KOHLBERG'S IDEAS AT WORK IN THE CLASSROOM

Level 3: Postconventional

Universal Ethical Principle Orientation

• Elementary school examples

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.
3. • A second grade teacher was facilitating an activity to make a model of theclassroom as they saw it using wood scraps. A couple of her students were founddiscussing their ideas (Lickona, 1991):
   • David: That is the dumbest chalkboard, Martha. You put it in a stupidplace.
   • Teacher (to David): You think Martha should put the block in a different place. Would you like to suggest to her where she might put it?
   • David: Yeah, right there. The chalkboard is BEHIND the table.
   • Teacher (to Martha): If you accept David's suggestion, you may move yourblock. But if you like it where you put it, you may leave it right there.
   • Teacher (to David): when you don't use the words "stupid" and "dumbest," people like to listen to you. You had an interesting point to make about thechalkboard.

• High school examples

1. • High school teacher: "I have only one rule in thisclassroom and that rule is not negotiable: Respect yourself and everyone elsein this room. If you can't respect yourself, you can't respect other people. And if you don't have any self-respect, you have a problem. We're going to fixthat problem because every person has the right to his or her personal dignity."
   • High school student: "That's bullshit!"
   • Teacher: It tells you everything...(for example)...Do you think it'srespectful for you to get up and walk around the room while I am talking?"
   • Student: "No"
   • Teacher: "Well, then, do you think it's respectful to say 'shit' inschool?"
   • Student: "No"
   • Teacher: "then you tell me an example of something you could do inclass and get in trouble for that does not break my single rule"
   • He offered several suggestions but his classmates loudly disqualified eachexample (Johnson, 1992).
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.

This tutorial contains examples from thePreconventional andConventional stages of MoralDevelopment as well.