Moral Development Theory

By:
Lawrence Kolhlberg

For May 19 – 22, 2020

Facilitating Child-Centered Teaching
BSEd 2nd Yr Batch 1 & 2
OBJECTTIVES:

1. Explain the stages of moral development.

2. Analyze a person’s level of moral reasoning based on his/her

responses to moral dilemmas.

3. Identify the level and stages of moral development.

4. Cite how the theory of moral development can be applied to your

work as a teacher later on.

5. Read the biography of Lawrence Kohlberg.

Introduction

Individuals, when confronted by situations where they need to

make moral decisions, exercise their own ability to use moral
reasoning. So it is so timely that we will study this topic for us to
learn on how moral development theory can be applied later on our
life as a future teacher.
ACTIVITY: Read the moral dilemma below:

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of concern.

There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form
of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered . The
drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what
the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charge $4,000
for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow money and tried every legal means, but he
could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told
the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let
him pay later.
 But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going
to make money from it, “so, having tried every legal means, Heinz
gets, desperate and considers breaking into the man’s store to steal
the drug for his wife.
 no t
W hy
y ?
g ? Wh
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t h e
st eal
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ul
in z wo
e He
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ur w
If yo

Get one-half sheet of paper and write your answer.

Submit this one when time will permit.
Abstraction

Direction: Examine the answer you gave. Compare it with these

responses is your answer most similar.

Stage 1 - “No, I wouldn’t steal the drug, because I would

be punished. The law says stealing is wrong, so it is
wrong.”

Stage 2 - “No, I wouldn’t steal the drug, because while I

want to save my wife, being punished would be
worse than losing her. I could just get married again.
Stage 3 - “No, I wouldn’t steal the drug, because people
would see me as a selfish thief who breaks rules just
for my own benefit.”

Stage 4 - “No, I wouldn’t steal the drug because there is

greater good to be maintained - rules exist in order
to protect all members of society. If I were to act on
my own selfish behalf and steal, it would set a
dangerous precedent with terrible long term rami-
fications.”
Stage 5 - “No, I wouldn’t steal the drug, though it would
pain me misably. I believe the rights of my wife to
the drug are valid, but they must be balanced
against the rights of the druggist. Her rights to life
are greater. I believe the druggist is acting immo-
rally, and that he should be implored to sell it chea-
per, but I wouild short of stealing and breaking laws
that all of us have decided to accept as good mem-
bers of society.”
Stage 6 - “I would steal the drug, administer it to my
wife, and then turn myself in to the police. I
would then demand I be punished to the full ex-
tent of the law. While stealing is reprehensible,
my ethical principles value life above property
and therefore, to be true to myself and to life it-
self. I must break the lesser law in order to
follow the greater good.”
Examine.

1. Get your one-half sheet of paper where you wrote your answer to
the dilemma given. To what stage your answer fall?
2. Reflect on what this indicates about your moral
reasoning in this moral dilemma?

Note: The aim of this activity is not to judge whether your

response were right or wrong. It is a way of
analysing the moral reasoning behind your res-
ponse.
This time let us view the three stages of Kohlberg’s Moral
Development Theory and in its stage there are two levels.
Try to examine carefully how are they identified in this part of our
lesson.

Level stage

1. Pre-conventional level : 1 Punishment/Obedient

Moral reasoning is based : One is motivated by fear
on the consequencies/re- : of punishment. He will
sult of the act, not on : act in order to avoid
whether the act itself : punishment
is good or bad. : ____________________________
Level : Stage
: 2 Mutual Benefit
: One is motivated to act
: by the benefit that one
: may obtain later. “You
: scratch my back, I’ll
: scratch yours.”
:_____________________________
2. Conventional : 3 Social Approval
Moral reasoning is based : One is motivated by what
on the conventions or : others expect in beha-
“norms” of society. These: viour – good boy good
may include approval : girl. The person acts
of others, law and order : because he/she values
Level : Stage
how he/she will appear
: to others. He/she gives
: importance on what
: people will think or say.
: ______________________________
: 4 Law and Order
: One is motivated to act in
: order to uphold law and
: order. The person will fol-
: low the law because it is
: law.
:______________________________
 Level : stage
3. Post Conventional : 5 Social Contract
Moral reasoning is based : Laws that are wrong can
on enduring or consistent: be changed. One will act
principles. It is not just re- : based on social justice
cognizing the law, but the : and the common good.
principles behind the law. : _____________________________
: 6 Universal Principles
: This is associated with the
: development of one con-
: science. Having a set of
: standards that drives one
: to possess moral responsi-
: bility to make societal
Level : Stage
: changes regardless of
: consequences to one-
: self. Example of per-
: sons are Mother Teresa
: Martin Luther Jr.
:_____________________________
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
 Kohlberg and Moral Development

Kohlberg stressed that the goal of moral education, is to encourage

indviduals to develop to the next stage of moral reasoning. The most
common tool for doing this is to present a “moral delimma” and have
students in groups to determine and justify what course the actor in the
delimma should take. Through discussion, students are able to practice
moral reasoning and are able to learn from other perspectives.
 Kohlborg and his colleagues came up with the “just community”
schools approach towards promoting moral development (Power,
Higgins & Kohlborg, 1989). The fundamental goal of these school is to
enhance students’ moral development by offering them the chance to
participate in a democratic community. Here democracy refers to morfe
than simply casting a vote. It entails full participation of community
members in arriving at consensual rather than “majority rules” decision-
making. One primary feature of these schools is their relatively small
size (often they are actually schools within schools), aimed at providing
the students with a sense of belonging to a group which is responsive to
individual.
 At the center of the approach implementation is a community meeting in
which issues related to life and discipline in the schools are discussed and
democratically decided, with an equal value placed on the voices of students
and teachers. An underlying goal of these meetings is to establish collective
norms which express fairness for all members of the community.. It is believed
that by placing the responsibility of determining and enforcing rules on
students, they will take prosocial behaviour more seriously. At the same time,
this approach stems from the cognitive-developmentalist view that discussion
of moral delimmas can stimulate moral development.
It is important to note that, a “just community school” simply leaves
students to their own devices. Teachers play still exert a substantial
leadership function in these discussions, promoting rules and norms which
have a concern for justice and community, and ultimately enforcing the
rules. This function is not an easy one, as teacher must listen closely and
understand student’s reasoning, in order to help the student to the next level
of reasoning . This requires a delicate balance between letting the students
make dedisionss, and advocating in a way which shows them the limits in
their reasoning. A primary advantage to the just community approach is its
effectiveness in affecting students actions, not just their reasoning. Students
are, in effect, expected to “practice what they preach” by following the rules
determined in community meetings.
Application

Direction: Identify the stages of moral development show in the

following: Write your answer in the yellow pad you used in the
previous activity.

____________1. Joshua allows his classmates to copy his

homework so that they will think he is kind and will like him to be
their friend.

____________2. Christian does everything to get a passing grade

because his mom will take his new motor bike away if he gets low
grades.
____________3. A civic action group protests the use of pills for
family planning, saying that although the government allows this it is
actually murder because the pills are abortificient (causes abortion).

___________4. Josie lets Hannah copy during their Math test because
Hannah agreed to let her copy during their English test.

___________5. Karen decides to return the wallet she found in the

canteen so that people will praise her honesty and think she’s such a
nice girl.
________________6 Jay decides to return the bracelet he found in the
audio visual room because he believes it’s the right thing to do.

________________7. Bryan wears ID inside the campus because he

likes to follow the school rules and regulations.

________________8. A jeepney driver looks if there’s a policeman

around before he u-turn in a no u-turn spot.

________________9. Rex volunteers to tutor at-risk children in his

community for free so they will learn to love school and stay in school.
________________10. Little Jon Paul behaves so well to get a star
stamp from his teacher.

Note: You can go back to stages and level of Kohlberg’s Moral

Development as your reference in answering this part.
Implications for learning

 most schools label students in stages 1 and 4 (i.e punishment and law
and order)

 Students must be responsible for their moral growth

 Students must hear a variety of view so that they may decide what is
right and wrong.
Implications for Teaching

 Teachers should offer more opportunities for debate about issues

so students can hear a variety of perspectives.

 Views issues form a global perspective. How do others cultures

look at these issues?

 Students will begin to move into the upper stages of morality as

they look beyond existing laws to decide what is right and
wrong.
T
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To all BSEd 2 students. I prefer to use yellow pad because of the
number of students who send their answer in the [Link] your answers
sometimes can not be seen in the inbox so you have to repeat. So,
please use yellow pad and submit it anytime before june 22, 2020

There are questions after a slide please answer that you because that
serve as check up question if you understand the episode.

I am also giving 3 questions as a wrap up questions to determine your

understanding of this episode.
Answer the following:

1. What are the stages of moral development theory of

Lawrence Kohlberg?

2. What are the levels of the stages of the moral development of

Kohlberg?

3. What is moral delimma?

4. What is a just community approach?

5. Do you find moral development theory relevant in today’s

scenario of our society. Explain your answer.