Moral Development in Children: Kohlberg's Theory

Running head: BACHELOR OF EDUCATION 1
Bachelor of Education
Name
Institution

BACHELOR OF EDUCATION 2
Moral development is defined as the process through which kids develop appropriate
behaviours and attitudes towards others in the society, based on the rules, laws and social
norms (Woolfolk and Margetts, 2013, p. 134). This relates to how children develop in class in
relation to their behaviours when they are growing up. A long with the progression in both
emotional and social competence, children also get to learn to differentiate between what is
good and bad, fairness and the knowledge of human rights. In addition to this, moral
development also comprises of the intricate communication of ideas and thinking in between
the children as they share their thoughts.
Kohlberg in his hypothetical context tries to explain that moral dilemmas can help in
improving the reasoning level of children’s reasoning through telling them moral dilemma
stories (Woolfolk and Margetts, 2013, p. 136). Just like in cognitive theory he believed that
his theory had a series of stages, therefore he developed three stages to explain moral
development; pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional (Miller, Vandome &
McBrewster, 2010). He explains that through the pre-conventional stage children’s morality
is externally regulated as children accept and adhere to authority figures such as parents and
teachers (Woolfolk and Margetts, 2013, p. 135).
For me the most significant aspect of Kohlberg’s theory is the pre-conventional stage,
children morality is determined and controlled by the teachers and the parents. Therefore, the
children cannot do most of the things themselves because there is an oversight authority
which in turns promotes discipline and proper nurturing (Woolfolk and Margetts, 2013, p.
136).
There are numerous ways in which we can integrate Kohlberg’s theory into our
classrooms. As a teacher I get to understand my role in child moral development since I can