Fr.
Damianus Abun, SVD, Ph.D
Divine Word
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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 University of
Chicago
3. Kohlberg,
Lawrence., 1981. Essays on Moral
Development, Vol.1: The Philosophy of Moral Development. San Francisco
4;. Kohlberg,
Lawrence. 1983. Moral Stages: A Current Formulation and Response to Critics, Basel , NY
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