Students' interactions : developmental framework, social sphere

2./922-V/?

STUDENTS’ INTERACTIONS

DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK: THE SOCIAL SPHERE

Alberta Education

Student Programs and Evaluation Division
Curriculum Support Branch

A FFECTI VE

INTERPERSONAL

MORAL

2

Dupont

Impersonal

I

4

Heteronomous

6

'/

i i

8

Age

in

Years

10

Interpersonal

12

av

Psychological

14

7

16

Erickson Selman Kohlberg

if Trust

i i

Autonomy

Initiative

Egocentric

Undifferentiated

v

( i

* Differential or
Subjective
Perspective
^ Taking

Level l
(Premoral)

Industry

f Self-reflective
or Reciprocal
Perspective
a Taking

▼A

Identity

Third Person
or Mutual
Perspective
Taking

Level II
(Conventional)

▼A

Indepth or
Societal
Perspective
Taking

Level III

7

I

18

Intimacy

OANADIANA

C^

APR 2 71988

STUDENTS* INTERACTIONS

DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK:
SOCIAL SPHERE

Alberta Education
March, 1988

Curriculum Support Branch
5th Floor, Devonian Bldg.
11160 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5K 0L2

ISBN 0-7732-0062-2

Copyright 1987. The Crown in Right of Alberta, Minister of Education. All rights reserved. Additional copies may be obtained
from the Learning Resources Distributing Centre at a nominal cost. Permission is hereby granted to Educational Institutions
to reproduce this document solely for use within the Institution.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has gone forward under the project management of Sandra Falconer Pace.

The first draft was researched and written by Donna Patterson. Patient typing and
retyping was provided by Mrs. Jackie Rienprecht, Mrs. Lise Wilcox and Mrs. Eileen
Boyd.

Numerous Alberta staff have supported, commented on and encouraged this work. Many
school jurisdiction personnel took time to review drafts and comment extensively.

Alberta Education acknowledges with thanks the Committee which has examined this
work:

Mrs. Diana Almberg
Dr. David Beatty
Mr. Terry Cooke
Dr. Bill Dever
Dr. Glen Giduk
Mrs. Janice Leonard
Mr. Murray Lind man
Mr. E.W Smith
Ms. Sylvia Laarhuis

Alberta Federation of Home & School Associations

Universities Coordinating Council

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Conference of Alberta School Superintendents

Alberta Teachers’ Association

Conference of Alberta School Superintendents

Alberta Vocational Centre

Alberta Chamber of Commerce

Alberta School Trustees Association

ALBERTA EDUCATION CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Alberta. Curriculum Support Branch.

Students* interactions : developmental framework : social sphere.

ISBN 0-7732-0062-2

1. Child development. 2. Social perception.

3. Moral development. 4. Emotions in children.

I. Title.

BF732.S6 1988 302.22

890509

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD 1

INTRODUCTION 2

THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN 3

Affective Development

The Infant and Toddler (0-2) 5

The Young Child and Student 6

The Adolescent (about 12-15) 6

The School as Context 7

Focus on an Issue: Students and Stress 9

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN 11

Interpersonal Development

The Infant and Young Child 11

The Student 12

The School as Context 14

Focus on an Issue: The Influence of Peers 15

THE MORAL DOMAIN 18

Moral Development

The Young Child and Student 19

The Adolescent and Adult 21

The Classroom as Context 21

Focus on an Issue: Stereotyping 24

EDUCATING FOR AFFECTIVE, INTERPERSONAL

AND MORAL GROWTH 27

1. Modelling 27

2. Mediated Learning 27

3. Didactic Instruction 28

4. Experiential Learning 28

e

CONCLUSION 29

APPENDIX 31

Dupont (1979) Frames of Reference for Processing Emotions 31

Further Elaboration of Selman’s Stages 32

BIBLIOGRAPHY 34

Alberta Education Documents Cited 39

ii

El

https://archive.org/details/studentsinteractOOalbe

FOREWORD

’’The aim of education is to develop the knowledge, the skills
and the positive attitudes of individuals, so that they will be
self-confident, capable and committed to setting goals,
making informed choices and acting in ways that will
improve their own lives and the life of their community.”

(Secondary Education in Alberta , June 1985, p.7)

How children and youths think, feel and grow affects how they learn best. During the
past few years, knowledge about students' learning has increased significantly. This
knowledge is very important to the development of curricula and teaching methods
aimed at helping students realize their potential. The challenge is to use these new
insights well.

For some time, Alberta Education has been incorporating what is known about students'
intellectual, social/emotional and physical growth into the curriculum. Many people
have contributed ideas, examples, and research. Through the careful consideration
given by professionals and parents, this work has evolved into the Alberta Education
Developmental Framework. This framework will be presented in a series of documents:

1. Students' Thinking: Cognitive Domain

2. Students' Interactions: Social Sphere

3. Students' Physical Growth: Physical Dimension

4. The Emerging Student: Interrelationships among Domains

This second paper addresses growth in the social area, and describes the department's
position on curriculum and the social sphere. This represents a significant initiative on
the part of Alberta Education: to enable school curricula to be developed to meet and
support student development in affective, interpersonal and moral domains. The
department intends to incorporate this work into curricula as they are developed. At
the school level, teachers and principals play a significant role in assisting students'
social development.

It is intended that the department will publish the third and fourth papers in the
Developmental Framework as soon as possible. The Developmental Framework
delineates the developmental stages and processes through which students progress. It
includes the kinds of support students need in order to learn more effectively at
different stages of growth. The Framework will be used to help organize curriculum
content so that it anticipates the changing needs and abilities of students.

1

INTRODUCTION

Schools focus on students’ cognitive
growth and acquisition of knowledge. It
is right, perhaps, that this should be the
case. But what is ’’the school” except a
collection of individuals — some, adults;
some, children or adolescents -- who
interact in pursuing the goals of
cognitive growth and knowledge
acquisition? If anything, we are all
social beings, forever interacting with
the world around us. We interact with
things directly, but, more frequently, we
interact with people.

This monograph focuses on the student
as a social being. It looks first at the
student’s affective or emotional growth.
Second, the monograph explores
interpersonal or social growth. Finally,
moral development is examined. These
three domains make up the social
sphere. While there are vast amounts of
research in each of the domains in this
sphere, only a small portion of it can be
examined here. Rather, this is then a
selective review that seeks to draw
together the main principles of
development in the social sphere. In an
attempt to discuss these domains in a
concise and understandable way, the
research base of this work will not be
cited directly. A bibliography is,
however, included for those who wish to
read in more detail.

The renewed commitment to the nature
and needs of the learner made by
Alberta Education arises from the policy
statement, Secondary Education in
Alberta (1985), which states:

The development and implementation of
the instructional program must take into
account the following considerations:

• the nature and needs of the learner

• the nature and needs of a changing
society

• the nature of knowledge in each
subject area

• the learning environment

The Goals of Secondary Education also
directly state the importance of
affective, interpersonal and moral goals
when they indicate that students should:

• learn about themselves and develop
positive, realistic self-images;

• develop constructive relationships
with others based on respect, trust,
cooperation, consideration and caring
as one aspect of moral and ethical
behaviour.

Similarly, the Goals of Education refer
to affective, interpersonal and moral
development, and the Purpose of the
Elementary School states explicitly the
importance of providing opportunities
for students to acquire the requisite
social skills and develop certain
desirable attitudes and commitments
toward themselves, their peers and the
world as they know it.

The policy on Education Program
Continuity carefully considers how
children learn best in the early years.
Principles of child development stated in
Philosophy, Goals and Program
Dimensions highlight the social sphere
by recognizing the significance of the
self-concept and of the role of parents
in children's growth.

This monograph will consider each of the
three domains of social development. In
each section, we will examine:

1. What the domain covers.

2. What is known about students'
development in that domain, and

3. A social issue that is tied to that
domain.

Finally, there is a section on the ways in
which the school, or rather the people in
the school, can foster students'
development.

2

THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

The affective domain is one of emotions:
it concerns how we feel. Our reactions -
positive or negative - to events, objects,
people or situations involve affective
behaviours. Our reactions have
emotional overtones.

When we meet others, we may not
notice their hair or the colour of their
eyes, but we know instinctively whether
we are drawn to them or not. Have you
ever been repelled by someone on first
meeting, when you really wanted to like
him or her? The experience happens
without effort on your part, and is not
really focused. You can (and hopefully
do) control the outward expression of
your emotion, but the emotion itself is
not so easily controlled. Such
experiences:

- are immediate, almost instantaneous

- are often automatic

- are affected by the surrounding
context

- are generally holistic

- persist, even when invalidated

- are highly personal, and

- are based upon previous experiences
and associations.

Anything a person does - any behaviour,
that is - reflects the interaction of all
domains: cognitive, affective, inter-

personal, moral and physical. There are
particular difficulties if we separate
these domains in an effort to study the
affective domain alone.

Hence, information about the affective
domain is less abundant and clear than
we might wish. There has been a recent
renewal of interest and research in this
area. Ironically though, the longest
discussions are about fear, anger and
aggression. More attention is given to
sorrow, gloom and sadness than to
laughter and humour. And who studies
love?

3

Eric Erickson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

* Although Erickson describes two extreme resolutions to each crisis, he recognizes that there is a wide range of
solutions between these extremes and that most people probably arrive at some middle course.

Approximate Age

Stage

Birth to 1 year

Trust vs. Mistrust

Babies learn either to trust or mistrust that others will care for their basic needs, in-
cluding nourishment, sucking, warmth, cleanliness, and physical contact.

1-3 years

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Children learn to be self-sufficient in many activities, including toileting, feeding,
walking and talking, or to doubt their own abilities.

3-6 years

Initiative vs. Guilt

Children want to undertake many adultlike activities, sometimes overstepping the limits
set by parents and feeling guilty.

7-11

Industry vs. Inferiority

Children are busy learning to be competent and productive, or feel inferior and unable
todoanything well.

Adolescence

Identity vs. Role Confusion

Adolescents try to figure out "Who am 1?". They establish sexual, ethnic, and career
identities or are confused about what future roles to play.

Adulthood

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Young adults seek companionship and love with another person or become isolated
from other people.

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Adults are productive, performing meaningful work and raising a family, or become
stagnant and inactive.

Integrity vs. Despair

People try to make sense out of their lives, either seeing life as a meaningful whole or
despairing at goals never reached and questions never answered.

Reprinted with permission of Worth Publishers, Inc.

From The Developing Person by Kathleen Stassen Berger, 1 980.

A basis for the study of affective
development has been the work of Eric
Erikson (see chart). His Stages of
Psychological Development were a use-
ful guide in a stable society. For
example, Erikson felt that infants
learned basic trust from their parents in
the first one-and-a-half years of life. If
their needs were not met then, the
babies would tend to be mistrustful in
new situations throughout life.

Today, however, students grow up in a
dynamic, complex and pluralistic so-
ciety. Trust/mistrust may be an issue to
which individuals must return at several
points in their lives, perhaps when
encountering very different situations
from those to which they are
accustomed. Young people encounter a
wide variety of experiences today.
Their parents may not have had the
same experiences. It may be confusing
to children to try to reconcile their own

4

experiences with those of previous
generations. The demands of change are
constant and challenging, often resulting
in tension, frustration and uncertainty.
Such a climate is not necessarily the
most conducive to healthy emotional
growth.

We know from survey data that children
are affected by changing times.
Responding to the Canada Health
Attitudes and Behaviors Survey, more
than 31 percent of Alberta’s Grade 4
students said they cannot sleep at night
because they worry about things. (The
national average was 27.5 percent.)
Adolescents, too, may experience
tension and pressure from high parental
expectations and from economic and
political uncertainty. Some adolescents
get too little guidance, and this, also,
can engender tension and pressure.

So, while we can use Erikson’s
contribution to aid our understanding of
emotional growth, our framework must
also reflect the more interactive nature
of affective development.

AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT

The Infant and Toddler (0-2)

Babies are not born as blank slates, on
which we can write our expectations and
our hopes. When they come into the
world, babies already have many
different potentialities. There are
individual differences among children
right at birth. For example, they may
be bold or shy, or somewhere in between
the two. From birth, a baby may have a
high activity level or may be
characteristically quiet.

Even more important, though, babies are
born capable of responding to other
people as well as to their own inner
needs (such as hunger). Babies love to
look at human faces and can imitate

facial expressions as early as two weeks.
Very early on, they are able to get
reactions from other people, most often
their parents.

New babies (neonates) are sensitive to
both positive and negative feelings in
the people who take care of them.
Babies react to caregivers’ fears and
anxieties. A three- month-old baby can
distinguish between surprise and
happiness, and by seven months a baby
can tell whether an adult is happy or
afraid. By nine months, infants show all
the basic human emotional expressions:
interest, pleasure, joy, surprise, sadness,
anger, disgust, contempt and fear. Some
of the more complex social emotions,
such as love, also begin to appear in the
relationship between parent and child.
These more complex emotions are
combinations and refinements of basic
emotions. We infer their presence from
the way babies behave with other
people. Basically, infants’ and children's
emotional development proceeds from
the simple to the more complex.

In the first two months of life, babies
learn to calm themselves and to take an
interest in their bright, new world. This
is accomplished with the help of their
parents, and babies learn to fall in love
with a person (usually, but not
necessarily, or only, the mother). This
interaction and then dialogue between
baby and parent forms a secure base for
the infant. That firm attachment is a
critical first step in affective develop-
ment. Bonding and interaction with a
parent satisfies the baby's need for
familiarity and predictability. From this
base, the child can explore new
sensations and new things. The parents'
responsiveness to their baby's temper-
ament develops into an interaction, a
dialogue. This interaction, this balance,
allows parents to guide, support and
encourage their child's emotional growth
over the years.

5

The Young Child and Student

Whereas infants and toddlers (about 0-2)
centre upon their own sensations and
reactions, children in the preschool and
primary years are largely influenced by
the adults they know - their parents,
grandparents, babysitters and teachers.
Younger children have a less differ-
entiated frame of reference than do
school age children. They may not, for
example, be able to distinguish sadness
and regret.

Around the age of two, children begin to
learn language. Language is a way of
representing (re-presenting) other
things. As children learn language, they
can tell us what they are feeling. They
can label feelings and talk about them.

This ability of children to label certainly
makes it easier for adults to understand
their reactions. However, it is
important to recognize that talking
about an emotion is not the same thing
as the emotion itself. Telling a child
that he or she doesn’t feel mad, for
example, won’t make the anger go away.
It is better to acknowledge the emotion
(’’You’re mad, aren’t you?”) and then
provide an acceptable outlet for the
child to deal with the feeling (’’Here, you
can stomp in the kitchen rather than by
the stereo.”).

In the pre-school years, children’s
gestures, language and pretend play all
show their growing ability to understand
and differentiate a range of emotions.
As they become more aware of feelings,
they become more expressive, empathic
and imaginative. They can draw
inferences more and more about their
own and others’ feelings.

Children's affective responses are
increasingly coloured by social expec-
tations. They learn that while some
emotions can be expressed in public,
others should be reserved for private
times. Thus, the link between the
experience of the emotion (feeling it)

and the expression of the emotion can
become less direct.

Through the elementary years, children
spend a lot of their time playing with
their friends. As children play with each
other, they observe how their peers deal
with emotions in a variety of circum-
stances. While adults are still a major
influence in these years, peers increas-
ingly become a source of learning also.

The Adolescent (about 12-15)

Early adolescence is often characterized
as ’’Sturm und Drang” (storm and stress).
This impression may have come about as
a result of research that focused on
students who had numerous difficulties.
Teachers may form this impression from
seeing their students go through many
interpersonal, emotional and physical
changes. In truth, however, most
adolescents manage a fairly smooth
transition from being a child to being an
adult.

Also, what can be seen as problematic
may simply be the adolescent's lack of
sophistication in implementing new
behaviours. While the adolescent
develops new expectations, he or she has
not yet practised and become
accomplished in communicating them.

Adolescents are able to cope by
managing one problem at a time: now

exams; now permission to stay out late,
now achieving membership in the
current desirable peer group. They must
deal with a number of issues, but these
issues come into focus at different
times. Also, the issues are not so
interdependent that the solution of one
of them requires prior solution of others.
A smooth conclusion to the resolution
of each issue contributes to greater
and more rapidly achieved maturity. If
there are multiple problems which must
be dealt with simultaneously, or which
are chronic, then real stress and
breakdown become more likely.

6

Varying Focus on Issues

Each curve represents a different issue or
relationship, coming into focus at different times.

(adapted from Coleman, 1980)

Emotions may be volatile in early
adolescence, as students undergo the
numerous physical and social changes
accompanying puberty. As they progress
through adolescence, students can
develop the ability to reflect upon and
analyze their emotions. They become
more involved with ideals, values and
life plans. In times of economic un-
certainty, they may express a realistic
fear and anxiety about their futures.
Because emotional control based on
reflection is not perfected at this age,
early adolescents can be surprising in
the inconsistency of their emotional
responses. At one moment they can act
in an adult manner, and the next revert
to relatively childish behaviours. In a
sense, they are still practising to be
adults. The adult behaviours are not yet
automatic or polished.

THE SCHOOL AS CONTEXT

The school is a social institution. As
such, every school has a characteristic
ethos or atmosphere about it, which
could be called its culture. Some
schools seem strict, some easygoing.
Other schools seem orderly and

businesslike, while still others have a
feeling of warmth, caring and high
expectation. Successful schools promote
good behaviour and good achievement by
students.

What are the characteristics of
successful schools? Successful schools
believe in their students. They expect
their students to do well and they set
high standards. Expectations are high,
firm and fair. These schools have a
pleasant and comfortable environment.
For example, students are free to use
the building during breaks and lunches,
can use a telephone and have available
to them hot or cold drinks. Students are
best able to take some risks - to extend
their learning - in an atmosphere of
support and caring.

Teachers model behaviour for students.
Where teachers are polite and respectful
of students’ dignity, students will
respond positively. Students can develop
positive attitudes through observation of
teachers as models. Teachers also
model the importance of school work by
beginning lessons promptly, and by being
efficient in classroom procedures.
Positive modelling by teachers includes
willingness to talk to students whenever
there is a need.

In successful schools, teachers praise
students and students are involved in the
school. Students have responsibilities to
discharge: they participate in student

government and take care of their own
school materials. Students are rewarded
for their academic achievements, as
well as for athletic, artistic and
community achievements. Elementary
schools develop students’ feelings of
pride and competency in many small but
significant ways, such as displaying
artwork in school hallways at the
children's height. At any level, pictures
of students involved in positive
behaviours can be influential.

The development of the affective
domain can be carried through curricular
means as well as through the social

7

relations within the school. Curricula
frequently include affective objectives.
These often begin with the word
"appreciate". Sometimes it is difficult
to visualize what specific behaviours
would show that the students have
attained the objective. In this regard,
standard taxonomies of educational
objectives can be useful guides for
clarifying what students are meant to do
or to feel.

The Junior High Health and Personal
Life Skills course (1986 edition) provides
some excellent examples of clear
objectives focussed on specific affective
learnings. One example from Grade 8 is
in Theme I: Self-Awareness and

Acceptance, Sub-theme B: Feelings:

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

1. Recognizing the concepts of
feelings and their management.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

The Student

1. Understands that variations in
moods are natural.

2. Recognizes that there may be
many ways of managing feelings
in self and others.

3. Identifies favorable and un-
favorable effects of emotions.

Teaching a given content will not
automatically achieve a given affective
goal. For example, teaching Shake-
spearean plays has not uniformly pro-
duced generations of lovers of
Shakespearean drama. While children
can repeat the knowledge objective that
milk is beneficial, they still may not like
it.

On a more specific level, we can
acknowledge that students have
emotions as an integral part of their
being by:

- accepting emotions as they occur in
day-to-day classroom life

setting aside time for talking,
preferably when emotions are not
high

encouraging students to express their
opinions and feelings
encouraging questions and answering
them fully

listening actively (listening to really
understand what the other person is
saying and demonstrating this by
repeating the gist of their words
back to them). Practising and
teaching this skill

giving emotions a place in the
curriculum. Encouraging students to
recognize their own and other
individuals’ emotional responses
examining emotional responses from
different frames of reference
modelling appropriate emotional
responses to stressful situations,
talking to students about your
reactions at the time, or soon after
guiding students’ reflections on their
own and others’ responses

8

FOCUS ON AN ISSUE: STUDENTS AND
STRESS

Today, we more often see students under
stress from a variety of sources. It is
important to understand the nature of
stress and its effects on students
because overly stressed students do not
learn at optimal levels. Until stress is
reduced or students learn to manage
stress more effectively, our goals for
students will be more difficult to reach.

Stress occurs when there is pressure or
force on a person, be it a physical,
mental or emotional pressure. Initially,
a person uses up ’’clock energy” to deal
with stress. This is our daily energy,
replenished through adequate care, food
and rest. Early symptoms of stress show
up here in tiredness, loss of appetite and
lowered efficiency. A student may be
anxious or easily angered.

If a person is stressed beyond the limits
of daily energy to cope, he or she draws
on "calendar energy”. Calendar energy
is the energy used for growth and
development in its broadest sense. So,
long term or chronic stress can affect
growth and development. Psychoso-
matic illness may result.

Stress can be caused by positive as well
as negative events. We all need some
stress in our lives to challenge us.
However, too much stress for an
individual has negative effects. There
are a number of life events which are
potentially stressful for students.
Taking a test is stressful; so is facing a
death in the family.

Two factors in particular determine
whether a student can cope construc-
tively. The first factor is simply the
number of stresses the student must
face. The more stresses, the more
difficult it is to cope. Stresses have an
interactive effect; that is, two stressors
are four times as hard to deal with as
one stressor would be by itself.

A second factor is the student’s
understanding of the event. This means
that the student's previous experiences,
coping skills and cognitive level must be
taken into account. For example, a
major event in students’ lives is the very
first day of school. It is helpful to first
grade students if parents talk through
the whole experience with their children
ahead of time. It may take several
talks. The school can be described, as
can the procedures and routines. It can
be helpful if parents have talked with
the teacher and can describe things
first-hand. Perhaps walking the route to
be taken or simulating the bus ride
would be useful. Knowing ahead of time
where the bathroom is can diffuse
anxiety. The more the student under-
stands, the easier the day will be for him
or her. If the child must later change
schools, this first school day can be an
example for him or her of what to
expect.

ill)

9

Stress and coping are not events; in fact
they are reactions. These reactions are
transitional processes. The processes
may encompass both positive and
negative aspects at the same time. A
student moving to a new neighbourhood
may experience anticipatory excitement
and anxiety before the move. There are
short-term adjustments to be made as
well as long-term coping skills to
develop. Skills to develop new friend-
ships and to deal with the sense of loss
of old friendships are two types of these
long-term coping skills.

To deal with immediate stress more
effectively students need opportunities
to learn to:

- see the world from more positive
viewpoints

- become aware of how they personally
contribute to and enhance their own
lives

- learn skills for understanding
themselves

- learn strategies for coping with
stressful situations (such as tests)

- improve their ability to relate to and
support others

- acquire good communication and
decision-making skills

- develop a supportive network drawn
from family, friends and classmates

- take and give support

- understand stress and see the
opportunity for growth it can
provide.

We cannot expect childen to cope with
all stresses by themselves. As adults,
we need to be alert to children who
suffer from chronic stress and be
prepared to intervene in order to reduce
it.

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN

Children learn about their environments
directly, through interaction with things
in the physical world. To learn about
people, though, children must interact
with people. What we know of our social
environment and ourselves we learn
through our relationships with people,
directly or indirectly. Of course, people
also help us with our understandings of
the physical world. So it is difficult to
exaggerate the role that other people
play in determining what we know about
the world, and how we come to know it.

The interpersonal domain really includes
five areas of skills:

INTERPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Infant and Young Child

As with emotional growth, human babies
are biologically equipped for social
interaction. They begin life engaged
skillfully in interpersonal relationships.
For example, infants can establish and
maintain optimal eye contact. At only
seven days old, they can tell their own
mother from others on the basis of
scent. They prefer human voices to
other sounds and can turn their heads
toward the speaker. By the age of
twelve months, babies sense and adopt
the feeling states of the person who
cares for them.

1. Expressing feelings.

2. Dealing with tension in oneself and
in social interactions.

3. Being empathic.

4. Modifying one's own behaviour.

5. Managing social interactions.

The need for these skills increases as our
society becomes more pluralistic and as
our world becomes more interdependent.
Each person's well-being depends on the
goodwill and actions of others. These
other people may speak another lan-
guage, or come from another culture.
An in-house survey by a major cor-
poration found that the main reason
workers were fired was their inability to
get along with their supervisors or
co-workers. They could do their jobs,
but they could not get along with people.

We rarely give direct instruction in
knowing people and interacting effec-
tively with them. In many endeavours in
schooling, however, these abilities are
recognized and valued by-products.
Much of what happens in the learning
environment in schools demonstrates and
develops interpersonal skills. The
challenge is to demonstrate and promote
productive rather than maladaptive
interpersonal skills.

Of course, interpersonal competence is
not a static list of skills. The behaviour
a three- month-old baby exhibits is a
totally mature and fully accomplished
three-month-old baby behaviour. The
same is true at two years, ten years, or
any age. A person's interpersonal
competence warrants comparison with
the way a person of similar age and
circumstances behaves. We need to
develop the ability to see ourselves as
acting "with” rather than "on" the child,
to respect the child's competency.

11

The Student

Reflecting this view of successive levels
of maturity, interpersonal development
takes place in the interaction of the
child

- with the soeial environment

- in particular situations

- with his or her parents

- with his or her teachers

- with his or her friends
with his or her peers.

A variety of interpersonal skills have
been identified by different researchers,
but there is no single, agreed upon and
defined set of interpersonal skills
currently available. One example of a
list of skills that students need to be
popular with their peers is given below.
Of course, being popular is tremendously
important to students of all ages.

Social Compentencies Associated with Popularity

Skill/Attribute

Description

Relevance

Ability to "read" a social situation and adapt behaviour accordingly

Responsiveness

Capacity to be receptive to and reinforcing of the social initiatives of
others

Timing and staging

Capacity to pace relationships: knowing what and when to do or say
things

Indirect approaches

Awareness that relationships and interactions are often initiated and
sustained by indirect means

Feedback cues

Sensitivity to negative and positive social feedback while relating

Resolution of conflict

Aptitude for settling disagreement without aggression or violence
(verbal or physical)

Verbal pragmatic

Understanding and effective use of strategies language in social
contexts

Social memory

Recall and use of prior interactional experience

Social prediction

Propensity to foresee the social consequences of one's actions and/or
words

Awareness of image

Tendency to present oneself to peers in such a way as to be socially
acceptable

Affective matching

Ability to discern and reinforce the current feelings of a peer

Recuperative strategies

Ability to compensage for social errors

Reprinted with permission from Levine, M.D. Developmental variation and learninq
disorders. Toronto: Educators Publishina Service. Inc. 1987.

12

Research has not really explored the
sequence in which interpersonal skills
develop. Instead it has examined how
children and adolescents view relation-
ships. Research has examined the child’s
ability to understand the motives,
feelings and intentions of another
person.

In this respect, maturity is considered
the overcoming of egocentrism.

To understand another person's point of
view might be like asking these five
questions:

What is the other person seeing?

What is the other person feeling?
What is the other person thinking?
What is the other person intending?
What is the other person like?

Selman has presented a model of
interpersonal understanding which
considers how students answer these
questions. The student progresses
through five stages (see chart and
appendix).

In this view, the student moves out from
the self in developing a view of
interpersonal relations. This is a de-
veloping ability to reach beyond oneself
and see the world from another's
viewpoint. This understanding requires
two abilities:

1. To be sensitive to interpersonal
interaction - context dependent.

2. To be able to step back, suspend
judgment and analyze those inter-
actions - context independent.

Selman's Five Stages

Nature of Perspective Taking

Characteristics of the Child

Age Range

Egocentric Undifferentiated

Unable to see that another
perspective may exist besides
his or her own.

3 to 6

Subjective

Realizes other people have
their own perspectives and
so may interpret the same
situation differently.

5 to 9

Self-reflective thinking

Realizes others think about
his/her thinking.

7 to 12

Can reflect on his/her own
behaviour and motivation.

Mutual or third person

Able to see all parties from
a third person perspective.

lOto 15

Indepth or societal

Aware of relativity of
perspectives held by them-
selves and by social groups.

Adolescence

through

Adulthood

Most of us do not master this
stage completely.

13

There are times when context
dependency is needed, when it is best to
react without analysis. At other times,
we need to be detached from the
context, to pick out the salient features.
Both of these skills are essential.
Children develop skills in both areas
over time but, of course, also differ
from one another in the development of
these two abilities.

There has been a tendency to emphasize
the development of a sense of self as
separating oneself from others.
However, all growth occurs within the
context of our relations with others -
parents, relatives, teachers, friends,
peers - so it seems logical to see
development also in the growth of
relationships. In this sense, the criteria
for maturity are seen as the abilities to
manage relationships and to think
creatively about them.

Relationships grow through our being
sensitive to one another, through our
learning about one another. We need to
be able to feel as others do - to have
empathy. Attending and responding to
what happens in a relationship is also
part of this. Students are always
involved in interpersonal interaction, as
are we all. We must all be comfortable
both in moving close to and at times
away from others. All interactions
revolve around these capacities for
closeness and for distance as well as the
need not to feel overwhelmed, overly
stressed, in either case.

THE SCHOOL AS CONTEXT

Something we frequently overlook about
schools is that they are a social
phenomenon. There is not a teacher
student dyad; each teacher has both an
individual relationship with each student
and various relationships with groups of
students. Students have relationships
among themselves as well as with
teachers. A class is a complex social
system in and of itself.

The social relations in the classroom are
instrumental to instructional success (or
lack of success). Teachers and students
must develop "working agreements" to
help tasks flow smoothly and to
understand the nature of the
instructional tasks. It is much simpler
to manage social relations in clinical or
remedial settings, where there are fewer
people involved, than it is in classroom
settings where there can be as many as
forty people. This is often an un-
recognized factor when people talk
about "what teachers should do".

The school is an interpersonally complex
context. Furthermore, the interpersonal
skills and knowledge are rarely
communicated explicitly. Classroom
life differs from home life, and each
classroom differs from each other one.
Each teacher sets up his or her own
expectations and classroom procedures.
Again, these "working agreements" are
usually set up indirectly and the student
must work through inference, figuring
out the implicit context of the
classroom. This type of understanding,
which is not openly expressed, is called
tacit knowledge. We are only vaguely
aware of tacit knowledge, if at all, and
often acquire it through observing and
imitating model behaviours, as if by
osmosis.

It is just this tacit nature of inter-
personal skills and learnings which
makes them difficult to teach - or even
to identify. We sometimes see this lack
of tacit knowledge only when a student
exhibits a skill that is wrong for that
situation. For example, a student might
suggest to the class that everyone work
quietly so as to be done for the weekend.
Now suppose this is a junior high class on
a lazy Friday afternoon, with a concert
coming that evening. That student may
have ingratiated himself or herself with
the teacher, but has actively harmed his
or her standing with classmates.
Teachers are often at a loss to know
what skills to teach a student such as
this. The classroom is at least a
controlled arena for social interaction.

14

This is not true of the playground or
mall hangout. Through all our actions,
we are engaged in and implicitly
teaching interpersonal skills.

Some students are often described as
lacking in social skills. It is clear that
this contributes to their lack of success
in school and with their peers. However,
it is not so much that these students fail
to do what they should. Rather, it is
that they actively do what they should
not. Children who lack school success
often work twice as hard as do the
typical, successful middle class students
to get and keep the teacher’s attention.
Unfortunately, they use strategies that
teachers find inappropriate. Some
children learn to understand, to
interpret and to follow the mediation
supplied by teachers. Other children
understand other modes of mediation,
and so miss what the teacher supplies.
(Mediated learning is described on page
27.)

It is important to note that these
socially maladapted students do not lack
either skills or social involvement.
Rather, they use the wrong skills, or
maladaptive skills, for that particular
context. The teacher can serve as a
bridge builder for these students, so that
they can learn skills others see as more
appropriate to that context. Teachers
can help students learn which skills to
use in differing contexts.

Given the complexity and tacit nature of
classroom interpersonal interaction,
what is practical for teachers to do? In
directly teaching interpersonal skills,
teachers can:

1. Be as concrete as possible.

2. Emphasize use of the particular
skill, such as active listening.

3. Link the information supplied with
appropriate actions and behaviours
(the teacher as "bridge builder").

4. Provide many opportunities for
practise; and

5. Arrange instructional strategies so
that they correspond with the way

the learner organizes knowledge
(not with the way an experienced,
adult expert organizes it).

FOCUS ON AN ISSUE: THE

INFLUENCE OF PEERS

It is clear that children learn things
from peers. Peers help children to learn
in many domains: cognitive, emotional
and moral as well as interpersonal.
Therefore, it is important that we
understand the benefits as well as
occasional disadvantages of peer
interaction.

Even young preschool children play with
peers. When they know the other
children well, very young children will
play with, rather than just beside,
others. In fact, at every age after
infancy, children typically spend a great
deal of time with other children their
age. Because the children are similar in
age, they are frequently also similar in
skills, experiences, interests and status.

Children, like adults, need to be able to
find and keep friends. Younger children
like to share toys or play activities with
friends. As children grow older, they
move to sharing thoughts and feelings.
Loyalty becomes an important quality in
friends. As students grow older, they

15

recognize the interdependence of
friends, and the mutual help friends can
provide.

From an early age on, children in our
society see a difference between peers
and adults. Usually, they expect to play
with peers, but to get help from adults.
As children grow older, they develop and
expand their skills in peer interactions,
generally becoming more positive and
cooperative. Children learn techniques
for gaining access to other children’s
games. They also develop techniques to
exclude some children who would like to
join their games.

By as early as six years old, a child who
has not acquired minimal interpersonal
competence is at risk. That child is
more likely to be a school drop-out, and
to have difficulties later in life.

As students move through the primary
school years, their interpersonal skills
become more sophisticated. Children
become increasingly able to use dif-
ferent skills in different settings, with
different people or for different tasks.

As adolescence blooms, peers are often
thought of as taking on an unhappy influ-
ence. The influence of friends becomes
the issue of peer pressure. Parents or
teachers often refer to peer pressure as
though it were a single force -- a group
of teenagers pressuring a particular
student to do something unhealthy, such
as smoke.

However, teenagers experience pres-
sures from many sources, such as
parents, peers, media, and themselves.
Actually, peer pressures are largely
self-generated; that is, it is the way the
student perceives the situation that
affects the pressure that the student
feels. If a girl believes that others think
she’s unattractive, then she may feel a
lot of pressure to dress well and use
makeup skillfully.

Peer pressure, then, is really a complex
mix of indirect pressures. In a group of
peers, teenagers want to see themselves
in a number of ways. For example, they
may want to appear independent, to gain
recognition, to appear mature or
grown-up, or to appear to be having fun.

The pressure students feel to be
different, an individual, is the pressure
to appear independent. Students rebel
on occasion. Schools can inadvertently
play to this pressure and to the
adolescent desire for recognition when
students are singled out for rebellious
behaviour. They may be undergoing
punishment, but that punishment may be
worth it if peer recognition is the
result.

The pressure that students feel, to
appear grown-up and to be enjoying
themselves, can also lead them to
negative behaviours. Students want to
appear older because being older is
associated with various privileges.
Adolescents may not focus on the
responsibilities associated with various
privileges.

Peers are not the sole source of pressure
for students to appear mature. Schools
can also foster this situation by
encouraging students to ’’act like
adults”, and parental pressure to act
responsibly can be inappropriately high
for some children.

Peer pressures play across a background
of other influences on teenagers.
Parents and the media can also be
identified as having significant influence
and even pressure. In general, though,
students agree with their parents on
fundamental moral principles. The
conflicts come on socially trivial issues
(such as taste in music). If both parents
and peers approve of something, it is
likely the student will approve of it also.
If either one of parents or peers approve
of something, the student’s approval of
it will rise moderately, but not to the
extent that it does if both groups
approve of it.

16

In helping students handle peer pressure,
we must assist them with some general
abilities. Students must gain sufficient
reflective awareness to recognize the
types of pressures and their sources. It
is helpful to have the independence to be
critical of peer expectations. If peer
pressures are largely self-generated,
then they can be self-managed. Of
course, students also need sufficient
accurate knowledge to develop an
adequate idea of the risks and payoffs of
a situation. Knowledge alone is not
enough, but it is a necessary component

in counteracting social pressure.
Students' independence must be nurtured
by adults' attitudes and values.

The skills, knowledge and reflective
awareness required to manage peer
pressures are difficult. Reflective
awareness is a higher order thinking
skill. Consider how many adults suc-
cumb to peer pressures in some sit-
uations. We must nurture these skills in
students; they do not develop by
happenstance.

17

THE MORAL DOMAIN

Perhaps because it is so important how
children develop (and the way they
develop), a moral sense is the subject of
considerable debate. Developing a
moral sense is becoming a good person,
whether morality is taught in the home,
the school or a religious institution. As
adults, we want all kinds of things for
children: we may want them to be

smart, artistic and/or popular.

But they are no less
persons, no less human, if
they do not possess these
qualities. It’s a different
matter, however, if they
are not good and decent
people. In that case, they
do not stand tall as
persons. Their humanity is
diminished.

Lickona, 1983.

Good people are not simply ’’nice"
people. They are not soft-headed,
teary-eyed or pushovers to the mach-
inations of others. It has been said that
we ’’catch morals like colds”. While it is
true that we learn moral behaviour
through observing others act morally,
moral education is more than learning by
osmosis. We can - and do - affect moral
development in our interactions with
children. This is because we become
role models and mediators of morality.
When our actions do not match what we
say, children detect the incongruity. It
may be difficult to teach our children to
respect rules if, for the sake of
convenience, we park in a space
reserved for the handicapped, or if we
run a yellow light or stop sign.

It is useful to distinguish between what
is proper and what is moral. Children

can make this distinction even as early
as three years of age. Shared
conventions determine what is proper.
Members of a social system, people in a
school or in a society, agree on a set of
conventions. These are important, but
they are also arbitrary. They are not
inherently right or wrong, and can
change over time or place. For
example, wearing blue jeans in school
can be allowed or prohibited. In some
schools, it is proper to wear school
uniforms, in others, casual clothing is
permitted. (See chart for stages of
development in thinking about con-
ventions.)

In contrast, what is moral behaviour is
determined by factors intrinsic to the
actions themselves. Moral behaviour is
inherent in social relationships. It is not
moral to harm others, to violate others’
rights or, on an everyday basis, to be
deliberately inconsiderate. Moral
prescriptions are universal and un-
changeable. Moral transgressions are
wrong, and must be taken very seriously.
So, for example, a young child will see
hitting and stealing as wrong. For an
adult, though, hitting an attacker in
self-defense may be morally defensible.
Adults are more able to understand the
impact and limitations of context upon
moral considerations. They can come to
understand which moral principles are
fundamental, and how decisions are af-
fected by them.

The moral domain is really an
interaction of domains: it is the inter-

section of the emotional and inter-
personal domains with the cognitive
domain, manifested through actions.

The moral domain can be best char-
acterized as a cycle of events:

18

a reaction

an action

a commitment
to action

V

\ a responsibility

reflection

a sense of the
good thing to be
done

Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning
cover thinking about morality rather
than actually acting morally. As we all
recognize, there can be a gap between
what people believe (or say they believe)
and what they actually do. We know we
should help others, but how often are we
"too busy?" It may be, too, that
Kohlberg’s sequence is not reflective of
all cultures. It is clear that Kohlberg's
sequence, developed from data about
males, does not entirely reflect every-
one's experiences.

This cycle repeats itself many times,
and any one action is likely to be
consistent with previous actions and
beliefs.

Morality involves more than a
perception that the problem requires a
moral decision. It involves more than
knowing a person can be effective in
taking action on an issue. Morality
includes the responsibility of the person
to take a personal action or to avoid
incorrect action. It is not enough to
leave it to others. Individuals such as
Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa
have demonstrated this through their
selfless dedication, but on an everyday
level, so does the teacher who stays late
to help a student or who gives up
personal time for extra curricular
activities with students. A student
exhibits moral behaviour when he or she
takes time to study with another student
who needs the help.

Much of the research in moral
development or ethics has focused on
one aspect of morality - moral
reasoning. The most widely acknow-
ledged theorist in moral reasoning is
Lawrence Kohlberg. He proposed a se-
quence of three levels, each divided into
two stages (see chart). Kohlberg’s levels
represent a transition from self interest
to social interest. A person may also
make another transition, from consid-
ering the immediate society as it is, to
considering wider social principles. For
Kohlberg, the central moral principle is
justice.

Women, for instance, while they
understand and use the principle of
justice, tend to prefer the principle of
caring. That is, women see moral issues
in terms of care and responsibility in
relationships. Women and girls seek to
achieve and maintain harmonious
relationships while meting out justice.

In examining the development of
morality, we have talked about moral
reasoning. The development of moral
action is a more complex issue. Some of
the ways in which the issue is accom-
plished are dealt with in the section on
the classroom as context.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

The Young Child and Student

Since moral development is in part an
interaction among affective, inter-
personal and cognitive domains, its early
development rests to some extent on the
child’s development in those domains.
Morality involves more than the implicit
learning of social rules and conventions.
It is not automatic.

Young children are present-bound. They
are not fully aware that what is hap-
pening now can affect their lives later.
Hence, they have little idea of the
future implications of any choice. They
may not be aware of alternative ways of
dealing with a problem because they
cannot envision alternative courses
of action. It is too much to ask a young

19

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Level 1

Pre-moral

Stage 1

Obeys rules in order to avoid
punishment.

Stage 2

Conforms to obtain rewards, to
have favours returned.

Level II

Morality of Conventional
Role Conformity

Stage 3

Conforms to avoid
disapproval/dislike by others.

Stage 4

Conforms to avoid censure by
legitimate authorities, with
resultant guilt.

Level III

Morality of Self-Accepted
Moral Principles

Stage 5

Conforms to maintain the respect
of the impartial spectator judging
in terms of community welfare.

Stage 6

Conforms to avoid self-
condemnation; defines the
principles by which agreements
will be most just.

child to keep in mind a situation,
alternative courses of action, and the
various consequences of those courses of
action. In fact, their orientation to the
here and now may prevent their imag-
ining even one future consequence of
some present course of action. Children
can, however, associate what they have
done with what happened, and then with
how they felt about it. This memory of
action, consequence and feeling can help
them develop their thinking.

As with cognitive development, the
adequate development of complex emo-
tions such as empathy and an ability to
reflect on social interactions are
important. Otherwise, a child may not
recognize a problem in morality. Action
without empathy or reflection may not

lead to a satisfying outcome. A very
young child may not recognize that
refusing to allow another child to join a
game may be a hurtful act. Once
children have hurt others and been hurt
by others, they have concrete expe-
rience with real consequences. After
this, they can be brought to reflection,
perhaps through discussion. As they
grow older, this reflective capacity can
allow them to see and deal with morality
more independently, in a more reasoned
way.

According to Kohlberg, children under
nine years of age characteristically do
not understand society’s rules and expec-
tations. They consider only their own
personal interest and advantage. This is
the pre-conventional level. Very young

20

children obey in order to avoid
punishment. For example, they avoid
stealing in order to avoid punishment.
Later, one is nice to others so that
they'll return the favour. A child might
invite others to his birthday party so
that he'll be invited to their upcoming
parties.

For girls, Carol Gilligan's work suggests
additional directions in females' moral
developments. The sequence in
Gilligan's ethic of care begins with an
initial focus on caring for the self to
ensure survival. This may be similar to
Kohlberg's initial stage, viewed from a
different perspective, or through a
different principle.

The Adolescent and Adult

The majority of adolescents and adults
are found to be at the conventional level
on Kohlberg's scale. Here, people are
preoccupied with maintaining the
expectations of the social group. Good
behaviour - being a good boy or a good
girl - wins praise. Students obey the law
because it is the law and the social
consensus. People should avoid stealing
to keep order in society.

In Gilligan's view, women develop a new
understanding of the connection between

themselves and others. This is seen as
the concept of responsibility. It is good
to care for others, particularly those
who are dependent. For example, a girl
may feel responsible for a peer who is
less popular.

A minority of people move to the
post-conventional level on Kohlberg's
scale. At this level, people begin to
reason from universal moral principles.
They become autonomous in their
reasoning; that is, instead of relying on
the general consensus of others, they
think through dilemmas independently.
In this stage, a person would consider
how another person's rights would be
violated in a theft.

In Gilligan's sequence, the caring for
others at the expense of caring for
oneself creates difficulties. This is
resolved through women's understanding
that care becomes a self-chosen
principle. A woman might take time for
herself, for example, so that she can be
more relaxed around her children and
husband.

It is unlikely that these stages operate
totally in isolation in men and women.
Certainly, women understand and use
principles of justice and men understand
and use an ethic of caring. It may help
to clarify an issue, however, if one
considers which principle is central to an
individual when dealing with a specific
situation.

In this section, we have dealt with two
theorists. It is possible that diverse
cultural groups deal with various ethical
principles in their understanding of
morality. It is useful to recall again
that morality does not begin and end
with moral reasoning. Morality must
include in its scope moral behaviour.

THE CLASSROOM AS CONTEXT

There are at least two distinctions which
it may be useful to keep in mind as we
consider moral development in the

21

Major Changes in Social-Conventional Concepts

(Nucci)

Approximate Ages

6-7

1. Convention as descriptive of social uniformity.Convention viewed
as descriptive of uniformities in behavior. Convention is not
conceived of structure or function of social interaction.
Conventional uniformities are descriptive of what is assumed to
exist. Convention maintained to avoid violation of empirical
uniformities.

8-9

2. Negation of convention as descriptive social uniformity. Empirical
uniformity not a sufficient basis for maintaining conventions.
Conventional acts regarded as arbitrary. Convention is not
conceived as part of structure or function of social interaction.

10-11

3. Convention as affirmation of rule system; early concrete

conception of social system. Convention seen as arbitrary and
changeable. Adherence to convention based on concrete rules and
authoritative expectations. Conception of conventional acts not
coordinated with conception of rule.

12-13

4. Negation of convention as part of rule system. Convention now
seen as arbitrary and changeable regardless of rules. Evaluation of
rule pertaining to conventional act is coordinated with evaluation
of the act. Conventions are "nothing but" social expectations.

14- 16.

5 Convention as mediated by social system. The emergence of
systematic concepts of social structure. Convention as normative
regulation in system with uniformity, fixed roles, and static
hierarchical organization.

17-18

6. Negation of convention as societal standards. Convention

regarded as codified societal standards. Uniformity in convention
is not considered the function of maintaining social system.
Conventions are "nothing but" societal standards that exist
through habitual use.

18-25

7. Convention as coordinated social interactions. Conventions as
uniformities that are functional in coordinating social interactions.
Shared knowledge, in the form of conventions, among members
of social groups facilitate interaction and operation of the system.

school. The first is the distinction
between those issues that are matters of
convention and those that deal with
morals. It is important to respond to
students in coordination with the
appropriate area, whether of conven-
tions or of morals.

Junior high students exhibiting dis-
ruptive behaviour may see thearbitra-
riness of social conventions and choose
to view these conventions negatively.
When they move to affirming the social
system of conventions, they become less
disruptive in their behaviour. In

22

assisting disruptive students, it may be
useful to focus on the need for a system
of shared conventions, despite their
arbitrariness. It would not be helpful to
’’moralize” all transgressions, equating
dress code violations with stealing or
bullying others.

Teachers intuitively understand the
difference between moral and
conventional issues. They will often
tend to respond to students’ trans-
gressions differentially, depending on
whether the act was a transgression of
morals or conventions. For example, to
stop one child hitting another, the
teacher will refer to the pain of the
second child (morality). A typical
teacher response would be ”How would
you feel if he hit you?” A child speaking
far too loudly may be referred however
to the classroom rule, ’’Use your inside
(i.e. low) voice.” Here, the teacher is
dealing with conventions.

It may be a useful distinction for
teachers to keep in mind that students
can see different moral principles as
paramount in different situations. For

example, girls may not necessarily
respond on the basis of fairness or
justice as a central moral principle.
They may also attempt to maintain
social relationships, seeing that as the
central issue in a discussion over
behaviour in a classroom.

An example of this kind of conflict
occurred in one school. The penalty for
a rule infraction was to be denied
permission to attend the subsequent
school dance. While the students went
along with this during the year, the girls
banned from the last dance of the year
complained long and loudly. The
principal had difficulty understanding
these sudden complaints. Then he saw
that he had neglected to take into
account that the last dance of the year
was a very special occasion for the
students. The girls saw themselves as
being cut off from their friends (and
beaux). These girls focused on the
punishment as a major one, based on the
principle of caring for others. The
principal had seen the punishment as a
minor one, based on the principles of
justice. Hence the girls -- but not the
principal — saw the punishment as
overly severe for the infraction.

Historically, the basic approach to moral
education was twofold. First, desirable
ideals, attitudes, values and behaviours
were identified. These were then
instilled in students through exhortation
and example. Four teaching strategies
are characteristic of this type of
education:

1. Precepts: the use of a saying or

proverb to promote a value or
behaviour, such as ”a penny saved is
a penny earned” for thrift.

2. Exemplars: the use of stories or

examples demonstrating the
desirable behaviours. For example,
Wayne Gretzky's work and actions
on behalf of the mentally
handicapped promote social
responsibility.

23

3. Ritual: the repeated use of a

ceremony or rite, such as saluting
the flag to promote patriotism.

4« Environmentalism: recreating the

events in miniature so that students
can experience them within the
school setting. An example of this
is the use of student government as
a means of encouraging later
participation in civic life, as an
adult.

This approach works very well in a
stable society. In a pluralistic society
undergoing change, students also require
an ability to reflect upon conflicting
values, and a method of analysis for
resolving such conflicts. While these
four techniques can and should still be
used, they are not sufficient by
themselves.

The school can further assist students in
developing a sound moral sense in at
least two ways. First, students learn
through observing moral adult behaviour.
Teachers, like parents and adults in the
community, serve as models for
students. As with the teaching of
interpersonal skills, much moral
behaviour is learned through observing
the moral actions of others.

The second way that schools can assist
students is in helping them interpret and
evaluate the competing moral positions
presented to them. This can and should
be done through the vehicle of the
regular curriculum in all classes. It is
not enough to leave this to the Grade 8
Ethics course; it is the responsibility of
all teachers. In class exercises, students
can explore how specific values are
demonstrated by specific behaviours.
The following guidelines are helpful in
this regard:

• Students move to higher levels of
social and moral reasoning when they
are allowed to interact with their
peers in considering social and moral

issues that are real to them - those
they face in their own experience (as
opposed to problems adults think
important).

• Opportunities for open discussion are
essential. Such use of discussion
acknowledges that moral develop-
ment is not simply a process of
learning society's rules and values
but a gradual process in which
students actively transform their
understanding of morality through
reflection and construction. In this
regard, the discussion of dilemmas
and the choices people must make
are useful.

• Classroom management practices
and rules which are known, upheld,
evenly applied, moderate in nature
and negotiable, all contribute to
students' moral development.
Cooperative goal structures and
learning techniques promote both
moral and academic growth.

• Responding to the harmful or unjust
effects/consequences of a moral
transgression is more effective than
reference to broken rules or
unfulfilled social conventions for
issues in the moral arena.

• If students seem inadequate as moral
agents, it may be that adults need to
ensure that opportunities to take on
moral responsibility come their way.

FOCUS ON AN ISSUE: STEREOTYPING

In their classes, teachers must deal with
a wide variety of students. They try to
deal equitably with all students, just as
we wish society to treat each one of us
equitably. Sometimes, however, equi-
table treatment is impeded by stereo-
typing. The prejudice entailed in
stereotyping reflects on the moral
domain.

24

A stereotype is a kind of oversimplified
mental picture of a certain person or
group of people, usually based on
observable characteristics such as race,
ethnic background, religion or sex.

Children develop stereotypes in early
childhood, even as young as two years
old. Until they form stereotypes,
children will play together amicably.

Stereotypes are passed on not only by
parents and teachers, but also by the
media, children’s books and peer
interactions. All the contextual
influences on situations, subtle as they
are, can contribute to stereotyped views
of groups of people. Jokes are one
example of a subtle influence in a given
context.

We have the best understanding of how
stereotypes of sex roles develop. Our
understanding of the development of
other types of stereotyping in children is
less clear.

During the elementary school years,
boys and girls tend to be positive about
their own sex and negative about the
opposite sex. They give higher ratings
to boys who do well in mathematics and
girls who do well in reading. Boys who
are good readers and girls who do well in
mathematics are not rated as highly by
their peers.

Of course, parents have a lot of in-
fluence on their children. Where
parents' behaviour is less stereotypical,
children's will be less so as well. In
particular, girls' interests, activities and
aspirations are more balanced between
the typically masculine and feminine if
their mothers are career oriented or
employed outside the home.

Some people argue that elementary
schools are more suited to girls than to
boys. In general, girls like elementary
school more than do boys, whose active
natures can be seen as disruptive. In the

elementary years girls achieve well, are
praised more for on-task behaviour and
receive much less attention for being
disruptive.

Although girls are reprimanded less
frequently than boys, the negative
feedback they get pertains to the
accuracy and the intellectual quality
of their work. Boys are told they are
not working hard enough. Thus, boys
learn that achievement comes through
greater effort. Girls learn to attribute
school failure to lack of ability. The
implications of this are far reaching.
Boys learn to try harder or discount
criticism in the face of failure. Girls
learn to doubt themselves, and to give
up trying. By senior high school, girls
learn to avoid "hard" courses in order to
avoid failing.

Early adolescence brings dramatic
physical changes. Where children in the
upper elementary years are more
flexible in their view of sex roles, early
adolescents become rather inflexible in
playing out sex roles. Most fourteen
year olds, for example, recognize that
male/female role differences are largely

25

socially defined. These same fourteen
year olds, though, will claim that
students must conform to sex role
stereotypes. By the beginning of late
adolescence (about the age of
seventeen), students have again devel-
oped a greater flexibility toward sex
roles and identities.

A changing society demands increasing
flexibility. It is advantageous to possess
a wide range of abilities, skills, interests
and behaviours. Students at the ages of
8, 12, and 17 or 18 emphasize the ability
of individuals to act according to choice
and individual self-interest rather than

according to sex role conformity. These
age levels may be critical in expanding
all students’ range of options. All too
often, stereotypes narrow options.

In a similar way, stereotypes of race,
ethnic group, religion or physical
characteristics can limit individuals’
potentials. The mediation that forms
children’s attitudes can be very subtle.
We may not consciously intend to create
the attitudes we do in children, but
through our modelling, framing and
verbal mediation we have very definite
effects.

26

EDUCATING FOR AFFEC-
TIVE, INTERPERSONAL
AND MORAL GROWTH

There are four major means of
facilitating students’ affective, inter-
personal and moral growth:

1. Modelling

2. Mediated learning

3. Didactic instruction (both direct
and indirect)

4. Experiential learning

1. Modelling

Adults serve as models or personal
examples to children and students.
Through observation of the consistency
of what adults say and do, students
imitate and thereby implicitly learn how
to deal with emotions, other people and
moral issues.

For models, students will look to those
who support and control them: parents,
peers, older students, teachers and other
adults. Those who seem to be
competent, or of high status, are more
powerful models, particularly if these
people have shown an interest in the stu-
dent. If many models exhibit a certain
behaviour, and are rewarded for it, then
that behaviour is more likely to be
modelled. Finally, if the students see
the models as people like themselves,
and if the behaviour is characteristic of
the group the students belong to, then
the students are more likely to exhibit
that kind of behaviour. In regard to
these characteristics, teachers can and
do make very effective models for
students.

Positive models project feelings that
individuals would like to experience.
This is one way attitudes are formed.

2. Mediated Learning

Besides learning directly through inter-
action and from unconscious modelling,
students learn through the mediation

supplied by parents or peers, other
adults and more knowledgeable or
skillful peers. Mediation, in this sense,
refers to what is said or deliberately
shown. It is the adult's or peer's inter-
pretation of the physical or social
context for the student. This person
intentionally selects, frames, organizes
and interprets events, objects and other
students' responses for the student.

By the age of three or sooner, children
ask lots of questions. They ask for the
meanings of words or why someone did
something. They ask for descriptions of
unfamiliar things or why one act is right
and another is wrong. The ways that
parents and teachers respond to these
questions affect how children learn, and
their attitudes toward learning. These
responses affect how children ask and
answer questions; in fact, they affect
whether they keep on asking questions at
all.

An example of different ways a parent
can mediate in a situation can be shown
in the following incident. An eight-
year-old girl managed to retrieve coins
from a piggy bank through the slot
where coins are normally fed into the
bank. Her father asked her how she
managed to get the coins out, as the
bank was tricky to open. The girl
replied that when she could not open the
bank, she remembered that the coins
went into the slot, and so must be able
to come out through that same slot.

Now, what comment will the father
make? Will he say that she figured that
out very well, because she demonstrated
reversibility of operations (what goes in
must come out)? Will he tell her to ask
for help next time to get the money out
the "right" way? Will he berate her for
not leaving the money in the bank? Will
he explain why the money needs to be
saved for a while longer? With either of
the first two comments, the father
would make this a cognitive issue, of
two very different sorts. The third and
fourth comments would make this an
issue of thrift, again in opposing ways.

27

What the father chooses to say about
events like these helps the child to learn
to interpret the world around her.

In schools, teachers have many similar
opportunities to help students under-
stand the things that take place around
them. In an elementary school, how
would teachers react to a primary
student’s distress at seeing a cat injured
by a car on the road in front of the
school? In secondary schools, how are
students helped to understand a fellow
student’s injury in an accident? Or how
does the teaching staff share a student’s
pride and excitement at winning a
tournament, academic or sporting?

3. Didactic Instruction

a) Direct

There are many programs that teach
directly about emotional growth,
interpersonal skill development or moral
development. These programs take as
their subject matter the knowledge,
skills and attitudes of these domains.
Often ’’affective skills” programs
actually seek to teach interpersonal
skills, such as empathic or active
listening. This knowledge, these skills
and these attitudes are also included as
objectives in many regular curricula, of
which the health, and career and life
management curricula particularly stand
out.

A difficulty with much direct teaching
in these domains is that we, ourselves,
are so unaware of many of our own
skills. For example, think about walking
in the neighborhood of another ethnic
group. In this situation people tend to
lower their heads, curl their shoulders so
their chests do not protrude, keep their
hands in front of or close to their bodies
and keep their eyes down. How many
people are aware that they engage in
this ’’posture of territorial behaviour"?
While making us feel less noticeable, it
also inhibits communication. Are we
aware of this? To what or to whom do
we usually ascribe our lack of commu-

nication in these situations? How can
we then teach about how people act in
such situations, when we're not
consciously aware of it ourselves?

Teachers may feel uncomfortable with
direct teaching in the social, emotional
and moral domains without specific
training. It is important to coordinate
those skills which are taught so that
they do not become a series of
techniques lacking integration. Finally,
it must be kept in mind that affective,
interpersonal and moral knowledge and
skills are closely linked to the context of
their use. It is not useful to teach these
skills in isolation from the context in
which they will be needed.

b) Indirect

The regular curricula include many
objectives in the emotional, inter-
personal and moral domains. Through
the use of modelling and mediated
learning, these affective, interpersonal
and moral objectives can be taught when
using curricular content. Selecting
appropriate materials and allowing
sufficient time (such as time for
discussions) are important in this regard.
This is easier to do in some areas such as
the social sciences, language arts, or
physical education, than in other areas,
such as mathematics. Even in
mathematics, however, some of these
objectives can be accomplished. For
example, we send messages in
mathematics classes about how people
are treated when they make errors, and
when they do well.

4. Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is that learning
which occurs through doing, rather than
through just listening or reading. This
approach is a particularly valuable
component of any effort to teach
interpersonal skills. Essentially, one
learns to live with other people by living
with other people. That is, one learns by
doing.

28

Experiential learning is operative when
students are fully involved, through
lessons linked to their own needs,
experiences or interests. Individuals
need to develop a sense of responsibility
for their own participation -- and for
facilitating others' participation — in
the learning process. Cooperative
learning techniques are especially useful
in achieving these ends, both in aca-
demic and in moral learning.

Teaching through experiential means has
a place in the school setting. To fully
use experience though, one must reflect
upon it. The classroom can be a safe
place to reflect on the interpersonal
learning that occurs in activities before
school, during the noon hour, or riding
the bus.

CONCLUSION

In developing curricula, a traditional and
useful tool for developers has been the
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
For the social sphere, the second
handbook, dealing with the Affective
Domain, by Krathwolhl, Bloom and
Masia is relevant. This document seeks
to organize how educational objectives
are laid out, so that there can be
precision in the curriculum developer's
art.

The organization of affective objectives
is laid out according to logical rather
than developmental principles. The
central principle used for organizing
affective objectives is internalization.
By this, one understands that lower
objectives may be imposed on students,
but at higher levels, students must
incorporate the values or attitudes as
their own. Developmentally, students
often internalize values and attitudes
before they understand them
cognitively.

There are three dimensions to the
stratifications of affective objectives.

First, there is a continuum of awareness.
The student ranges from perceiving an
event or attitude through attending to
it, responding to it and, finally, avidly
seeking it. Second, students gradually
develop their feelings toward something
into a conception of it and toward an
ability to verbalize the conception.
Clearly, there is a cognitive element to
this as well. Third, students come to
organize their attitudes and values into
more or less coherent clusters or
complexes. The goal of coherency of
values is not equally achieved in all
areas by all adults.

Dimensions to Consider When Generating Affective Objectives
1. Awareness Continuum:

Attending to, &
perceiving event or
attitude.

Responding to
event or attitude.

Avidly seeking
event or

2. Conceptualization Continuum;
Aware ot

feelings toward

Conception of

Verbalizatloi

something.

feelings.

of feelings.

3. Organizational Continuum

Random

Coherent

clusters

complexes

or

The value in having a clear hierarchy of
educational objectives is that curriculum
developers are more aware of the
intensity and complexity they are
requiring of students. It helps to ensure
the appropriate variety of objectives are
included in curriculum. This then allows
them to plan sufficient time for the
activities required to bring students to
the level prescribed. Similarly, in
evaluating students, the clarity of
objectives contributes to knowledgeable
choice in determining methods of eva-
luation (such as the use of observation)
as well as the accuracy of designing test

29

items where objective testing is
possible.

Learning in the social sphere is an often
implicit and complex business. We do
not have all the information and
research with which we could draw all
the definite conclusions we might wish.

It can be seen, though, that the
instructional approaches discussed do
not need to be used in isolation from one
another. Good teachers will use a
balance of approaches appropriate to the
objectives being taught. Regardless of
the instructional approaches chosen,
four key principles will best foster
affective, interpersonal and moral
learning:

1. Involvement - Affective, inter-
personal and moral learning are
maximized when students are
engaged in interactive processes,
when interactive rather than
directive educational practices are
used and when students are actively
rather than passively engaged.

2. Practise and Application -
Opportunities must be made
available to apply and practise the
skills learned.

3. Context - Tasks need to be
contextualized and related to the
learner’s experiences or interests.

4. Feedback - Feedback should be
frequent, specific, informative and
descriptive as well as indicate the
relationship between the event and
the student's response.

This monograph has discussed, selec-
tively and briefly, an immense body of
research. Although there are impli-
cations here for the development of
curricula, the larger role in students'
affective, interpersonal and moral
growth lies with the people directly
involved with those students. Schools
are not the sole influence on students.
However, the staffs of schools have a
considerable effect on this kind of
learning; they can make the significant
difference even for students who have
great personal difficulties.

30

APPENDIX

DUPONT (1979) FRAMES OF REFERENCE FOR PROCESSING EMOTIONS

Stage 1: Impersonal (ages 0 to 2)

Affect is undifferentiated and essentially unstructured, children are aware only of
their own sensations and actions.

Stage 2: Heteronomous (ages 2 to 7)

Affect largely influenced by significant adults in the child’s life.

Stage 3: Interpersonal (approximately ages 7 to 12)

Affect influenced by peers and the child’s interactions with them.

Stage 4; Psychological (approximately ages 12 to 15)

Affect determined by one’s own reflection and analysis, affect is increasingly
invested in ideals, values and life plans.

31

FURTHER ELABORATION OF SELMAN’S STAGES
SOCIAL DOMAINS

STAGES OF
INTERPERSONAL
UNDERSTANDING

INDIVIDUAL

FRIENDSHIP

PEER GROUP

PARENT-CHILD

The Egocentric
Undiffe r e ntiated
Stages

- the child is not
aware that another
person may interpret
a situation differently

- view conflict as a
situation in which one
party does not get to
do what he or she
wants because of the
behavior of the other

- aware punishment
follows misbehaviour
but does not
understand parents'
motives

- the child is becoming
self-aware, is still
unable to

differentiate between
inner psychological
experiences and
concrete external
experiences

- Conflict most often
resolved by physical
attachment or
withdrawal

Subjective
Perspective Taking
Stage

- the distinction
between awareness
and unawareness is
still quite vague

- conflicts are resolved
by undoing the
actions that cause the
conflict, or by
performing a positive
substitute action

- trust in a friendship
is based on getting
the other person to do
as the child wishes

- cooperation and co-
ordination of
activities is not
evident

- loyalty is understood
as conforming to the
dictates of the group
leader or other group
members

- children consider
their parents’ motives
for punishment

Reciprocal
Perspective Taking

- The preadolescent
distinguishes easily
betwen outer
(physical) and inner
(psychological) reality
and is aware the two
need not be congruent

- aware that both
parties contribute to
conflict and must co-
operate in seeking an
effective solution

- leadership is based
on skills in mediation,
organization and co-
ordination efforts

- punishment by
parents now may be
viewed as an
expression of the
parents’ concern for
the child’s well-being

- trust is based on
reciprocity - even
exchange of favours is
important as well as
mutual expressions of
affection

32

STAGES OF
INTERPERSONAL
UNDERSTANDING

INDIVIDUAL

FRIENDSHIP

PEER GROUP

PARENT-CHILD

Mutual Perception
Taking

- self-awareness
increases

- friendship is viewed
as a series of
interactions over an
extended period of
time

- leaders are viewed
as encouragers, co-
ordinators, catalysts,
consolidators for the
peer community

- punishment is
viewed as less
applicable to them
than to younger
children

- there is an
increasing

comprehension of the
relationship between
self as subject and self
as object

- a mutuality involved
emotional support
and sharing of
common feelings

- loyalty requires a
willingness to
contribute to the
welfare of the group;
a kind of one-for-all
loyalty

- effective working
through a mutual
problem seems to
strengthen the
commitment to
friendship

- more personal
concerns and
intimacies are shared

- the relationship has
more lasting
consistency and one
friend will stand up
for the other "through
thick and thin” even if
there is no immediate
benefit

Indepth and Societal
Perspective

- become aware that
there are thoughts,
feelings and motives
of which they are
unaware and so are
not available to self-
analysis

- interdependence - a
balance between the
mutuality of the
previous and total
independence is
worth striving for

- leadership is viewed
as created by the
group

- trust means
openness to change
and growth as well as
stability

- leader's role is to
enhance the collective
good

- loyalty means
sacrificing personal
goals for the good of
the group

33

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baumrind, D. A dialectical materialists perspective on knowing social reality. New
Directions for Child Development Vol. 2, 1978.

Block, J. Sex role identity and ego development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984.

Bower, T. Competent newborns. New Scientist, March, 1974.

Brown, A. and J. Campione. Three faces of transfer: implications for early

competence, individual differences and instruction. In M.E. Lamb, A.L. Brown and
B. Rogoff (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology vol. 3, Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1984.

Browne, G., Rosenfield, H. and F. Horowitz. Infant discrimination of facial expression.
Child Development, 1977, 48, 555-562.

Burlingham, D. Psychoanalytic studies of the sighted and the blind. New York:
International Universities Press, 1972.

Carkhuff, R. The productive teacher. Amhurst, Mass.: Human Resource Development
Press, 1984.

Coleman, J. C. The nature of adolescence. London: Methuen, 1980.

Coleman, J.C. Relationships in adolescence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.

Damon, W. The social world of the child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987.

Donovan, A., Oddy, M., Pardoe, R., and A. Ades. Employment status and psychological
well being: A longitudinal study of 16-year-old school leavers. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 1986, 27 (1), 65-79.

Douvan, E. and J. Adelson. The adolescent experience. New York: Wiley, 1966.

Duffy, G.G. Fighting off the alligators: What research in real classrooms has to say
about reading instruction. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1982, 14, 357-373.

Dupont, H. Affective development: Stage and sequence. In R.L. Mosher (Ed.),

Adolescents1 development and education: A Janus knot. Berkeley: McCutchan,

1979.

Dweck, C.S. Learned helplessness and negative evaluation. U.C.L.A. Education, 1977,
19, 44-49.

Dweck, C.S. Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 1986,

41, 1040-1048.

Edwards, C.P., and M. Lewis. Young children’s concepts of social relations: Social

functions and social objects. In M. Lewis and L.A. Rosenblum (Eds.), The child and
its family: Genesis of behaviour (Vol. 2). New York: Plenum Press, 1979.

34

Eimas, P. Linguistic processing of speech by young infants. In R.L. Schiefelbusch and
L.L. Lloyd (Eds.), Language perspectives - acquisition, retardation and
intervention. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1974.

Elkind, D. Formal education and early childhood education: An essential difference.

Phi Delta Kappan, May 1986, 631-636.

Elkind, D. The hurried child: Growing up too fast too soon. Don Mills, Ontario:
Addison-Wesley,1981.

Erikson, E. Childhood and society. New York: Norton, 1950.

Etaugh, C. Effects of maternal employment on children: A review of recent research.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1974, 20 (2), 71-98.

Fantz, R. The origin of form perception. Scientific American, 1961, 204, 66-72.

Feuerstein, R. Instrumental enrichment: An intervention program for cognitive
modifiability. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1980.

Forman, G.E., and I.E. Sigel. Cognitive development: A life-span view. Monterey, Ca.:
Brooks/Cole Publishing, 1979.

Gilbert, D. The young child's awareness of affect. Child Development, 1969, 40,
629-640.

Gilligan, C. In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Glaser, R. Education and thinking: The role of knowledge. American Psychologist, 39
(2), 93-104.

Gow, K. Yes Virginia, there is a right and wrong. Wheaton, 111.: Tyndale House, 1985.

Greenspan, S., and N. Greenspan. First feelings: Milestones in the emotional

development of your baby and child from birth to age four. New York: Viking,
1985.

Hartup, W. Peer relations. In Paul H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol.

4), (4th ed.). New York: Wiley, 1983.

Hetherington, E.M., et al. The aftermath of divorce. In J. Stevens and M. Atheus

(Eds.), Mother-child, father^child relationships. Washington, D.C.: National

Association for the Education of Children, 1978.

Hogan, R., Johnson, J.A., and N.P. Emler. A socioanalytic theory of moral
development. New Directions for Child Development Vol. 2, 1978.

Hutt, S., Hutt, C., Lenard, H., Bernuth, H., and W. Hunt-Jewerff. Auditory responsivity
in the human neonate. Nature, 1968, 218, 888-890.

Izard, C., Hiebner, R., Risser, D., McGinnes, G., and L. Dougherty. The young infant's
ability to produce discrete emotion expressions. Development Psychology, 1980,
16 (2), 132-140.

35

Katz, L. Implications of recent research for the preschool and kindergarten curriculum.
ERIC/EECE Bulletin, 18 (2). Urbana, 111.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and
Early Childhood Education, 1986.

King, Alan J.C., Robertson, Alan S., and Wendy K. Warren. Canada health attitudes and
behaviours survey 9, 12 and 15 year olds 1984-85 (Alberta and Summary reports).
Conducted by the Social Program Evaluation Group, Queen’s University. Published
by Health and Welfare Canada, 1985. Presented at workshop co-sponsored by the
Health Promotion Directorate, Health and Welfare Canada and by the Community
Health Division, Alberta Social Services and Community Health. Edmonton,
Alberta, February 14, 1986.

Kohlberg, L. Development of moral character and moral ideology. In L.W. Hoffman

(Ed.), Review of child development research 1. New York: Russell Sage

Foundation, 1964.

Kohlberg, L. Essays on moral development volume 2: The psychology of moral

development - the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper and
Row, 1984.

Kohlberg, L. From is to ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away

with it in the study of moral development. In T. Mischel (Ed.), Cognitive
Development and Epistemology. New York: Academic Press, 1971b.

Kohlberg, L. Stages and sequence: The cognitive-developmental approach to

socialization. In D. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization: theory and research.
New York: Rand-McNally, 1968.

Kohlberg, L. Stages of moral development as a basis for moral education. In B. Munsey
(Ed.), Moral development, moral education and Kohlberg. Birmingham, Alabama:
Religious Education Press, 1971a.

Krathwohl, D.R., B.S. Bloom, and B.B. Masia. Taxonomy of educational objectives. The
classification of educational goals. Handbook H: Affective domain. New York:
David McKary Co., Inc., 1964.

Kuhn, D., Nash, S.C., and L. Brucken. Sex role concepts of two and three year olds.

Child Development, 1978, 49, 445-451.

Lamb, M.E., and J.L. Roopnarine. Peer influences on sex role development in
pre-schoolers. Child Development, 1979, 50, 1219-1222.

Lamb, M.W., and K. A. Urberg. The development of gender role and gender identity. In
M.E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development. (2nd ed.) New York:
Wiley, 1978.

Levine, M. Developmental variation and learning disorders. Toronto: Educators
Publishing Service, Inc., 1987.

Levinson, D.J. The seasons of a man’s life. New York: Knopf, 1978. Toronto:

Educators Publishing Service, Inc., 1987

Lickona, T. Raising good children. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

36

Macfarlane, J.A. Olfaction in the development of social preferences in the human

neonate. C.LB.A. Foundation Symposium on Parent-Infant interaction, (Vol. 33).
Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1979.

McDermott, R.P. Social relations as contexts for learning in school. Harvard
Educational Review, 1977, 47 (2), 198-213.

Meadows, S. Understanding child development. London: Hutchinson, 1986.

Miller, J.B. The development of women's sense of self. A paper presented at the

American Academy of Psychoanalysis Conference on Women’s Emerging Identity,
October 1, 1983.

Mitchell, J.J. The Alberta secondary student: Some general growth profiles. A paper
prepared for the Alberta Secondary Education Review, Alberta Education,
Edmonton, 1984.

Mokros, J.R., and E. Koff. Sex stereotyping of children's success in mathematics and
reading. Psychological Reports, 1978, 42, 1207-1293.

Nelson, C., Morse, P., and C. Leavitt. Recognition of facial expressions by seven month
old infants. Child Development, 1979, 50, 1239-1242.

Newman, I.M. Capturing the energy of peer pressure: Insights from a longitudinal study
of adolescent cigarette smoking. Journal of School Health, 1984, 54 (4), 146-148.

Nucci, L. Conceptual development in the moral and conventional domains: implications
for values education. Review of Educational Research, 1982, 49 (1), 93-122.

Nucci, L. Synthesis of research on moral development. Educational Leadership,
February 1987, 86-92

Nucci, L.P. The distinction between morality and social convention: Implications for
values instruction. Phi Delta Kappan, March 1981, 489-493.

Parish, T.S., and W.T. Bryant. Mapping sex group stereotypes of elementary and high
school students. Sex Roles, 1978, 4 (1), 135-140.

Parker, J., and S. Asher. Predicting later outcomes from peer rejection: Studies of

school dropout, delinquency and adult psychopathology. A paper presented at the
Annual Conference of the American Research Association, San Francisco, March,
1986.

Patterson, D. The social sphere. Unpublished research paper prepared for Alberta
Education, 1987.

Pellegrini, A.D. Applied child study: A developmental approach. Hillsdale, N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1987.

Putallaz, M., and J. Gottman. Social skills and group acceptance. In S.R. Asher and

J.M. Gottman (Eds.), The development of children's friendships. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1981.

37

Rest, J.R. Moral development: Advances in research and theory. New York: Praeger,
1986.

Rheingold, H.L., and K.V. Cook. The content of boys and girls rooms as an index of
parents’ behaviour. Child Development, 1975, 46, 458-463.

Robinson, E.J., and W.D. Robinson. Egocentrism in verbal referential communication.

In M.V. Cox (Ed.), Are young children egocentric? London: Batsford, 1980.

Robson, K. The role of eye-to-eye contact in maternal-infant attachment. Journal of
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1967, 8, 13-25.

Rubin, Z. Children’s friendships. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980.

Rutter, M. Family and school influences on cognitive development. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 1985, 26, 683-704.

Rutter, M. School influences on children’s behaviour and development: The 1979

Kenneth Blackfan Lecture, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston.
Pediatrics, 1980, 65 (2), 208-220.

Rutter, M. Stress, coping and development: Some issues and some questions. Journal
of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1981, 22, 323-356.

Ryan, K. The new moral education. Phi Delta Kappan. November 1986, 228-233.

Schmidt, W.H.O. Human development: The early years. Edmonton: Alberta
Education, 1984.

Selman, R.L. The growth of interpersonal understanding: Development and clinical
analysis. New York: Academic Press, 1980.

Sprinthall, N., and S. Burke. Intellectual, interpersonal and emotional development

during childhood. Journal of Humanistic Education and Development, 1985, 24 (2),
50-58.

Trevarthen, C. Communication and co-operation in early infancy: a description of

primary intersubjectivity. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech: The beginning of
interpersonal communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Turiel, E. The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Ullian, D.Z. The development of conceptions of masculinity and femininity. In B. Lloyd
and J. Archer (Eds.), Exploring sex differences. New York: Academic Press, 1976.

Weinreich-Haste, H. Engagement and commitment: The role of affect in moral

reasoning and moral responsibility. In W. Edelstein and G. Nunner (Eds.), (title to
be announced). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, in press.

Wiemann, J.M. Explication and test of a model of communicative competence. Human
Communication Research, 1977, 3, 195-213.

38

Witkin, H., and D. Goodenough. Cognitive styles: Essence and origins. New York:
International Universities Press, 1981.

Yarrow, L.J. Emotional development. American Psychologist, 1979, 34, 951-957.

Zier, B. An ethic of care: Gilligan and Noddings present a new perspective. SALT

(Journal of the Religion Studies and Moral Education Council, Alberta Teachers
Association), 1987, 8(2), 15-19.

Alberta Education Documents Cited

Education Program Continuity: A Policy Statement on the Articulation of Children’s
Learning Experiences, 1988.

Philosophy, Goals and Program Dimensions, 1984.

Program of Studies for Elementary Schools, 1982.

Secondary Education in Alberta: Policy Statement, 1985.

These documents are available through the Central Support Services Branch, Devonian
Building, 8th floor West, 11160 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T5K 0L2.

39

-

■

A FFECTI VE

INTERPERSONAL

MORAL

2

4

6

8

Age

in

Years

10

12

14

16

Dupont

Impersonal

f

Erickson Selman

<r Trust

a

Autonomy

u ▲

a

Kohlberg

i i

Heteronomous

Initiative

Egocentric

Undifferentiated

▼

a

u

a

* Differential or
Subjective
Perspective
Taking

Level I
(Premoral)

Interpersonal

Industry

| Self-reflective
or Reciprocal
Perspective
a Taking

▼A

AT

Psychological

Identity

Third Person
or Mutual
Perspective
Taking

Level II
(Conventional)

’r

'r

a

Indepth or
Societal
Perspective
Taking

Level III

'r

'T

Intimacy