KOHLBERG'S IDEAS AT WORK IN THE CLASSROOM

Level 1: Preconventional

Punishment-Obedience orientation

  1. A fourth grade girl refrains from running in the hallway to avoid theconsequences involved in breaking that school's rule.
  2. "Discussion rules" are placed on the blackboard in a combined 1stand 2nd grade classroom, and whenever a student breaks one of those rules, he orshe cannot participate in the classroom discussion
  1. When a middle school student swears in the classroom, he or she has tocomplete a list of consequences developed by the teacher earlier in the year
  2. One middle school teacher devised the most effective strategy for gettingstudents to class on time. He has latecomers do pushups--50 of them--in frontof the class
  3. A high school English student is sent down to the office for forgetting herhomework the third day in a row.

Personal Reward Orientation

  1. Two elementary school students were found arguing: Student 1: "Shecalled me a jerk!" Student 2: "Well, he pulled my hair!"
  2. A student offers to be last in line when going to the cafeteria so she canbe first in line when going out for recess.
  1. A middle school student refrains from arguing with her classmate soshe is able to participate in group work later in the period.
  2. A group of high school students involved in a cooperative learning activityget upset because one of their group members is repeatedly absent and did not doany work.
  3. A high school teacher has the rule: "Homework in late will receivefive points off for each day it is received after the due date". Onestudent hands in homework four days late with a story about how her boyfriendleft her. The teacher takes 20 points off her paper. A second student missesseveral days of school due to an illness, and hands in the same homework fourdays late. The teacher gives him full credit. The class protests, saying it isunfair for him to change the rules in the middle of the school year

Level 2: Conventional

Good Boy/ Nice Girl Orientation

  1. A student stays after school to clean all the chalkboards for theteacher.
  2. A fifth grade teacher asks her students to: "Please help me clean upthe mess from our science experiment so we can all get to recess on time!"
  1. A middle school student agrees to throw out the gum she is chewing to please theteacher.
  2. In an inner city high school student's journal, she wrote "I am going towork harder in school so I won't let you down because if you think I can make itthen I can make it" (Johnson, 1992).

Law and Order Orientation

  1. "It is compulsory for all school-age students to attend school." This statement exemplifies a right available to students by the United StatesConstitution (Gathercoal, 1993).
  2. "Respect the property of others". This sign, when hung in amiddle school, reinforced the student's right to private property .
  3. "Keep your hands and feet to yourself." School officials haveboth the legal authority and the professional responsibility to deny studentrights that seriously disrupt student learning activities(Gathercoal, 1993).
  1. "Move carefully in the halls". This rule reinforces the fundamentalpurpose of government to protect the health and welfare of it's citizens(Gathercoal, 1993).
  2. "Gang activity must be off school premises." School officialshave both the legal authority and the professional responsibility to denystudent rights that seriously disrupt student learning activities (Gathercoal, 1993).
  3. "Wear appropriate shoes on the gym floor". Public property mustbe protected in the schools(Gathercoal, 1993)

Level 3: Postconventional

Social Contract Orientation

  1. A combined first and second grade class makes its own rules during thefirst month of the year according to a class meeting where students discuss whatis proper and improper behavior in the classroom and why a particular behavioris inappropriate (ie., who is affected by your actions)
  2. A second-grade teacher helped her students understand all aspects of amoral dilemma during a science project in which the class was incubating chickeneggs. The assignment was to open an egg each week to look at the developingchicken at various stages. Later that day, one of her students confided in herthat he thought it cruel to open an egg and kill the chick inside. She listenedwithout comment and decided to hold a class meeting discussing the topic. Theclass discussed many aspects of the assignment, including whether it really wascruel to kill a chick each week and alternatives to the assignment. Afterdiscussing all the aspects, students were encouraged to vote as to how tocontinue with the assignment (Lickona, 1993).
  1. A high school teacher uses the following handout on the first day ofclass (Lickona, 1991):

Universal Ethical Principle Orientation

  1. An elementary school class has little discipline problems with onesimple classroom rule: "Respect everyone in this room"(Lickona, 1995).
  2. A combined first and second grade class makes its own rules during thefirst month of the year according to a class meeting in which all students areasked to reflect on what is right and wrong and why things are right and wrong .
  2. This same teacher later added another rule to her list: "I will nottolerate any racial, ethnic, or sexual slurs in this classroom. It is not fairto erase someone's face. In this room, everyone is entitled to equal dignity asa human being. (Johnson, 1992)"
  3. At a high school for girls in Chicago, math classes studied demographicfacts related to hunger , and religion classes discussed the question of "Whatis our ethical and religious responsibility for the starving people of theworld? (Lickona, 1991)

For further reading on the fostering of moral development in children, thereader is directed to the work of ThomasLickona.