Moral Development: Students will address different curricular areas with different expectations that stem from their moral understanding of the world.
Assessment
Pre-assessment: Ask students to write about (or list) qualities they consider to be “good behavior.”
Post-assessment: Ask students to write about (or list) qualities they consider to be “good behavior” after they ponder on their experiences in the classroom and with their peers.
These assessments will help the teacher get an idea of what the students believe without influencing their answers with possibly biased questions.
Non-Examples
- Cheating
- Bullying
- Stealing
Students demonstrate a lack of moral development when they create contention with their teacher and their peers. Bullying demonstrates a lack of empathy for others. Stealing and cheating demonstrate a lack of integrity or understanding.
Correlational Features
“Children who are intellectually gifted are, on average, more likely than peers to analyze moral issues and address injustices. In comparison, those with an intellectual disability tend to reason at lower levels regarding moral issues.” (534)
Students will also vary due to cognitive factors. It is important as a teacher to recognize this struggle and not blame or shame the student if they have difficulty understanding right vs wrong behavior.
“Children whose parents explain why certain behaviors are unacceptable show more advanced moral development.” (533)
Despite there being general moral developmental trends in children, there is still going to be variety. Factors that influence a child’s moral understanding include family and home environment.
“Some cultures place greater emphasis on ensuring people’s individual rights, whereas others place greater value on the welfare of the community as a whole.” (533)
All children for the most part will have a sense of caring for others, but that sense may manifest in different ways. A teacher can help foster all ways in the classroom, such as demonstrating the value of the individual while also encouraging teamwork and community.
Narrow Concept
Middle Childhood Moral Development
Children in this developmental stage begin to develop a sense of justice, empathy, and guilt. The teacher can foster these senses to help develop the student’s moral understanding and use that to improve their learning environment and interaction with peers.
Broad Area of Study
Kholberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Kholberg’s stages breakdown moral development into 6 stages, each progressively becoming more complex and cognitively mature.
Cross-Curricular Ties
Technology
There’s a code of ethics for technology. Students should be aware of online bullying, dangerous links, and invald resources.
P.E.
Students can go a little overboard in competition, so it may help to develop their moral reasoning to remember that classmates matter more than winning.
History
History is filled with moral dilemmas; students may need to discuss them before delving into historical events.
Generalizations
Undergeneralization: “Separate cultures usually encourage a few common principles. Protecting others from harm is a universal value. Most cultures value both individual rights and concern for others.” (537)
Cultural bias might influence a teacher’s perspective to consider student’s from different cultures lacking in valuing individual rights and concern for others. Since this is generally untrue, it is an under-generalization.
Overgeneralization: “Despite the prevalent role of religion in justifying moral positions, having a religious faith has not been found to be crucial to moral advancement.” (536)
The religious standing of students may serve as a bias many teachers should look out for. Not all students will have the same religion or practice their religion to the extent of others. Many students won’t have religion at all. It’s important for teachers to recognize that this diversity does not mean students cannot have moral development.
Examples
- Forgiveness
- Understanding and empathy
- Helping and serving
Students demonstrate moral development when they can do things such as forgive another person, put themselves in another person’s shoes, or help someone without expecting something in return.
Defining Features
“Kindheartedness deepens and motivates helpful behaviors during middle childhood and adolescence.” (532)
Instead of shame, teachers can focus on appealing to the students’ sense of kindness to help foster their moral development.
“Feeling shame does not inhibit wrongdoing as effectively as does guilt, however. In fact, some young people who are ashamed act out disruptively, aggressively, or even criminally” (531)
Teachers should be careful using shame as a motivator. In middle childhood, shame can have negative impacts on a child and affect their learning both immediately and long-term.
“Precursors to shame emerge during early childhood and evolve into conscious emotions in middle childhood.” (531)
The recognition of shame and guilt is part of a child’s moral development. Children begin to understand shame in their middle childhood.
“A little later they recognize that causing another person psychological harm through teasing or name-calling is also wrong.” (531)
Middle Childhood moral development matures to include acknowledging that there are more easy to harm someone than just physical.
Developmental Characteristics
Vygotskian Considerations
“Conversation, class inclusion, and other forms of adultlike logic.” (228)
Students may be taught moral considerations when interacting with their peers and including others in activities and discussions.
Piagetian Developmental Level
“Adult-like logic appears but is limited to reasoning about concrete, real-life situations.” (196)
Some moral concepts may be difficult for students to understand. Kholberg’s earlier stages of moral development may be easier for students to grasp.
Gender
Boys: "Gilligan has suggested that Kohlberg’s stages reflect a justice orientation–an emphasis on fairness and equal rights–that better characterizes males’ moral reasoning." (535)
Girls: "In contrast, girls are socialized to take a care orientation toward moral issues–that is, to focus on interpersonal relationships and responsibility for others’ well-being." (535)
Children’s gender may affect their moral reasoning for both physical and social reasons. Teachers can both foster and challenge this reasoning by posing diverse moral questions that will get each gender to think about issues they don’t generally think about as much as the other gender.
