The Role of Ethics in Shaping Early Childhood Moral Development

This essay delves into the critical importance of ethics in early childhood and its profound impact on a child's moral development. The author emphasizes the role of educators in fostering ethical behavior, highlighting the need to understand and apply various developmental theories, including Koh...Read More

Running Head: ETHICS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
ETHICS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Name of the Student
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Author note

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In this essay, the importance of ethics in early childhood phase of the children and its
effect on the moral development of the child is studied. Ethics are a set of moral laws to be
followed by a person based on logical norms of the society for the overall development of the
society (Dewey, 2016). The introduction of child to an ethical environment at an early age
helps them develop and understand the environment. The inculcation of ethics in early
childhood helps in the overall development of the child and the initial personality
development of the child (Peters, 2015). The overall development of the child includes the
development of his attitude and the behavioral patterns, which help in development of the
overall cognition of the child. The development of the child and the inculcation of the moral
ethics in the child is the duty of the educator.
As an educator, I need to identify the needs of the children and device different
methods needed for the ethical and the moral development of the child. For educating the
children and development of their cognitive abilities a number of theories have been put
forward to be used. The various theories that can be put to use in the inculcation of the ethics
and morality among children are Kohlberg's moral understanding stage theory, Piaget's
cognitive development stage theory and Vygotsky’s Theory of Child Development. These
theories help us in understanding the development of the children though various age groups
along with conducive methods to reach them (Noddings, 2013). The various developmental
activities to inculcate ethics among the children needs to be developed based on these
theories so that the process has a productive output.
In the growth and development years, the children need special care and attentions as
they tend to learn more by observing others than by usual teaching methods (Biesta, 2015).
The teaching process of the children should therefore be dependent on more practical
activities than on the direct teaching methods. The developmental methods of the children

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need a number of processes and methodologies to be devised to work in the teaching
environment of the children and help in the development and growth of the children. As an
Instructor I need to device methods to inculcate moral and ethical approach in the children.
One of the major studies which takes in account the growth in the moral development of the
children is the Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. In this theory, Kohlberg states that
the morality of the child develops in a number of stages depending on the situation they are
raised in (Kurtines, 2014). According to Kohlberg the children do not have any moral code,
instead their moral codes are developed by the observation of moralities among the adults.
This puts a more important responsibility among adults in who are around the children to
behave in morally ethical ways so that the children can inculcate proper ethics among
themselves by learning from their adults (Adler, 2015). The children need to understand the
following of the social norms will be helpful for them in the society. More importantly the
children will learn to understand that the viewpoints of the individuals vary and everyone’s
views are important if they do not hinder the logical social norms of the society. the
inculcation of ethics in children will need the help of this cognitive behavior of children as it
is the quickest way for them to learn behavioral habits.
I have a duty to teach the students about the society to teach them about ethics, as the
ethics need more of a modern and hands on approach. The Piaget’s theory of the development
of the children is important in this regard to understand their developmental patterns through
different age groups (Mischel, 2013). The Piaget’s theory of children’s development helps in
understanding the development of the children by dividing their understanding of different
cognitive abilities based on their age groups. The children learn the different behaviors at
different stages of their life based on the experiences in their lives (Modgil, Modgil & Brown,
2013). The cognitive development based on the changes observed by Piaget shows the
different developmental pattern. The inculcation of ethics, which should begin at a very early

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age, depends on the various approaches that I have to take based on the age group of the
children. Moreover, the change in the patterns of the individual child’s behavior has to be
taken into account while devising strategies of behavioral teaching.
A number of studies suggest that the inculcation of behavioral and ethical moralities
in the children. There are a number of reasons, which may affect the moral development of a
child during their growth years, one of the most important is the environment in which they
are brought up. In their early years, children develop their behavior and habits by miming
adults (Bailey, 2014). In such cases, it becomes extremely necessary for the adults around
them to behave in morally good ways so that the child should not learn anything which might
not be good for him in the long run (Walters, 2015). Therefore, it is very important for me as
an instructor to keep an eye on the children and assure they imitate the right habits of the
elders. The development of the moral ethics is extremely important in the early childhood as
it moulds the adult behavior of an individual (Best, 2016). A child who does not develop
morally is bound to have problems during adulthood dealing with the society, and sometimes
such children become a problem for the law. It is seen in a number of cases that the person
resorted to crime as a result of a bad childhood (Gajewski & Forlin, 2017). The ill
experiences they had as a child made them resort to violence and crime to express their anger
and angst. This is a situation where the childhood nurturing and the effect of the environment
on the childhood mentality and the behavior is visible. The change in the behavioral patterns
of the children should not be taken lightly and must be studied in detail to understand the
cause of the change its effect on the morality of the child (Rabin & Smith, 2013). The ethics
of the child helps in develop into an adult who is and active and contributing member of the
society.

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As an educator, it is my duty to inculcate among the children a number of positive
behavioral qualities along with the learning abilities. In this easy, I will device the necessary
procedures for the development of ethics among children (Tayler, et al. 2013). For this, I
have to keep in mind a number of ethical issues that might crop up while educating children.
Teaching literary knowledge to the children is relatively easy compared to the teaching of the
behavioral ethics among the children (Chang-Kredl & Kingsley, 2014). The literary
knowledge is easy to teach in schools and childcare, but teaching of moralities like, ethics
need a constant overseeing that the child is supervised and does not delve into some unethical
behavior. To achieve this, I need to be in constant contact with the parents and the other
adults who are around the child at home or at school. The different teaching abilities to be
included in inculcating ethics the most I will need is being patient with the children while
overseeing children and gradually guiding the behavioral changes in them (NICHD, 2016). It
is not the case that, most of the children are morally wrong, but the instructor needs to
oversee their interaction. The change in the interaction patterns among children and their
behavior towards their peers show their true ethics and the flaws in them. The moral ethics of
children are easy to mould but they need an overall effort of the children and the parents in
tandem (Lamb, 2014).
The development of the ethics in children needs a number of policies to be devised.
The different practices that I have to use to inculcate the required ethics in the children needs
to vary from child to child and their individual cognitive abilities (Brennan & Fenech, 2014).
The development of the child depends on the environment they are in, so the plans devised
for the development of the ethical virtues in the children would need a number of issues to be
addressed to overcome the barrier to the childhood mentality. The children need constant
support and the person to look up to imitate (Vaughn, 2015). In case of the peer interaction
among children, it is seen that children tend to follow their peers who are appraised and

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rewarded by the adults. In such scenarios I have to keep in mind that I should appraise the
proper behavior among the children so that the other children follow the behavior and moral
pattern of the appraised child. To improve the ethical development of the child I also have to
involve the parents of the children. The parents of the children have to be informed about the
ethical behavior they should have with their children and the ways to supervise the child.
The inculcation of the ethics play a major part in the growth years of the child as it
moulds the child’s adulthood. The early age in which a child in a childcare or a kindergarten
is where he learns a lot of his basic behavioral patterns and habits. It is therefore necessary
for the childcare to be a place where the children can learn their basic ethics and develop
them. the ethical thinking and rationale is one of the tenets of the sustainable society. The
developments of the ethics in a child not only help in their personality development, but also
help them understand their individuality and form a positive attitude towards the society. The
attitude defines a lot of things in life of an individual as it helps them adapt to their
environment and be an ideal citizen in the society. to improve the social environment and the
improvement of the living condition in the society the inculcation of the ethics from an early
age is extremely necessary (Nelson, 2014). The inculcation of ethic from early childcare will
help in the development of the individuals who respect the laws and follow them. Therefore,
this inculcation of ethics will also great for the society as it will help it by decreasing the
crime rate. The growth of an ideal society needs responsible individuals who work towards
the development of the society and have a positive attitude towards the social development.
The different practical approaches that I can take as teacher to improve the ethical
development of the child is the introduction of the group activities in the class (Roche, 2013).
The introduction of group activities will teach children a number of good habits like sharing
and improve their social behavior. On the other hand the other activities which can be used in

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the development of the ethical abilities is the rotational interaction among the children. The
children have to be observed if they have any ethical issues or bad behavior towards peers
and find its cause. For example, a number of children who show hatred towards animals or an
affinity towards hurting them have seen their parents do that. In this case the parents need to
be supervised to keep the children away while doing any recreational activity like hunting or
killing for food when the children are around. It is also observed that children who come
from families who have internal issues tend to be overtly quiet or aggressive. In such cases
the parents need to be counseled to keep their clashes away from the child. The children
spend most of the time in the childcare and are around a lot of adults apart from the
instructor. There should be code of ethics that should be maintained in the childcare area so
that the child only learns the positive things from the individuals he interacts with.
The inculcation of the ethics will need a number of factors to be paid attention to. In
case of children of impressionable age, it has to be made sure that the strategies devised
should be helpful in giving positive outcomes. To improve the ethical development and to
understand its effect, I need to devise a number of activities. Firstly, one of the major ethics
that the children need to learn is equality and respect. To achieve this, the parents, instructors
and the people who are around the children should behave respectfully towards each other.
The children should be encouraged to intermingle among themselves and play with each
other. The children should be supervised and the children who are laid back should be
encouraged to mingle. The parents are to be told that they should not make derogatory and
racial remarks towards others in front of their children to stop them from learning wrong
values. In case of children who have single parents, the parents have to be supervised to use
the help of trained professionals if they have to leave their children home due to any personal
work. Secondly, the children should be made to mingle with animal, which will help them
become compassionate and loving towards animals. This is a very important ethics in the

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development of the individual as the compassion towards animals helps the children become
kind and loving towards other kinds and individuals. The development of an individual as a
compassionate individual is important as it helps in development of a progressive society.
Thirdly, the parents need to be counseled to help the child become independent. The
child initially depends on the adults for their needs bi I would like to inculcate in the child the
ability to depend on oneself for certain important activities. The parental support will be an
important part of this approach of mine as it is at home that the children form their maximum
behavioral patterns. If the parents help them to do their small tasks themselves they will
become independent and responsible individuals. Fourthly, I seek to remove one of the major
issues that is in the educations system which is the bullying. For this I need to identify the
reason of the rage that the child expresses on other children and according to me punishing
the child will help the issue to the least. In this case, I would like to take a reverse approach to
improve a bully among the children. The most favorable approach according to me will be to
show him that he will be loved if he helps other students with his or her strength than hurting
them. there is one case in particular where this approach has worked in my experience. There
used to be a student of mine who would take extreme pleasure in snatching things of other
children rather than asking them for it. Gradually, when I taught him to share his own toys
with other children and they gave him their own, his behavior towards other children
improved. I think this is a better procedure for helping the child into a better individual as a
tutor rather than reprimanding or extensive counseling of the child.
I think the children are very intelligent and developed so to develop an ethical
community feeling among them, I would like to conduct among them a session of individual
interview where they can give their feedback. I think apart from the feedback of the parents
regarding the childcare the feedback of the child is equally important. Once in a while the

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instructors of the child have to be switched to take a proper feedback about the whole class.
This will help overcome any barrier that the instructor and the childcare facilities are facing
regarding the overall development of the child. The devising of this strategy will also
highlight any flaws that is there in the thinking process of the child and this can be overcome
by the counseling, extra attention or changing the teaching approach toward the child. As an
instructor, it is my duty ensure the moral development of the class is evenly distributed in the
children.
I think these measures will be helpful in the ethical development of the child but their
effectiveness depends on their acceptance in real life situations. The acceptance of each and
every method cannot be assured in real life situation as it quite tough for me to reach out to
the individual needs of each and every child. I cannot assure that beyond my class all the
regulations for the ethical development of the child’s mentality is being followed. It is nearly
impossible to get any proper feedback from all the children at once unless they want to open
up and it is a major barrier in communication. All the children are not same in their
behavioral patterns and it is increasingly difficult to benchmark the changes in the ethical
behavior.
Thus, in this essay we see that the inculcation of ethics in children is an important part
of the development of the society. The various reasons for the inculcation of the ethics at an
early age is explained in the essay along with the various reasons. I think that the introduction
ethical moralities will help the children develop into better individuals and help in the overall
development of the society. The ethical development of the children will not be easy though
as they are children at an impressionable age who learn very quickly and cannot be reasoned
with. Still these early years are the best time to inculcate the proper ethics and the behavioral
patterns as they will learn it easily during this period. One of the major issues that I might

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face is taking feedbacks due to the various barriers in the children communication. The
various reasons for the development of the strategies to inculcate ethics is that ethics is
behavioral trait which cannot be learnt academically and thus will need a practical approach.
Hence, we see that the ethical citizen are very important in the development of a progressive
society and there is no better age than childhood to learn.

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