The present study was designed to uncover the underlying mechanisms through which dramatic games contribute to the development of moral intelligence in children, with a specific focus on extracting a comprehensive applied model that could serve as a practical guide for designing, implementing, and evaluating school-based educational interventions. Traditional approaches to moral education often rely heavily on abstract instruction, passive learning, or sermon-like lectures, which frequently fail to translate into genuine behavioral change during everyday social interactions. The growing interest in embodied, activity-based pedagogies, particularly those rooted in theatrical and dramatic practices, stems directly from their unique capacity to create emotionally charged, simulated environments where children can not only learn about ethical principles but actively practice them in real-time. Although there is a growing recognition of this educational and therapeutic potential across both academic and clinical settings, the existing literature still lacks a clear and systematic account of how these specific activities translate into measurable moral outcomes. This study addresses that critical gap by rigorously synthesizing the available evidence from the past decade and proposing a coherent, operational framework intended to bridge theory and practice for researchers, educators, and curriculum planners alike. To achieve this overarching goal, a qualitative systematic review was carried out within an interpretive-constructivist paradigm, encompassing all relevant scientific works published between January 2015 and September 2025 that examined the use of dramatic games—including educational theater, role-playing, drama therapy, psychodrama, and pretend play—in direct relation to moral development in school-aged children. A systematic and exhaustive search was performed across major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, and PsycINFO, which was supplemented by targeted searches in Google Scholar to effectively capture the grey literature that is often overlooked in traditional reviews. The search strategy carefully combined Boolean operators with domain-specific keywords in both English and Persian, drawing on terms such as “dramatic games,” “moral intelligence,” “children,” “psychodrama,” and “moral development,” and was restricted to peer-reviewed journals, books, and dissertations. Studies were included if they focused on school-aged children, employed at least one form of dramatic activity, and reported outcomes that could plausibly be linked to dimensions of moral intelligence. Conversely, purely theoretical pieces without empirical data, non-scientific reports, and studies addressing irrelevant skill domains were systematically excluded to maintain the integrity of the synthesis. The screening and selection process was completed in two distinct stages, an initial title and abstract review followed by a comprehensive full-text assessment, conducted independently by two reviewers to maintain objectivity and minimize the risk of selection bias. Furthermore, to ensure exhaustive coverage, the reference lists of all included studies and relevant review articles were manually hand-searched for any additional eligible publications. For the final selection of eligible studies, a pre-tested data extraction form was used alongside standardized quality appraisal checklists, specifically the JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist and the CASP qualitative tool, to ensure that only methodologically sound and rigorously conducted studies informed the final thematic synthesis. The analysis followed the established and systematic logic of grounded theory, carried out in three iterative phases: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. This progressive refinement allowed the extracted concepts to be continuously compared and contrasted. During the axial coding phase, the initial open codes were systematically compared and categorized based on their properties and dimensions, which allowed us to identify the specific conditions under which these mechanisms operated, the contextual factors that mediated their effectiveness, and the resulting consequences for children’s moral functioning. Concurrently, deductive content analysis was applied to map these evolving concepts against established theoretical moral dimensions, while a qualitative meta-aggregation approach was employed to synthesize the fragmented findings and formulate higher-order analytical propositions that could capture the complexity of the phenomena under investigation. To ensure methodological dependability, two independent coders carried out the entire coding process, and inter-coder reliability was rigorously assessed using Cohen’s Kappa coefficient, reaching a strong value of 0.87. An audit trail was meticulously maintained throughout the analytical process to enhance transparency, and strategies such as peer debriefing, regular team discussions, and systematic documentation of all analytical decisions were employed to strengthen the credibility and confirmability of the results, ensuring that the interpretations were firmly rooted in the data. The systematic analysis yielded a broad spectrum of 80 initial open codes, which were subsequently refined and organized through the axial and selective coding stages before ultimately converging into fifteen distinct subcomponents nested within six core components of moral intelligence as cultivated through dramatic games. This hierarchical structure provides a clear map of how specific theatrical activities target distinct moral faculties. The first of these core components, perspective-taking, consists of two vital subcomponents: role-taking and role-reversal, which allow children to step authentically into another’s position and genuinely understand their emotional and cognitive viewpoint, and cognitive flexibility and fair representation, which enable them to reframe complex social situations and present balanced, impartial narratives. The second component, empathy, is richly structured and includes bodily-emotional resonance, which involves the subtle mirroring of others’ emotions through nonverbal cues; compassionate concern, which reflects a genuine, active care for the well-being of others beyond mere sentiment; and helpful action, which effectively translates emotional awareness into concrete helping behaviors and practical support. The third component, self-regulation, is constructed from impulse control and the moral pause, which equip children with the essential capacity to pause and reflect before reacting; emotion regulation and anger management, which provide effective strategies to manage intense feelings in constructive ways; and reflection and reform, which foster active post-action thinking that enables ongoing behavioral adjustment and personal growth. The fourth component, conscience and norm internalization, comprises collective norm formation, which involves participatory rule-making and shared decision-making; accountability and honesty, which emphasize accepting the consequences of one’s actions and maintaining trustworthiness; and moral reasoning and reflection, which promote deeper critical thinking about ethical issues and moral dilemmas. The fifth component, respect and tolerance, consists of dignity and constructive communication, which emphasize nonviolent and respectful interaction even in the face of disagreement, alongside diversity and inclusion, which actively cultivate acceptance of differences and encourage meaningful engagement with individuals from diverse backgrounds. The sixth and final component, justice, robustly covers distributive and interactional justice, which focus on fair resource allocation and equitable social exchanges, as well as procedural and restorative justice, which ensure impartial decision-making processes and provide effective pathways for repairing damaged relationships. For instance, within this component, the practice of restorative justice through dramatic scenarios specifically allows children to experience the perspectives of both the victim and the wrongdoer, fostering a deeper, more nuanced understanding of accountability that goes beyond mere punishment. Throughout these six core components, several central mechanisms consistently emerged as key drivers of moral growth, including active role-playing and conflict reframing, the strategic use of nonviolent language, active mediation, and structured restorative practices. These mechanisms were found to work synergistically in facilitating the development of advanced moral judgment, altruistic behavior, refined fairness perception, and increased normative stability among children, effectively turning a theatrical activity into a lived ethical experience. In conclusion, the proposed 6×15 model offers a coherent and robust bridge between structured dramatic activities and measurable moral development, providing both significant theoretical depth and substantial practical utility for contemporary educational practice. It presents clear, operational indicators that can effectively guide curriculum developers, classroom educators, and school psychologists in designing, implementing, and monitoring the effectiveness of moral education programs. Future research should focus on developing and rigorously evaluating school-based interventions grounded in this framework, using consistent and validated assessment measures, while longitudinal designs are particularly needed to examine the sustainability of the observed effects over time. Fidelity of implementation should also be carefully monitored in real-world educational settings, and cross-cultural investigations are strongly recommended to test the model’s broader applicability and adaptability across diverse social and educational contexts. Additionally, policymakers and school administrators should consider the practical implications of this model for teacher training, as implementing dramatic interventions effectively requires a specific set of facilitative skills that are distinct from traditional classroom management techniques. By effectively integrating experiential learning with moral competence, this model holds the profound potential to shift moral education away from abstract instruction and toward embodied, practice-based learning that genuinely supports the holistic and social-emotional development of children in meaningful and lasting ways.