Applying the Pre-conventional and Conventional Moral Development Theory of Kohlberg in Maintaining Classroom Discipline

Fr. Damianus Abun, SVD, Ph.D

 Divine Word College of Vigan, Philippines

Abstract

Teaching is not that simple, it requires certain approach tailored to different learning capabilities. The effectiveness of teaching does not depend much on the mastery and the delivery of the subject matter but it also requires a good classroom management. Classroom discipline become important. Classroom discipline becomes complicated because it is influenced by different individual moral development. Knowing different individual moral development can help the teacher to apply different method of discipline and classroom management. Kohlberg helps the teacher to understand student behavior and proper classroom management based on the pre-conventional and conventional moral development.

Key words: pre-conventional, conventional, classroom management.       

Introduction

Teaching is imparting knowledge and skills to the students. The objective is to see to it that the knowledge and skills are transferred and understood by the students. However, the process is not easy. It involves different methods. The concern is how to effectively deliver the subject matter to the students. Thus, the issue is not only about the mastery of the subject matter and strategy on how to deliver it but it has also something to do with classroom environment. Classroom environment is affected by the behaviour of the students. Understanding the behaviour of students could help the teacher manage the classroom. Classroom discipline/management is essential factor to help the teacher deliver the subject effectively. It must be the first concern that comes to mind of the teacher when she/he is teaching.

Classroom discipline is not easy to handle. The difficulty comes from the behavioural differences of students. Behavioural difference has something to do with different level of moral reasoning of the students. Moral reasoning is affected by age differences. Therefore, teacher must know first different ages of students and their different level of moral reasoning in order to apply classroom discipline. Naturally following such concepts, each age level must apply different method of discipline and thus it could not be applied the same to all students.

Lacking on such understanding, teachers often wonder why some students understand about the purpose of classroom discipline and some do not; they just simply follow the rule given by the authorities or teachers without even realizing the purpose of it. To make things worse, teachers generally apply the same strategy to all students when they propose classroom discipline. The result is frustration on the part of teachers because students do not adhere to classroom discipline. What a hell. 

Knowing this problem in mind, thus, classroom discipline can not be the same to all students. Student centred approach may be applied here. It has to be varied according to different level of their moral reasoning. Helping the teachers on how to handle classroom management, it may good to learn from Kohlberg’s moral development theory. We would like to see how Kohlberg’s theory of moral development can be applied in maintaining classroom discipline. We are not going to adapt all levels of moral development such as pre-conventional-conventional and post conventional morality which is composing of six stages of moral development but we will limit to the pre-conventional and conventional morality which is composed of four stages of moral development and how they are applied to young children bellow 10 or 11 years old and junior high school.

Level I: Pre-conventional Morality

 Pre-conventional morality is morality that is based on fear of punishment and what is good for oneself. Under pre-conventional morality, there are two stages of moral development and these are obedience and punishment orientation and individualism and exchange.

Stage1: Obedience and punishment Orientation.

At this stage, the child assumes that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules and she/he must follow obediently so that they will not be punished. They consider rules as fixed and absolute. Obeying the rule is important because it is a means to avoid punishment. This is the earliest stage of moral development which is common to young children (10-11 years bellow) but adults also are often using the same moral reasoning (Kohlberg, 1958, Crain, W.C. 1985)).

Generally, at this stage, children are defiant and require a tremendous amount of attention and out of fear for punishment may follow the rule of others. This is a power stage. Discipline will work at this stage if there is an imbalance of power between the child and the person in authority. Person in authority must exercise more power/influence over the child. Thus, at the beginning of classes, the teacher needs to lay down rules and sanctions or punishment and be assertive and punish the children who are violating the rules. This style will keep them in line. In this case, assertiveness on the part of teachers is necessary. Teachers who lack assertiveness in imposing discipline and punishing students who violated the rules will suffer dysfunctional classroom management and consequently teaching would suffer.  

Stage 2: Individualism and exchange

Once the students growing in age, naturally concepts and understanding develop. At this stage, children recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Horizons are widened because of exposure. Different individual can have different view points. They finally found that everything is actually relative, not absolute; each person is free to pursue his/her personal interest (Kohlberg, 1983, Crain, W.C. 1985). Here the teachers would find it difficult to apply the same method to the students who belong to the age of 10-11. Now, how would the teacher impose discipline to students so that classroom is in order? Kohlberg suggested that teachers should apply punishment and reward.

 At this level, children do things in exchange for something in return. “If I do this one, what is in it for me?” Thus, Kohlberg calls this stage as having an individualistic morality. Students are very self-centred and this is the reward and punishment stage. Thus, teachers who use reward and punishment discipline method will work. The students behave either because they will receive reward for being a good student or they behave well because they do not like what happens to them when they do not behave. Students who functions at this stage need an assertive teacher in order to perform well. There is a little sense of self-discipline at this stage and thus, what they need is constant supervision.

The logical consequence of such theory is the selection of teachers to be assigned in a specific level. Knowing different moral development and different problems as a result of such moral development, thus, assignment of teachers must base on such understanding. A teacher who is not assertive may not be assigned to students who belong to pre-conventional level. In this case, elementary teachers should all be composed of assertive teachers, not happy go lucky teachers. 

Level II: Conventional Morality

           Students are growing and naturally morality also develops. Once they grow older and older, students are no longer focusing their attention to themselves but the tendency is to go beyond themselves, harmony. They are thinking of other people in their behaviour. Kohlberg classified this growth as conventional morality. Conventional morality is morality based on what is accepted by all or based on prevailing practice in society or culture. In this case, what behaviours are accepted by all are the ones to be followed.        There are two stages under conventional morality and they are good interpersonal relationship and maintaining the social order.

Stage 3: Good Interpersonal relationship

At this stage, children are entering their teens and they see morality as more than simple deals. They understand that following rules is not because they are afraid of punishment and to get the reward but it goes beyond themselves. Other people have to be taken into consideration. Good relationship is priority. They believe that people should live up to the expectations of the family and community and behave in good way. Good behaviour means having good motives and interpersonal feelings such as love, empathy, trust and concern for others. “How can I please you” is their motivation. Doing something good is just to please other people.(Gibbs et al., 1983 and Kohlberg, 1981). The approach of teacher to discipline would change naturally within this kind of level of understanding. Assertiveness may not be necessary because the students know the importance of following the rules.  

            Students functioning at stage three (3) can be found in the junior high school. These kids have started to develop a sense of discipline. However, their sense of discipline is based on their intention to please other people and for other people to like them too. These kinds of students need gentle reminders. Teachers just remind them and they will follow. Thus assertive discipline is not needed for these students because they understand it, and power imbalance will not work, they do not need a heavy handed approach to classroom discipline.

 Stage 4: Maintaining the Social Order

            At the stage of conventional morality, the teens become more broadly concerned with society as a whole. Now the emphasis is on obeying the laws, respecting authority and performing one’s duties so that the social order is maintained. That is why this stage is called social order stage. At this stage, the teens make moral decisions from the perspective of society as a whole, they think from a full-fledged member of society (Colby and Kohlberg, 1987). When they do things, it is not only their interest that comes first in their mind but the interest of society as a whole. Actions will be carried out if it is good for the society, if it is not destroying the harmony.  

            At this stage, the philosophy is: I behave because it is the right thing to do, not because of reward or punishment. These are the students we enjoy working with so much. We can leave them alone and giving them assignment without worrying about chaos might happen after you leave. You can be sure that after you come back, you find them on task. They behave this way because believe it is the right thing to do. That is why, students at this level, do not appreciate assertive discipline. The job of teacher is only to remind the rules at the beginning of classes without closer supervision and heavy handed approach. In fact they are bothered by other students who force their teachers to use class time only for classroom discipline problem.

Conclusion

The theory of Kohlberg suggests that class room discipline can not be generalized to all students with the same type of discipline strategy. Student centred approach discipline is needed. However, it requires studying the age of students and their moral development level to apply the right kind of discipline strategy to the students. The approach seems to be systematic but however, it may be difficult to be carried out. First is, the teacher needs to conduct a study or survey at the beginning of school year to determine the age and moral level. Second is that age cannot be used as basis for moral development identification because the students may belong to the same age but they are at different level of moral understanding, thus it has to be based on individual level because even if they are belong to the same age, but certain individual may advance in term of moral development. Individual moral development study is needed to determine their moral development.     

References

1. Colby, Anne, Kohlberg, L. 1987. The Measurement of Moral Judgement Vol.2: Standard Issue Scoring Manual. Cambridge University Press.      

2. Colby, Anne; Kohlberg, L, Gibbs, J., and Lieberman, M. 1983. A Longitudinal Study of Moral Judgement: A Monograph for the Society of Research in Child Development. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press

3. Kohlberg, Lawrence., 1981.  Essays on Moral Development, Vol.1: The Philosophy of Moral Development. San Francisco, C.A: Harper & Row. http://jstor.org/stable/2025030

4;. Kohlberg, Lawrence. 1983. Moral Stages: A Current Formulation and Response to Critics, Basel, NY: Karger.

5. Kohlberg, Lawrence. 1958. The Development of Modes of Thinking and Choices in Years 10 to 16, Dissertation, University of Chicago.

6. Crain, William.C. 1985. Theories of Development,  NY: Prentice-Hall

      http://faculty.plts.edu/gpense/html/kohberg.htm.