1. Agenda To Get: To Do: Handouts from the back Reading opener
Kohlberg and moral development
Group Activity

2. Opener Reading Questions – Parenting and Ethnicity

3. Japanese elementary-age kids. Mom and Dad slept with them as well!

5. Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Kohlberg was a stage theorist
Researched development of moral reasoning in children
Heinz Delimma
Stages of moral development always follow a specific sequence
People do not skip stages or move backwards
Children advance at differing rates
Not everyone reaches the highest level
Three Levels of moral development with two stages in each level
Preconventional Level
Conventional Level
Postconventional Level

6. Preconventional Level
Through age 9
Base judgements on the consequences of behavior
Stage 1 – “good” is what helps one avoid punishment
Stage 2 – “good” is what satisfies a person’s needs

7. Conventional Level
Judgements are made in terms of weather an act CONFORMS to conventional standards of right and wrong
Derived from family, religion, and society at large
Stage 3 – “good” is what meets one’s needs and the expectations of other people. Moral behavior is what most people would do in a given saturation
13 year olds
Stage 4 – moral judgements are based on maintaining the social order. High regard for authority. Breaking the law undermines the social order.
16 year olds

8. Postconventional
Reasoning is based on one’s own moral standards for goodness.
Reflects personal values.
Stage 5 – reasoning recognizes agreed upon procedures, that laws have value, and they should not be violated without good reason. Laws cannot bind an individual in exceptional circumstances.
Stage 6 - rely on own consciences, do not necessarily obey laws or agree with other people’s opinions. Rarely occurs before adolescents and most often found in adults.

9. Heinz Delimma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czp9S4u26M
Summarize the Heinz Delimma
What would you do?

10. Babies and Morality – Yale Study

12. Moral Reasoning Activity
1. Read each of the three moral dilemmas. 2. Come to a group consensus regarding the three best solutions to each. 3. Rank and paraphrase your three choices on a sheet of notebook paper. 4. Determine what level each of your three choices falls under; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,or 6? 5. What does this say about your group’s level of moral development? Tally up your totals from all three scenarios. Mostly 9-23, we are so childish! Mostly 24-40, about where we should be… Mostly 41-54, SOOOO advanced for our age! I guess we can graduate early…

13. Moral Reasoning Activity
1. Read each of the three moral dilemmas.
2. Come to a group consensus regarding the three best solutions to each.
3. Rank your three choices.
4. Create your own moral dilemma and the three best solutions.
5. Choose a spokesperson to report your choices, describe the reasoning your group used in making them, and describe any differences between group members.