp; Ugazio, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR123\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). In essence, empathy cultivated in PBL settings functions as both a cognitive mechanism, enabling perspective-taking and moral reasoning, and an emotional bridge, facilitating genuine concern and ethical responsiveness toward others. This combination of intellectual understanding and emotional resonance is fundamental to the moral dimensions of professional education.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.4 Project-Based Learning in Chinese Application-Oriented Universities\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn China\u0026rsquo;s application-oriented universities, project-based learning (PBL) holds significant pedagogical and practical value because it emphasizes students\u0026rsquo; real-world engagement and the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge. PBL is typically implemented through partnerships with enterprises, community organizations, and governmental institutions, addressing social and industrial challenges that demand both technical competence and ethical awareness (Sa et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR83\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnlike traditional teacher-centered approaches that prioritize theoretical knowledge transmission, PBL promotes active student participation and the experiential application of learning concepts (Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR113\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). This learner-centered paradigm aligns closely with China\u0026rsquo;s higher education reform goals, particularly in cultivating students\u0026rsquo; innovation, practical competence, and social responsibility. Students at application-oriented universities often face strong career-oriented and hands-on training demands. PBL thus provides an effective platform through which students can enhance their comprehensive abilities via practice-based projects, social interaction, and teamwork (Rehman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR80\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough collaboration with industries and local communities, students not only acquire technical expertise, but also develop a nuanced understanding of ethical norms and societal expectations, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and social morality (Doran et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). The integration of moral reflection within PBL tasks encourages students to internalize values such as integrity, accountability, and empathy, which are critical for both personal development and professional ethics (Yu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR118\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSituating PBL within the Chinese context requires a cross-cultural moral education perspective to explore how moral capacities\u0026mdash;moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy\u0026mdash;are cultivated through project-based learning across different cultural and institutional frameworks. This issue forms the central theme of the following section: \u0026ldquo;Cross-Cultural Dialogue between PBL and Moral Education\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.5 Cross-Cultural Dialogue Between PBL and Moral Education\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe analysis above reveals the potential of PBL in the context of Chinese education. However, the function of moral education requires further exploration within an international comparative framework. Moral education is inherently shaped by the cultural context. Western practices tend to use PBL to teach people how to think morally, be socially responsible, and become involved in their communities (Ronzhina \u0026amp; Matasheva, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR82\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). On the other hand, Chinese practices have long been shaped by exam-oriented and outcome-driven paradigms, leading to a split between moral education and professional learning (Feng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Zheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR120\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Against this backdrop, PBL can serve as an intermediary mechanism that links technical learning with moral development. Through engagement with authentic issues, stakeholder participation, and collaborative decision-making, students are guided to practice value trade-offs and moral reasoning within concrete contexts, thereby cultivating empathy in culturally comprehensible environments (Cai, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Huang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). This path of cross-cultural integration provides an alternative model and comparable theoretical evidence for moral education research in non-Western institutional contexts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.6 Designing Moral Education Curricula Through PBL\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo fully leverage the moral education potential of project-based learning (PBL), curricula must embed ethical elements in four interconnected dimensions: objectives, tasks, processes, and assessments (Castro \u0026amp; Medina, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(1) Authentic tasks with ethical dimensions: Projects should be designed around themes such as environmental justice, data ethics, and social inclusion to ensure that students engage with moral imagination and ethical reasoning amid value conflicts and consequence considerations (Ghozali \u0026amp; Amin, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(2) Integrated collaboration\u0026ndash;reflection mechanisms: Through peer evaluation, ethical debates, and reflective journals, diverse value perspectives can be transformed into explicit moral positions and revisable reasoning processes (Bartholomew et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Xu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR117\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(3) Community and interdisciplinary participation: Collaboration with NGOs, industries, and local communities can establish stakeholder feedback loops that foster empathy through cross-boundary communication and perspective taking (Hudson \u0026amp; Brandenberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(4) Integrated assessment: Evaluation should encompass not only technical performance but also ethical reasoning, empathic engagement, and public responsibility (Polmear et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR77\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFramework for Designing PBL-Based Moral Education Courses.\u003c/b\u003e (1) Clarity of learning objectives: Moral education objectives must be clearly defined when designing PBL curricula. These objectives should include helping students identify ethical issues (Han, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e), proposing moral action plans (Tramowsky et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR108\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), and analyzing the consequences of moral decisions (Shadi, 2024). For example, the course can explicitly emphasize that students are expected to gradually develop imagination, judgement, and empathy when facing moral dilemmas during project implementation (Maslikova, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR63\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(2) Authenticity and ethical dimensions of tasks: Ensuring task authenticity enables students to recognize the value of their learning and prepare them for real-world applications (Hrivnak, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). The authenticity feature of PBL situates students in realistic contexts in which they confront ethical issues such as environmental protection and social justice while applying theoretical knowledge. Through this process, students develop moral judgments and a sense of responsibility in practice (Kim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Gouveia \u0026amp; Ayres, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(3) Collaboration and reflection mechanisms: PBL emphasizes teamwork, providing abundant opportunities for emotional and cognitive interactions in moral education (Surjanti et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR103\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR116\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). Within teams, students can broaden their moral perspective through dialogue and feedback. Bartholomew et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) suggest incorporating peer assessment activities that require students to share and critique moral viewpoints within their teams. Through public reflection and constructive criticism, students strengthen their ethical reasoning and sense of social responsibility (Xu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR117\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(4) Interdisciplinary collaboration and social engagement: Moral education requires extensive social participation, and PBL achieves this through interdisciplinary cooperation and community interaction (Tonato Farinango et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR107\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Courses can involve students working with external communities, industry experts, and NGOs to deepen their understanding of societal needs, empathize with others\u0026rsquo; circumstances, and collaboratively develop solutions (Li et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR57\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). Engagement in community services is among the strongest predictors of moral and prosocial development (Hudson \u0026amp; Brandenberger, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(5) Reflection and Evaluation: Reflection is a central component of PBL that helps students distill moral insights from experience, reinforces learning outcomes, and enhances both academic performance and disciplinary understanding (Sembiring, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR86\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e; Wahyuni et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR112\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Regular reflective journals, ethical discussions, and self-assessment activities can be incorporated in PBL-based moral education to encourage students to examine their moral decisions throughout project implementation (Sullivan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR101\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Evaluation criteria should encompass not only technical achievement, but also moral reasoning, social responsibility, and teamwork (Polmear et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR77\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eCase Analysis: Application of PBL in Moral Education.\u003c/b\u003e To develop students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination, ethical judgment, and empathy effectively in project-based learning (PBL) courses, it is essential to incorporate ethical education components throughout the entire framework. This ensures that students can consider critical ethical issues relevant to their work (Edelson et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirst, course objectives must explicitly state the intent of moral education, guiding students not only to identify ethical problems but also to propose multiple alternative solutions and analyze their potential consequences (Sopian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR96\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSecond, the authenticity of the task is essential. Embedding real-world social issuessuch as environmental protection, social justice, and data privacyinto learning contexts enhances the practical value of moral education and encourages students to develop a deeper understanding and critical reflection on these challenges (Rambaree, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR79\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Starlet, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR99\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePBL and Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) have been widely adopted in Western universities to foster moral education by developing students\u0026rsquo; independent problem-solving abilities, self-directed learning, and sustainable learning capacities (Caratozzolo et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Their core feature lies in embedding authentic societal challenges within curricular contexts and integrating interdisciplinary collaboration with industry resources, thus promoting the integration of technology and ethics (Okoli et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR75\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), a mandatory first-year CBL course includes a data ethics module, where the central question is \u0026ldquo;How can data value and privacy protection be balanced in a campus health monitoring system?\u0026rdquo; (Shuffrey et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR91\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e; Knapp et al., 2023). Student teams conducted research from technical, legal, and user perspectives and produced a Campus Health Data Ethics Handbook, which was later reviewed by university administrators and the ethics committee (Gooding \u0026amp; Kariotis, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). This case shows that students not only acquired compliance knowledge, but also developed moral imagination and ethical reasoning through negotiations among multiple stakeholders.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt the University of L\u0026uuml;beck (Germany), the CREATE Project collaborated with a robotics company to present students with real research and development challenges, such as the design of ethical risk control frameworks for elderly care robots (Hu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). By engaging with engineers, ethicists, and nursing home residents, students proposed \u0026ldquo;emotional intervention boundary rules\u0026rdquo; (McKeown et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR64\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e), which were later adopted by the company that developed the chatbot. This instance demonstrates a transformation from passive compliance with norms to active ethical design, highlighting the significant progress in students\u0026rsquo; moral judgement (Edelson et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Spain, ESADE Business School, in partnership with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and other institutions, launched the \u0026ldquo;CBI-Fusion Point\u0026rdquo; program (Larrieu-Let, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR52\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e), focusing on the medical application of CERN technologies. Interdisciplinary teams have explored technical feasibility, economic models, and design solutions (Kerr et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). Under the evaluation of experts and nonprofit organizations, they proposed solutions that prioritize the interests of vulnerable populations. This project enabled students to understand that equity and distributive justice are key dimensions of technology application, thereby deepening their empathy, both cognitively and emotionally (Hartati et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese cases had three common characteristics:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eReal-world moral complexity as the driver: Students are placed in situations involving genuine social issues and complex value conflicts, encouraging moral reflection that extends beyond the classroom (Macalalag et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR61\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eDeep stakeholder participation: Students must navigate diverse value systems to achieve fair and sustainable decisions, strengthening multidimensional ethical reasoning. As moral judgment is context-dependent, such experiences indicate the importance of adaptive, multi-perspective approaches in ethical decision making (Bartels et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eActionable and outcome-oriented results: Final outputs such as manuals, ethical guidelines, or applied solutions build a closed loop from moral cognition to ethical practice (Kryvonos \u0026amp; Chernyakova, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn summary, the design principles of moral education and practical examples from Western universities create a logic that supports each other: the first provides a systematic framework, and the second shows that it works and is possible. Experiences from these three institutions demonstrate that PBL can systematically develop students' moral imagination, ethical judgment, and empathy (Papoyan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR76\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) through the incorporation of authentic tasks, stakeholder engagement, and outcome-oriented design. Research further indicates that PBL contributes to the holistic development of ethics, morality, and character as students demonstrate stronger moral awareness and social responsibility upon completing such projects. These insights provide operational guidance for Chinese application-oriented universities, and serve as empirical support for building normative frameworks in subsequent research. Building on the above conceptual synthesis, we now describe the reproducible methodology used to construct and validate the framework.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3. Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1 Research paradigm and scope\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study adopts a normative conceptual (i.e., non-empirical) framework-building paradigm. The analysis has been conducted in the institutional and cultural context of application-oriented Chinese universities, for which we specify boundary conditions and formulate propositions. Unlike empirical research, we did not collect individual-level data or conduct statistical inference; instead, we ensured reproducibility through explicit concepts and procedures so that other scholars could reconstruct the framework using the same sources and steps and subsequently test the propositions empirically (Khairani et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2 Materials and sources\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe have relied exclusively on two types of openly accessible textual materials.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirst, scholarly literature (journal articles, book chapters, and authoritative reviews) focuses on PBL, moral imagination, moral judgement, empathy, peer critique, team heterogeneity, and ethics governance in higher education.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSecond, course/project documents (syllabi, project briefs, and peer-reviewed instructional cases) are used to map and check the feasibility and external consistency of the framework (Van Stekelenburg et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR111\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) the text provides supporting or counter-evidence for at least one of the three mechanisms; (b) the source is traceable with a clear version; and (c) it offers direct or comparable application-oriented implications for Chinese universities. The exclusion criteria were: (a) unverifiable provenance or apparent academic irregularities; (b) reports of learning outcomes without mappable instructional/interactional structures; and (c) no substantive connection to the three moral capacities or their psychological processes. No identifiable personal information or classroom intervention data were included.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3 Procedure: framework construction\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo support reproducibility, the framework was constructed in six steps, which other researchers can replicate using the same materials and rules.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(1) Theoretical integration: Using Dewey\u0026rsquo;s experiential learning and Kohlberg\u0026rsquo;s cognitive\u0026ndash;moral development as the backbone and incorporating contemporary accounts of the cognition\u0026ndash;affect dual structure, we established three-segment mappings from design features to psychological processes to capacity outcomes\u0026mdash;for example, \u0026ldquo;authentic tasks \u0026rarr; stakeholder perspective-broadening and anticipation of consequences \u0026rarr; moral imagination\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;structured peer critique \u0026rarr; public reasoning and role-based defense \u0026rarr; social moral judgement,\u0026rdquo; and\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;interdisciplinary/intergenerational teams \u0026rarr; cognition\u0026ndash;affect coupling \u0026rarr; empathy\u0026rdquo; (Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e; Obeidat et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR74\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). To standardize the P2 pathway (structured peer critique \u0026rarr; role-taking \u0026amp; justification \u0026rarr; moral judgement), we used a five-criterion, 1\u0026ndash;4 scale rubric with weights (30/25/20/15/10). The full rubric is provided in Rubric S1 (Supplementary).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(2) Mechanism distillation: Through systematic reading, we extracted mediators and moderators (e.g., quality of public reasoning, strength of role rotation, assessment regime, and ethics-governance devices), formulated directional judgements for the mechanism chains, and marked constraints linked to institutional conditions in Chinese universities (Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Shui, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR92\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(3) Proposition formation: Mechanistic statements are translated into testable propositions (P1\u0026ndash;P3 for the three mechanisms; P4 for institutional moderation). Propositions are anchored in observable instructional/interactional behaviors such as number/diversity of perspectives, turns in public reasoning and revision trajectories, team roles, and evidence of conflict mediation, thereby leaving operational space for subsequent empirical studies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(4) Cross-context mapping: Key practices documented in domestic and international courses/projects (stakeholder referencing; articulation of ethical impacts; iterative peer critique and role-play; configuration of team heterogeneity) were mapped to the mechanism chains with concordant/discordant evidence recorded and proposition wording refined accordingly. To operationalize cross-context mapping, Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e lists the core checklist fields and coding rules used to extract comparable evidence from course/project texts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCore fields of the course/project mapping checklist (concise).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eField\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDefinition / What to look for\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRecord format\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCourse/Project ID\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnit of analysis; link to source\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eText/URL\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAuthentic need\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eReal client/beneficiary; problem origin\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eY/N/Notes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePeer critique cycles\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIterative sessions; rubrics; role-based debate\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eY/N/Notes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTeam heterogeneity\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiscipline/age mix; role rotation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eY/N/Notes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEthics oversight\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eApprovals; risk mitigation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eY/N/Notes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eObservable outputs\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePerspectives; justifications; empathy markers\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eExamples/quotes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMapped mechanism(s)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1/M2/M3 selection\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM-codes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"3\"\u003eNotes: Fields align with indicators in Section \u003cspan refid=\"Sec12\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3.3\u003c/span\u003e (e.g., stakeholder perspectives, public-reasoning turns and revision magnitude, role rotation, and empathic statements).\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(5) Boundary delineation: We articulated how institutional factors\u0026mdash;exam-oriented assessment, teachers\u0026rsquo; preparation for ethics facilitation, project ethics review, and university\u0026ndash;community collaboration\u0026mdash; amplified or attenuated each mechanism, producing a mechanism-by-context boundary-condition matrix (Zheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR120\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(6) Consistency checks: A small-scale expert co-reading/Delphi-style review was used to check the consistency of the definitions, pathway directions, and proposition phrasing, and a versioned framework document was then produced.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, there are three proposed paths from the design features of problem-based learning (PBL) (authentic tasks; structured peer assessment and public reasoning; heterogeneous teams) to moral capabilities (moral imagination; moral judgement; empathy). Contextual moderating factors included assessment systems, teacher ethical promotion preparation, ethical governance, and community cooperation. The arrows indicate the proposed paths.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.4 Rigour and falsifiability checks\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo mitigate the confirmation bias, we implemented three safeguards. First, ruling out rival explanations: We examined alternatives such as \u0026ldquo;product-oriented grading induces strategic behavior\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;teacher-centered scaffolding prompts passive acceptance\u0026rdquo; and required each mechanism to specify potential failure conditions with corresponding evidence (Zhao, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR119\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Second, cross-context consistency: whenever course/project texts from different cultural/institutional settings exhibited the same key components and interactional structures, we treated this as external consistency support. Systematic inconsistencies were used to revise the propositions and extend boundary conditions. Third, transparent reconstruction: Key concepts, pathway directions, proposition texts, and revision records were version-controlled so that others could reproduce the reasoning chain and framework construction using the same materials and steps. To make the moderation logic explicit, a concise mechanism-by-context matrix is provided in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, with a detailed version including the impacted aspects, rationales, and strengthening/mitigation strategies in Table \u003cspan refid=\"MOESM1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eS1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMechanism \u0026times; context (concise matrix of boundary effects).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMechanism\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eContext factor\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEffect (+/\u0026minus;)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1: Authentic \u0026rarr; Imagination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eExam-oriented assessment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eShifts focus to marks over public reasoning\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1: Authentic \u0026rarr; Imagination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTeacher ethics-facilitation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e+\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eImproves justification/role-taking\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM2: Peer critique \u0026rarr; Judgment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eProject ethics governance\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e+\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnsures stakeholder engagement \u0026amp; reflection\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM3: Heterogeneous \u0026rarr; Empathy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCommunity partnerships\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e+\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRaises authenticity \u0026amp; perspective diversity\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"4\"\u003eNotes: \u0026ldquo;+\u0026rdquo; indicates an amplifying effect; \u0026ldquo;\u0026minus;\u0026rdquo; indicates attenuation. Mechanism codes\u0026mdash;M1: Authentic tasks \u0026rarr; Moral imagination; M2: Structured peer critique \u0026rarr; Moral judgement; M3: Heterogeneous teams \u0026rarr; Empathy. The effects reflect conceptual synthesis and do not test causal estimates.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.5 Open materials and versioned documentation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo facilitate review and reuse, we provide a reproducibility package comprising (a) the concept\u0026ndash;mechanism diagram (with an editable source file); (b) a proposition list (P1\u0026ndash;P4) and a mechanism-by-context boundary-condition matrix; (c) a course/project-mapping checklist (field definitions, decision rules, and illustrative excerpts); (d) a sample rubric for structured peer critique and public reasoning; and (e) a version log documenting the rationale and textual differences for each revision. The study includes no individual-level datasets; all materials are derived from public texts and author-developed tools, fulfilling a \u0026ldquo;reproducible, not repeatable experiment\u0026rdquo; paradigm (Asif et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4. Normative Framework: Mechanisms Linking PBL to Moral Capacities","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.1 Construction of the Normative Framework\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eProject-Based Learning (PBL) has become prominent in application-oriented universities in China (Zhou, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR122\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Although it improves practical and problem-solving skills, its moral education potential remains underexplored. This section develops a normative framework that specifies how PBL cultivates moral imagination, judgment and empathy. PBL emphasizes practical competence and problem-solving ability (Huang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e), and has achieved significant results in cultivating students\u0026rsquo; innovation and professional skills (Pradhananga et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR78\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). However, while its advantages in skill development are widely recognized, the moral educational potential of PBL remains largely unexplored. The normative framework proposed in this study seeks to explain how PBL fosters students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy. This framework integrates classical theories of moral education, such as Kohlberg\u0026rsquo;s theory of moral development (Kohlberg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e) and Dewey\u0026rsquo;s experiential learning philosophy (Dewey, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1986\u003c/span\u003e) with the pedagogical characteristics of PBL. We focused on three mechanisms that link PBL to moral capacities. In the following sections, each mechanism is examined in detail, including its theoretical foundation, pedagogical processes, and practical implications.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.2 Core propositions\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eBuilding on the pathways synthesized in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, this subsection presents four propositions (P1\u0026ndash;P4) that render the framework auditable and testable for subsequent empirical work. To make the mechanism auditable, Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e summarizes the four propositions (P1\u0026ndash;P4) aligned with Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSummary of propositions (P1\u0026ndash;P4) aligned with the mechanistic pathways.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eID\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eProposition\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMechanism\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eObservable indicators\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eP1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAuthentic tasks \u0026rarr; richer moral imagination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePerspective count/diversity; scenario depth\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eP2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eStructured peer critique \u0026rarr; stronger moral judgment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePublic reasoning turns; revision magnitude\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eP3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHeterogeneous teams \u0026rarr; greater empathy growth\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRole rotation, conflict mediation; empathic statements\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eP4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSupportive assessment/governance moderates M1\u0026ndash;M3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eContext\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEthics review; rubric alignment; stakeholder engagement\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"4\"\u003eNotes: P1\u0026ndash;P3 correspond to the three pathways in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e (M1\u0026ndash;M3); P4 specifies contextual moderation. Indicators are observable instructional/interactional behaviors for later operationalization.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs visualized in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, P1 posits that authentic tasks cultivate moral imagination via perspective broadening and consequence envisioning; Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e aligns this belief with indicators such as perspective count/diversity. P3 connects heterogeneous teams to empathy through role rotation, conflict mediation evidence, and empathic statements. P4 stated that these effects are moderated by the assessment regime, teacher preparation for ethics facilitation, ethics governance, and community partnerships (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eP1 (Authentic tasks \u0026rarr; Moral imagination). When PBL tasks are embedded in authentic community or industry settings that surface value conflicts, students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination is enhanced through perspective broadening and consequence envisioning (Nussbaum, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR73\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e; Gerrits et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). In practice, this pathway is traceable via indicators such as perspective count/diversity and scenario-generation depth, which capture how students articulate stakeholder views and anticipate ethical ramifications (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eP2 (Structured peer critique \u0026rarr; Moral judgement). Iterative, rubric-guided peer critique and public reasoning foster the maturation of moral judgement by exposing learners to competing claims and requiring reason-giving, counterargument handling, and revision (Corsa, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Observable indicators include public reasoning turns, reason quality, and revision magnitude, which index how students justify positions and modify them across critique cycles.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eP3 (Heterogeneous teams \u0026rarr; Empathy). Interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration promotes empathy by combining cognitive perspective-taking with affective responsiveness, as students work across disciplinary, age, and role boundaries (Ulvestad et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR110\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). This mechanism can be traced through role rotation, conflict-mediation evidence, and empathic statements documented in team processes and outputs (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eP4 (Contextual moderation in the Chinese application-oriented setting). The operation and strength of P1\u0026ndash;P3 are moderated by institutional and cultural conditions, notably exam-oriented assessment regimes, teachers\u0026rsquo; preparation for ethics facilitation, ethics governance of projects, and university\u0026ndash;community partnerships (Zheng, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR120\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; related sources cited in Sections \u003cspan refid=\"Sec13\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3.4\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan refid=\"Sec20\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4.5\u003c/span\u003e). As summarized in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e and elaborated in Table \u003cspan refid=\"MOESM1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eS1\u003c/span\u003e, process-oriented assessment and basic ethics-facilitation training tend to amplify P2, and community partnerships often strengthen P3 via perspective diversity, whereas high stakes and product-centric grading may attenuate P1 by crowding out stakeholder exploration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTogether, P1\u0026ndash;P4 constitute a coherent, testable normative framework: authentic tasks \u0026rarr; imagination; peer critique \u0026rarr; judgement; heterogeneous teams \u0026rarr; empathy; contextual factors \u0026rarr; moderation of all three. The operational anchors listed in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e enable transparent replication and future empirical evaluation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.3 Mechanism 1: From \u0026ldquo;Authentic Community Engagement Projects\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;Moral Imagination\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoral imagination requires individuals to understand others\u0026rsquo;situations and envision the ethical consequences of alternative choices (Gerrits et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). In traditional educational models, students often passively receive moral instruction and learn moral judgement standards primarily through theoretical studies (Mosalanejad et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR67\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). However, such approaches tend to lack contextualization and practical engagement, resulting in the underdevelopment of students\u0026rsquo; moral imaginations (Fu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Kanzal et al., 2016).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBy contrast, project-based learning (PBL) provides students with authentic moral contexts in which they actively engage with real social problems and directly confront ethical dilemmas and value conflicts (Shao et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR89\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). One of the core features of PBL is the authenticity of a task. In applied undergraduate institutions, PBL frequently requires students to participate in projects connected to real communities, societies, and industries (Sun et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR102\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). These projects often entail ethical and social responsibility.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile completing such projects, students are expected to apply their academic knowledge and address moral and ethical issues. For example, in an environmental protection project, students must not only think about whether their work is technically possible, but also about how it will affect different community groups, especially those that are vulnerable or marginalized. These real-world ethically embedded PBL tasks compel students to integrate moral considerations into their problem-solving processes, thereby stimulating their moral imagination and encouraging them to incorporate social, cultural, and ethical dimensions into their moral reasoning (Baker et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the analysis above, the mechanism can be summarized as follows: authentic task \u0026rarr; perspective taking \u0026rarr; construction of moral context \u0026rarr; expansion of moral imagination. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P1: When PBL tasks are embedded in authentic community settings and involve ethical conflicts, students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination is significantly enhanced through perspective-taking and consequence envisioning (Nussbaum, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR73\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e; Gerrits et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). This suggests that PBL, by situating students within real social interactions and moral problem-solving contexts, stimulates them to understand ethical issues from multiple perspectives and to explore potential moral courses of action.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.4 Mechanism 2: From \u0026ldquo;Peer Collaboration and Public Critique\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;Moral Judgment\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTraditional moral education tends to treat \u0026ldquo;judgment\u0026rdquo; as an individual rational process, often overlooking its socially constructed nature (Tian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR106\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). However, moral decisions frequently emerge from interactions among multiple stakeholders, where value conflicts and consensus-building occur (Haidt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e). PBL\u0026rsquo;s mechanisms of team collaboration and peer critique create a \u0026ldquo;community of moral reasoning,\u0026rdquo; in which students expose the limitations and biases of their judgements through collaborative discussions and public feedback, thereby refining their moral reasoning (Keshmirian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough iterative exchanges, debates, and peer reflections, students not only rationally understand others\u0026rsquo; perspectives but also emotionally experience the uncertainty and social consequences of their judgments (Thomson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR105\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Teacher guidance and collective evaluation provide a platform for meta-moral reflection, enabling individuals to reconstruct their judgement standards through social dialogue (Corsa, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Through sustained interaction and reflection, students gradually develop socially constructed moral judgments\u0026ndash;a form of ethical reasoning that balances personal values with public interests. This type of judgement is no longer a purely cognitive decision, but a synthesis of emotional resonance and rational evaluation, highlighting the social-contextual nature of moral judgement (Turiel \u0026amp; Dahl, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR109\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on this analysis, the mechanism can be summarized as follows: peer collaboration and critique \u0026rarr; exposure to value conflicts \u0026rarr; moral discussion and deliberation \u0026rarr; maturation of moral judgement. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P2: Within PBL contexts that emphasize peer collaboration and public critique, students\u0026rsquo; moral judgment is enhanced through the interactive process of reflecting on and revising moral positions amid diverse value conflicts (Haidt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e). This study indicates that PBL fosters mature moral judgement by combining emotional empathy with rational analysis through peer interactions and critical feedback.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.5 Mechanism 3: From \u0026ldquo;Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Collaboration\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;Empathy\u0026rdquo;\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn contemporary higher education, empathy is often understood as an emotional response, rather than a product of cognitive and social learning (Batson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). The lack of diverse interaction experiences makes it difficult for students to understand others\u0026rsquo; perspectives in complex social contexts (Lehner et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR55\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Through interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration, PBL creates an experiential diversity field that allows students to work with individuals from different disciplines, ages, and cultural backgrounds.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis diversity of interaction requires students to engage in cognitive empathy\u0026mdash;understanding others\u0026rsquo; knowledge frameworks and social-emotional experiences\u0026mdash;which broadens their cognitive structures (Ulvestad et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR110\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, intergenerational collaboration encourages students to develop an understanding of and respect for individuals across different age groups and life experiences (Li \u0026amp; Maalla, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Guided reflection by instructors transforms these experiences into sustainable moral emotions (Makal \u0026amp; \u0026Ccedil;epni, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR62\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe empathy developed in this context is no longer a passive emotional resonance, but active empathy is generated through cognitive processing and social collaboration. It equips students to participate in social affairs as ethically sensitive actors rather than technically proficient but ethically disengaged actors in their future professional practices (Normasari \u0026amp; Sjabadhyni, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR71\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on this analysis, the mechanism pathway can be summarized as follows: interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration \u0026rarr; understanding others\u0026rsquo; needs \u0026rarr; emotional resonance \u0026rarr; enhancement of empathy. Accordingly, this study proposes Proposition P3: PBL tasks involving interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration through the sharing of diverse social experiences stimulate both cognitive and emotional empathy, ultimately fostering action-oriented empathy (Ulvestad et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR110\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). This indicates that PBL, through multicultural and intergenerational collaboration, enables students to understand others\u0026rsquo; needs while cultivating strong social responsibility and emotional resonance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.6 Boundary Conditions in the Chinese Context\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough PBL demonstrates a significant potential for cultivating moral capacities, several boundary conditions in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions may influence its effectiveness.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn China\u0026rsquo;s exam-oriented assessment culture, the emphasis on measurable knowledge testing constrains students\u0026rsquo; moral reflection and judgment; accordingly, assessment reform is integral to P4\u0026rsquo;s boundary conditions (Naydenova \u0026amp; Shaposhnikova, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR69\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTeacher Preparedness: Many instructors have not received sufficient training in moral education and lack the ability and experience to integrate ethics into PBL (Sopian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR96\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Teachers must master how to facilitate moral discussions (Ribchester \u0026amp; Healey, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR81\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e), embed ethical elements in PBL projects (Baharun \u0026amp; Ummah, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Kirkman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Soro et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR97\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e), and evaluate students\u0026rsquo; moral capacities (Kisselburgh et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Liu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR59\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Sporre et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR98\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the above analysis, Proposition P4 is proposed, and the effectiveness of PBL in promoting moral capacities is moderated by China\u0026rsquo;s higher education system, which includes exam-oriented assessment pressures, teacher moral education training, and industry orientation (Skvortsov, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR94\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). This report indicates that educational structures, assessment models, and teacher-training programs in China influence the efficacy of PBL in moral education, particularly in balancing technical competence, moral judgement, and empathy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTogether, these four propositions formed a testable normative framework:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eReal-world task driven \u0026rarr; Perspective taking \u0026rarr; Enhancement of moral imagination (P1);\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003ePeer collaboration/public critique \u0026rarr; Judgment revision \u0026rarr; Maturation of moral judgment (P2);\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eInterdisciplinary/intergenerational interaction \u0026rarr; Cognitive-emotional integration \u0026rarr; Generation of empathy (P3);\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eInstitutional conditions and teacher effectiveness \u0026rarr; Moderation of the three mechanisms (P4).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis structure clarifies the argument\u0026rsquo;s coherence and testability in line with Kristj\u0026aacute;nsson\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e) evaluative criteria.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe normative framework proposed in this study suggests that PBL can help cultivate students' moral imaginations through authentic community engagement projects, especially when tackling social issues that encompass ethical dilemmas. Students exhibit enhanced perspective-taking and consequence-imagining abilities (Gerrits et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Nussbaum, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR73\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e). Students must deal with technical problems and think about the moral consequences of their choices when working on real social projects. During this process, students' moral imagination is greatly enhanced, allowing them to analyze issues from various viewpoints and suggest a range of solutions when faced with ethical challenges. For instance, in environmental protection projects, students must consider the needs and values of various social stakeholders and evaluate the ethical consequences of various proposals (Sahid \u0026amp; Hashim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR85\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). This cross-perspective training enhances students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination in complex ethical contexts and strengthens their practical moral judgment capabilities (Li \u0026amp; Amin, 2024). Therefore, although PBL provides a practical platform for moral education, its long-term and broad effects require further validation across the diverse educational systems in China.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough peer collaboration and open critique, PBL may promote and support the development of students\u0026rsquo; moral judgment. In team collaboration, students must balance individual and group interests and make ethically sound decisions when facing diverse value systems (Corsa, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). This practical moral judgement training aligns closely with Kohlberg\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e) stages of moral development, indicating that moral judgment maturation is closely associated with cognitive development. Through moral reasoning and peer discussion, students not only comprehend others' viewpoints but also contemplate their own moral stances, perpetually revising and enhancing their evaluative criteria (Haidt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e). Nevertheless, cultural and social background differences may introduce potential tension between the two groups. Moral judgement standards can vary across social groups, particularly in contexts involving conflicts between collectivist and individualist cultures, potentially leading to culturally adaptive differences in students\u0026rsquo; moral judgements (Asghar et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, designing more inclusive and cross-cultural moral discussions within PBL curricula is important for future research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study also highlights the unique advantage of PBL in enhancing students\u0026rsquo; empathy, particularly through cross-disciplinary and intergenerational collaboration. Such collaborations allow students to engage deeply with individuals from diverse backgrounds, thereby strengthening their understanding of the needs and emotions of others. Working with peers of different disciplinary and age backgrounds, students gain not only technical insights, but also emotional resonance and understand the challenges and needs of others (Li \u0026amp; Maalla, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR56\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). For example, when completing social service projects, students must integrate social responsibility with personal moral responsibility and collaborate as a team to propose ethical solutions that balance multiple interests (Batson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). This collaborative model can enhance students\u0026rsquo; active empathy, enabling them to respond to social issues in ways that align with the ethical standards. However, as research indicates, cultural and educational backgrounds play a critical role in shaping empathy. In different cultural contexts, students\u0026rsquo; moral emotions and empathic capacities may vary considerably (Kristj\u0026aacute;nsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Future research should explore how to integrate diverse cultural moral education resources in a globalized context to provide students with rich and varied moral learning experiences.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, institutionalized evaluation systems and insufficient teacher training constrain PBL implementation in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions (Skvortsov, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR94\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). While PBL can help students develop both technical and moral skills, the exam-based evaluation system tends to focus on technical skills and professional knowledge, while ignoring the growth of moral judgment and social responsibility (Chen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, teachers\u0026rsquo; professional knowledge and capacity to guide moral education require enhancement. Teachers must possess the ability to transmit disciplinary knowledge and facilitate students\u0026rsquo; moral reflection and ethical reasoning (Saharuddin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR84\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). These factors suggest that Chinese application-oriented undergraduate education has not fully embraced the moral education function of PBL. Moreover, the influence of evaluation systems on PBL implementation cannot be ignored. Therefore, to maximize the effectiveness of PBL in moral education, educational reforms in China should emphasize the integration of moral and skill-based education and promote the reform of teacher-training systems, ensuring that instructors can effectively guide students in moral reflection and practice within PBL.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOverall, this discussion suggests that while PBL has significant advantages in cultivating students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination, moral judgment, and empathy, its effectiveness is moderated by cultural-, institutional-, and educator-related factors. Future studies should explore the application of PBL across diverse cultural and institutional contexts to achieve a systematic and sustainable moral education.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"6. Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eSummary of the Study.\u003c/b\u003e This study explored the role of project-based learning (PBL) in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions and proposed a normative framework centered on real community engagement, peer critique, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Existing empirical studies indicate that PBL promotes students\u0026rsquo; academic competence and can have positive effects in the moral education domain (Shek \u0026amp; Zhu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR90\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e), and the framework developed here builds on these insights.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBy embedding projects within authentic social contexts, students\u0026rsquo; moral imagination can be expanded, enabling them to engage with real-world outcomes and professional expectations, while deepening their understanding of and connection to disciplinary content (De Bruin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Through peer interactions and teacher guidance, students develop diverse and sophisticated moral judgments (Mustafa et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR68\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Moreover, cross-disciplinary and intergenerational collaboration may foster empathy at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTaken together, this analysis addresses the long-standing issue in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate education of emphasizing technical skills over moral development and suggests that PBL can serve as a promising pathway to bridge the gap between vocational training and moral education (Chen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Huang \u0026amp; Huang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eTheoretical Contributions.\u003c/b\u003e At the theoretical level, this study makes three key contributions to existing moral education research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFirst, it articulates the generative mechanisms of moral imagination, moral judgement, and empathy through embedded practice, thus enriching the content dimension of moral education theory. While traditional studies often emphasize cognitive reasoning or emotional experiences, this study highlights that these three capacities may be more effectively supported through authentic social interactions (Nussbaum, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR73\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e; Haidt, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSecond, this study supplements existing theories. Kohlberg\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e) stage theory relies heavily on linear developmental logic, whereas Haidt\u0026rsquo;s (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e) intuitionist approach emphasizes the role of emotion, but underestimates the value of group collaboration and social practices. The proposed framework addresses these gaps by conceptualizing moral capacity as an integrated outcome of cognition, emotion, and social interaction.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThird, by conducting this study within the Chinese educational context, this research seeks to complement and extend the largely Western-centric focus of moral education scholarship and provides an additional reference point for globalized moral education theory.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003ePractical and Policy Contributions.\u003c/b\u003e Practically, the framework proposed in this study offers actionable principles for curriculum reform in Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions. In terms of curriculum design, PBL should deliberately incorporate value conflicts and ethical issues rather than focusing solely on technical objectives (Huang \u0026amp; Wang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Regarding teacher development, universities play a crucial role in cultivating educators who can combine reflective practices with instruction and guide students toward critical ethical reflection (Novella-Garc\u0026iacute;a \u0026amp; Cloquell-Lozano, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR72\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor the assessment system, students\u0026rsquo; moral judgement, empathy, and social responsibility should be integrated into the evaluation criteria to prevent an overemphasis on exam-oriented or purely skill-based metrics. At the policy level, the findings suggest that educational authorities should use policy guidance and resource allocation to encourage universities to integrate PBL with moral education, thereby promoting the convergence of ethical and professional training. These measures could support students\u0026rsquo; holistic development and respond to societal demands of professionals who possess technical competence and moral literacy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eCross-Cultural Contributions.\u003c/b\u003e China\u0026rsquo;s moral education system provides important lessons for international research by demonstrating how traditional values can be integrated into modern educational frameworks to address local and global challenges (Ning, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR70\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Unlike Western educational traditions, which emphasize individual rationality and liberal values, Chinese educational practices highlight collectivism, social responsibility, and practical action (Li \u0026amp; Lu, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). In this context, PBL supports skill development and serves as a vehicle for educating students on social responsibility. The findings of this study suggest that moral education should not be confined to a single cultural framework but rather seek integration through cross-cultural dialogue to enhance understanding and collaboration among diverse cultural contexts. By incorporating Chinese cases into global research, this study enriches the existing moral education theories and provides new experiences and insights for international comparative research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eLimitations and Future Directions.\u003c/b\u003e Despite offering an insightful framework, this study has several limitations. First, the framework should be understood as a theoretical proposal grounded in existing literature and illustrative cases rather than as a model whose effectiveness has been systematically tested. The analysis is primarily based on theoretical argument and case illustrations and therefore lacks large-scale empirical validation. Future studies should employ large-scale surveys, experimental research, and classroom observations to test and refine the framework\u0026rsquo;s practical effects. Moreover, this study focuses on Chinese application-oriented undergraduate institutions, and its external validity in other educational levels and cultural contexts is uncertain. Future research should expand the scope to include research universities, vocational-technical colleges, and secondary education, and explore PBL\u0026rsquo;s moral education functions across settings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCultural differences constitute a limitation of this study. Chinese education emphasizes social responsibility, whereas Western education emphasizes individual autonomy, which may influence how PBL supports moral development. Cross-cultural comparative studies can help identify similarities, differences, and complementary aspects across educational systems. Finally, the long-term impact of PBL on students\u0026rsquo; moral competence has not been examined. Subsequent research should utilize longitudinal methodologies to monitor students' moral performance following graduation and during professional practice, thereby yielding a more thorough evaluation of its educational significance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eFuture Empirical Pathways for Theoretical Propositions.\u003c/b\u003e The four theoretical propositions (P1\u0026ndash;P4) proposed in this study offer a normative framework for understanding the mechanisms by which PBL fosters moral competence in students. Future empirical research could pursue the following directions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMultilevel empirical model validation: Methods such as structural equation Modelling (SEM) or hierarchical linear Modelling (HLM) can be used, with variables such as \u0026ldquo;participation in real collaboration\u0026rdquo;, frequency of peer collaboration\u0026rdquo;, and \u0026ldquo;breadth of interdisciplinary interaction\u0026rdquo; as predictors and \u0026ldquo;moral imagination\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;moral judgement,\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;empathy\u0026rdquo; as outcome variables (Byrne, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). Such studies could quantify the effects of these three mechanisms under different teaching conditions and test the applicability of P1\u0026ndash;P3.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLongitudinal tracking and qualitative triangulation: As moral competence develops over time, future studies could adopt longitudinal designs to trace students\u0026rsquo; moral trajectories across successive PBL projects. Combining qualitative interviews and reflective journals captures internal cognitive changes during perspective-taking and empathy formation (Denzin, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). This approach helps to validate PBL\u0026rsquo;s long-term moral effects and reveals its dynamic evolution.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCross-cultural and contextual comparative research: Given that this framework is rooted in Chinese application-oriented universities, future studies could conduct cross-cultural comparisons to examine how boundary conditions (P4) affect the three mechanisms of teacher creativity. For example, comparing European CBL and Chinese PBL outcomes could test how cultural dimensions (e.g., collectivism and power distance) moderate moral education effects (L\u0026oacute;pez Duarte \u0026amp; Vidal Su\u0026aacute;rez, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR60\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Kristj\u0026aacute;nsson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn summary, this normative framework highlights PBL\u0026rsquo;s uniqueness in moral education, enriches non-Western perspectives, and offers practical insights into global educational practice. Future research should validate its cross-cultural applicability and explore intersections with emerging fields such as AI education and social-emotional learning (SEL).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003ch2\u003eEthical approval\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eInformed consent\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFunding\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication of this article.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Zhong Wei conceived the research and led the framework construction; Author Genlei Zhang conducted literature synthesis and cross-context mapping; Authors Guofang Zhang and Meiping Zhang prepared the figures and public data. All authors contributed to the writing and approved the final manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgement\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll authors wish to thank the editors and reviewers of this journal for responsibly pointing out the shortcomings of this paper to ensure that this paper meets the requirements of publication.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData availability\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eData sharing is not applicable to this research as no data were generated or analysed.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAsghar, S., Torrens, G. E., \u0026amp; Harland, R. (2020). Cultural influences on perception of disability and disabled people: a comparison of opinions from students in the United Kingdom (UK) Pakistan (PAK) about a generic wheelchair using a semantic differential scale. 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Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1427. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01427.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"project-based learning, application-orientated universities, moral imagination, moral judgment, empathy","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eProject-based Learning (PBL) is widely used in Chinese application-oriented universities to enhance professional competencies. However, its potential to cultivate moral capacities (moral imagination, judgement, and empathy) remains underexplored, with a lack of theoretical frameworks explaining its mechanisms in the Chinese context. This study aims to address this gap by constructing a normative framework integrating Dewey\u0026rsquo;s pragmatism, Kohlberg\u0026rsquo;s cognitive development theory, and empathy research, and exploring how PBL fosters moral capacities. Through theoretical analysis and case illustration, this study proposes three core mechanisms: PBL can promote moral imagination through authentic community projects, may strengthen moral judgement through peer critique, and may enhance empathy through interdisciplinary/intergenerational collaboration. It also notes boundary conditions such as exam-oriented assessments and insufficient teacher training. The framework proposes testable propositions that offer a foundation for future empirical research and practical guidance for curriculum reform to integrate moral education into professional training in Chinese application-oriented universities.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"PBL fosters moral imagination, judgment, and empathy in Chinese application-oriented universities: a normative framework","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-31 17:29:11","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8072450/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-05-18T07:35:30+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"11512459068012172166832750641357867130","date":"2026-04-25T08:04:05+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-03-27T04:26:35+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-12-19T12:58:09+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-12-02T06:54:57+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-11-25T04:23:57+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","date":"2025-11-25T04:19:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"203e17cf-22ee-4ed8-a5ec-0ac1ca60f93f","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 31st, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-05-18T07:35:30+00:00","index":121,"fulltext":""}],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":65323905,"name":"Humanities/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":65323906,"name":"Social science/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":65323907,"name":"Social science/Education"},{"id":65323908,"name":"Humanities/Philosophy"},{"id":65323909,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"},{"id":65323910,"name":"Social science/Psychology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-31T17:29:12+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-31 17:29:11","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8072450","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8072450","identity":"rs-8072450","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}