Lesson Title: Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Course and Grade: Sophomore English, 10th
Generalization: This lesson is important for providing a structure (framework) through which to
understand moral development and moral issues in literature that we will be addressing. The subsequent
lesson will build on this, the one after that will address Gilligan’s alternative model, and both will be
compared and contrasted. As students grapple with moral issues it is helpful to have a common point of
reference, a common way of understanding the issues within a framework: this is that framework, and gives
them the common vocabulary they will need.
Learning Targets:
Facts: Kohlberg’s various identified stages of moral development, his claims about them
Skills: identify various stages of moral development that influence people’s decisions in moral dilemmas
Materials: Lesson plan, worksheet packets for Kohlberg/Gilligan, hand outs of moral dilemmas,
SmartBoard, papers, pencils, pens, scissors, gluesticks, SmartBoard.
Anticipatory Set: Roll assignment. Introduce a moral dilemma. Have a few groups of students grapple
with the dilemma and offer all the possible ways one might go about resolving it.
“A person is very, very sick: in fact, terminally ill. This person’s family cannot afford the life-saving
medical treatment that is only available at a few of the most advanced research hospitals in the nation.
They do not have any insurance, and no health care coverage. They do all have jobs, but with the salaries
they receive, even if they save all their money, sell their car, their home, everything they own, there is still
no way for them to raise the money for this person to have the life-saving procedure done before this
person dies. One of the members of the family faces the following dilemma: to steal the money to pay for
the procedure, or not? This person has the opportunity and feels confident he or she could get away with it.
Do you steal, to save a life, or not? That is the question I want you to consider. What are all the different
ways one could approach trying to resolve this question? What could someone struggling with this
question do, or how might he or she think about it, what factors might be involved, what might she or he
think about while trying to resolve this? Let’s brainstorm some ideas, one at a time. Raise your hand and
let me know one way this person could approach this moral dilemma—important distinction here—these
answers you are giving me are not necessarily the things YOU would do in his or her place, or what you
would recommend doing. These are just things you think that some people might think about, or things
that someone might do, ways someone—not necessarily you—ways that someone might approach solving
this problem.” Class gives suggestions and I write them down on the SmartBoard.
Context and Purpose: “Today we’ll be looking at Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, a theory that
we’ll contrast with a competing theory by his protégé, Carol Gilligan. She thought his research was limited
by the fact that he only did his research with males, asking them what they thought, and totally excluding
girls and women from his research. Nevertheless, both of these theories of moral development will be very
useful to us as we read through To Kill a Mockingbird and other texts. The reason we are learning these
two moral development models is not because these are the only ways to look at how humans develop
morals; there are other models. These models, however, are two of the most commonly and widely used
ones. I am not trying to convince you that the theories of Kohlberg and Gilligan are the only or even the
most correct ways of looking at human moral development; what I am trying to do is to give you all a
common frame of reference, and a common understanding, so we can have meaningful discussions about
the moral development of various characters in literature. We need to have a common language, so that
when we use certain terms related to characters’ moral dilemmas and their decisions, we all have the same
understanding of what those words mean and we know we’re all talking about the same thing. Simply put,
I want us all to be on the same page, and a common vocabulary is essential to making that happen. What
I’d like for you to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson that begins today are the following
things: tell me the different levels or stages that Kohlberg identified in people’s moral development, what
those stages mean or in other words what they are based on, and explain the WAYS in which someone at
each stage of that moral development would go about resolving moral dilemmas, because the WAY they go
about answering the moral dilemma is more important than what they ultimately decide to do. In other
words, when trying to figure out someone’s stage of moral development, it’s not so important what
someone would do as it is HOW that person comes to that decision. I’d like for you to be able to identify
icons or symbols that would be appropriate to represent each stage of Kohlberg’s moral development and
explain your reasoning—why it is appropriate for that stage of moral development—and to tell me a oneline phrase or expression that would sum up the idea for each stage of moral development and explain to
me WHY that phrase is appropriate for summing up the basic idea for that stage of moral development. I’d
also like for you to be able to tell me the general principles or beliefs Kohlberg had about people’s moral
development; that is, to basically tell me about his theory and its general principles or its underlying beliefs
or assumptions. Here is what we will do today in order for you to show me this knowledge.” (Pass out all
the worksheets on Kohlberg.) “First of all, as a class, we will read through the general information about
Kohlberg’s theory and the description of each of the total of seven stages of moral development he
identified, using this worksheet. Then we’ll come up with one-line summaries or catchphrases for each
stage of development, again to help you remember what each stage is about. Then I will give you a couple
of pieces of paper with a series of images and ask you to choose which ones best fit with each stage of
moral development. They will help you to remember each stage by giving you a visual cue to associate
with each stage. You will choose images from a series of images on a piece of paper and cut out an image
that you feel does a good job of representing a particular stage of moral development, and paste it on to the
blank square next to each stage of moral development on your worksheet. Then, we’ll move on to figuring
out what people would do for a particular moral dilemma for EACH stage of moral development according
to Kohlberg, and then eventually also for Carol Gilligan.”
Instruction: Read the general information on Kohlberg. Then move on to the descriptions of all seven
stages. “So, as you can see on your worksheets, the first stage is stage ZERO. Here there is NO moral
development at all. What feels good is good; what feels bad is bad. Pleasure good. Pain bad. That’s it.”
Move on to explain stages one through six, pausing after the explanation for each stage to have students
generate appropriate catchphrases to summarize each stage, and have students write those down. “Now,
I’ll show you some images or icons and I want you to tell me which ones you think best fit a particular
stage of moral development, and tell me which stage that is, and why the icon or image fits well with or is
appropriate for that stage of moral development.” (Show a series of images. Have students say which ones
fit which stage of development best, and explain why; hand out the pieces of paper with the images on
them.) “Now, choose an image from one of your two pieces of paper with images on them to represent each
stage of moral development and cut it out and glue it on to the square next to the stage with which you feel
it best fits. This is to help you remember each stage at a glance and to help you create a visual association
that will help you to remember the stages later. So, right now I want you to start cutting and pasting those
images.”
When students have finished, open up the template in Notebook on the SmartBoard that looks like the page
in their packet where they create a moral dilemma and say what someone would consider and do at each
stage of moral development according to Kohlberg, and type in the appropriate phrases into the appropriate
places while saying, “Now, I want you to go on to the page of the worksheet that has a space for you to
write your own original moral dilemma, and then spaces where you would write whatever someone would
consider at each stage of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. Skip the part where you come up with
the moral dilemma. For right now, it doesn’t matter. I want you to start writing, word-for-word, exactly
what I tell you, in each box for each stage, starting with Stage Zero. Right after it says, ‘I would ask
myself,’ I want you to write, ‘Would I get physically hurt if I …’ Then after the place where it says, ‘I
would also ask myself,’ write, ‘Will it give me physical pleasure to ….’ Then in the space after the word
‘because,’ write, ‘that would give me physical pleasure and/or it wouldn’t hurt me.’ For Stage One, right
after it says ‘I would ask myself,’ write, ‘Would I get rewarded if …’ and then for the second question
write ‘Would I get punished if …’ Then after it says ‘because,’ write, ‘the ______ outweighs the
________’ and later you’ll fill in those blanks with the words ‘reward’ and ‘punishment,’ although you
won’t know which word goes where until you’ve come up with your own original moral dilemma. For
Stage Two, for the first question, write, ‘Do I owe it to …’ and for the second question write, ‘Would ___
do the same for me if our situation was reversed?’ Later, you could change one of those questions to ‘What
has ___ done for me, or what will ____ do for me if I …’ if you felt that fit better with your moral
dilemma. Then after ‘because’ write ‘that is what is fair and _____ does owe(s) it to _____.’ Later, if
appropriate, you can add a ‘not’ in between ‘does’ and ‘owe(s),’ and you’ll fill in the blanks with the names
of whoever does or does not owe it to whomever else. For Stage Three, write, ‘Would my friends …’ and
then for the second question write ‘Would my family …’ and then after ‘because’ write ‘that is what I think
my family/friends would do and that is what’s right.’ For Stage Four, write, ‘Is it legal or illegal to …’
Then for the next question you’d ask yourself, write, ‘Does it break the rules/societal expectations for me to
…’ and then after ‘because,’ write, ‘that is legal and socially expected and therefore right’ or ‘that is not
illegal and not against society’s expectations therefore it is not wrong.’ Either one is fine. For Stage Five,
write, ‘Is it legal or illegal to …’ and then for the next question write ‘And is it morally right, regardless of
the law, to …’ and then after because, write, ‘that is right, regardless of the law.’ Finally, for Stage Six,
write, ‘If I ____________, and everyone else also _____________, would that be what’s best for the
world?’ and then write ‘Does everyone have the right to …’ and later, if you decide that the first question
doesn’t really work that well, you could also change it to be ‘Does everyone have the right to …’ and then
finish it with a different thing, like for a moral dilemma on living in pain or dying, it could be the right to
live versus the right to be spared needless pain and suffering. Now, after ‘because,’ write, ‘everyone has a
right to …’ or ‘if everyone did this the world would be a better place.’”
“Now, I’m going to give you five minutes to work in complete and utter silence, on your own, to create
your own original moral dilemma and write it in that rectangle at the top of the page. Here is my example.”
Show students my example. “Yours must end with ‘Do you this or do you that?’ where ‘this’ and ‘that’ are
two or more different possible actions. Mine has three; yours must have at least two. So, at least two
different possible courses of action: ‘Do you kill or not kill?’ or ‘Do you steal or not steal?’ or ‘Do you lie
or not lie?’ or ‘Do you cheat or not cheat?’ or ‘Do you keep the secret or tell the secret?’ or ‘Do you fight
the dragon or not fight the dragon?’ or whatever relates to the scenario you’ve created. Mine is a realistic
scenario; yours may be realistic or totally far-fetched. You can think of legal procedural television shows or
medical dramas you may have seen or movies or video games to give you inspiration and ideas for moral
dilemmas, but try to be as original as you can be. But it has to be a gut-wrenching, difficult decision, where
there is no easy answer. ‘Should I have toast or a bagel?’ is a decision but it is NOT a moral dilemma. So,
you now have five minutes to create your own original moral dilemma, to be done on your own, in
complete and total silence.” Give students five minutes to write their own original moral dilemmas.
“Now, I’m going to demonstrate how to fill in those dot-dot-dot blank spaces, using my own moral
dilemma. So your options are: kill him like he asked, just run away, or try to rescue him and risk being
slowed down and getting captured and tortured by the enemy yourself. So, here’s the moral dilemma as I
have written it.” Show students the moral dilemma again. “So you take those different options, the ‘Do you
this or do you that’ possible courses of action, whether there are two or three of them, and you plug them
into the dot-dot-dot blank spaces. So, I’m going to ask some people to do that right now with my example
moral dilemma.” Have students come up to the SmartBoard and fill in the … blank spaces with the details
specific to my moral dilemma, which in most cases will be ‘kill him,’ or ‘run away,’ or ‘try to save him.’
“So, we’ll start with Kohlberg’s Stage Zero. Referring to your Kohlberg worksheets, what’s a good
catchphrase for this stage?” Call on a student. “Right: pain bad, pleasure good, or, if it feels good, do it.
The questions at this stage are always the same. Would it hurt me to do this? Would it give me physical
pleasure to do this? So, the questions someone at this stage would ask about this particular moral dilemma
would be: would I get physically hurt if I … And would it give me physical pleasure to …” and have a
student come up to the SmartBoard and fill in those blanks with ‘shoot him’ or ‘run away’ or ‘try to save
him.’ Have students identify ways in which choosing each of those three options could help you avoid
experiencing physical pain or might lead to you experiencing physical pain. Then have the student at the
SmartBoard say what the person would do at this stage and why, and write that on the SmartBoard.
“On to Stage One: Punishment and Obedience. Given that title, what are the two questions anyone at this
Stage is going to ask him or herself no matter what the moral dilemma is? Right, will I get punished, or
will I get rewarded, if I do this or that? So, we add in the specifics of this dilemma. Would I be punished
for … And would I be rewarded for …” and have a different student come up to the SmartBoard and fill in
those blanks with ‘shooting him’ or ‘running away’ or ‘trying to save him.’ Have students identify what the
possible rewards and punishments could be for doing each one of those three options. Then have that
student say what the person would do at this stage and why, and write that on the SmartBoard.
“Stage Two: Reciprocity. What are the kinds of questions someone at this stage would always ask,
regardless of the moral dilemma? What’s in it for me? Do I owe it to this person or that person to do this
or that? If our positions were reversed, would she or he do the same for me? Is it fair? What’s s/he ever
done for me? Now, we add in the specifics of the dilemma.” Again have a different student fill in the
blanks and explain what you’d do at this stage and why and write that on the SmartBoard.
“Stage Three: Conformity. What does someone at this stage always ask him or herself? Yes, what would
my friends, family, and people whose opinions matter to me do? So, if you were here at Stage Three,
you’d ask your friends and family what they would do and whatever the majority of them said, you’d do, or
you’d take the advice of whichever friends or relatives whose opinions you respect and trust the most and
do what they suggest. Would my family/friends/people whose opinions matter to me …” and again have a
different student fill in the blanks with either ‘kill him’ or ‘run away’ or ‘try to save him.’ Then have that
student identify what you’d probably do at this stage of moral development and why, and write that on the
SmartBoard.
“Stage Four: Law and Order. Two questions apply here. One question is: is it legal or illegal to do this?
The other question is: does it break the rules or society’s expectations to do this? So for this particular
moral dilemma, at this stage, my questions I’d consider would be: Is it legal or illegal to … And does it
break society’s rules/expectations to …” and again have a different student fill in those blanks with ‘kill
him’ or ‘run away’ or ‘try to save him,’ then explain what someone at this stage would probably do and
why, and write that on the SmartBoard.
“Stage Five: Social Contract. Here, only sometimes is it acceptable to break the law; it’s only okay to
break the law when the law is wrong. So I would ask myself, is it legal or illegal to … And regardless of
the law, is it morally right to …” and have a different student fill in the blanks with ‘kill him,’ ‘run away,’
or ‘try to save him,’ then explain what someone at this stage of moral development would probably do and
why, and write that on the SmartBoard.
“Stage Six: Universal Ethical Principles. If it’s right and true for one, it’s right and true for all. So, I would
ask myself: does everyone have the right to … And if I did … and everyone else did the same thing in this
set of circumstances, would that be what’s best for the world?” and have a different student fill in the
blanks with ‘live’ or ‘not be tortured’ and ‘spare someone the pain of torture’ or ‘try to save someone from
being tortured or killed’ and then explain what someone at this stage of moral development would probably
do and why, and write that on the SmartBoard.
Then do the same process with even more students and at least one other example moral dilemma.
“Now, go through and replace those dot-dot-dots with the specific details that relate to your own original
moral dilemma.”
Use the document camera to show them an image of a partially-filled out second section where they have
not filled in the blank spaces or ellipses with the specific particular details of their moral dilemma and tell
them, “If you turn in this worksheet when I collect it and it still looks like this, where you have left the
blank spaces, the ellipses—these three little periods in a row—as they are here, and you have NOT filled in
those with the specific, particular details of the moral dilemma that you generated, then you will get a zero
on this section. You will not get any points unless you specifically go back and use your pencil or pen to
physically write in the specific, particular details of your own original moral dilemma in those blank
spaces, erasing and replacing those dot-dot-dots. So it cannot look like this; it must instead look like this”
and then show them a complete, filled-in worksheet that has been done correctly. Also use the document
camera to show them a counter-example where the moral dilemma itself does NOT end with ‘Do you ___
or do you __,’ and point out to them that this would cause them to lose points, and then show them a
correct example that does end that way.
“You now have a chance to fill in the blanks and the dot-dot-dots from before for your moral dilemma
indicating what someone at each stage of Kohlberg’s moral development model would think about, and do,
and why. Remember that you are writing what SOMEONE would think about, and do, and why, for each
stage of moral development, not what you personally would choose to do or want to do. Don’t twist each
thing around to make the outcome be what you want it to be or what you personally do believe would be
the right thing to do. If you personally believe it’s morally right to steal in order to save a life, fine, but
don’t write that that’s what someone at Stage Four would choose to do, because someone at Stage Four
would never break the law, because at Stage Four, what is legal is what is right, and they’d never break the
law, because they would always think that breaking the law is wrong. For each stage, fill in those blank
spaces, those dot-dot-dots that you left there before, with the specific details of your particular moral
dilemma you created, and write what the person would most likely choose to do at that stage of moral
development, and the reason why, linked back to the questions the person would consider and that person’s
motives at each stage. At stage zero, it’s all about avoiding physical pain and seeking physical pleasure; at
stage one, it’s all about avoiding punishments and seeking rewards; at stage two, it’s all about giving and
getting equally; at stage three, it’s all about fitting in with others; at stage four it’s all about obeying the
law; at stage five it’s all about doing what’s right regardless of the law; at stage six it’s all about making the
choice you’d want everyone in the world to make in that same set of circumstances.”
Then give students time to begin to do this process themselves, filling in the blank spaces with details
specific to the moral dilemmas they have created.
Walk around and observe and make certain students are in fact filling in their worksheets correctly and
completely. The next time, teach the students about Gilligan’s theories and have them do the same process
using her moral development model.
HW: Study their vocabulary.
More Moral Dilemmas
You’re at a party where a six foot, six inch, three-hundred-pound, broad-shouldered and well-muscled guy
is obviously extremely drunk. He is about to leave the party and drive himself and his girlfriend home. No
one else makes a move to stop him. What do you do?
A hot-tempered friend of yours is armed and in a murderous rage. He has a loaded gun and is threatening
to kill a guy, who you don’t know, over some matter that you don’t know anything about. He insists that
this man must be shot; either you shoot the guy, or he’s going to do it, and if he does it, you know that he
will shoot the man in the head and kill him. What do you do?
Do you steal food when you and your family are starving, or not, or do you steal money to buy food, or
not?
You are on a jury in a capital-crime case: the defendant, if found guilty, will die. You are the only one on
the jury who believes he’s innocent. If the head juror declares a hung jury (meaning you can’t reach
consensus) then a new trial will happen and the defendant will likely be found guilty. Every other juror
wants to find him guilty and go home: none of you can leave until you’ve reached a verdict. What do you
do?
You and your spouse (in the future) have conjoined (Siamese) twins. The doctors tell you if you don’t
separate them they will both die within a year. If you do separate them one will die and the other might
live. What do you tell the doctors to do: separate them and give at least one a chance to live, or refuse to
choose and let them both die within a year?
You know a particular individual who is suspected of murder. You believe he is innocent. He is running
from the law. You know if he is arrested, he could very likely end up dead as a result of police brutality, or
a lynch mob, or be given the death penalty, despite his innocence, all of which are fairly common in the
area of the country you are in. If you aid and abet him by helping him to escape you are also committing a
crime, and you could go to prison for many, many years, or possibly also end up dead. He comes to you
for help, help in escaping to Canada and from there to a country from which it will be difficult to extradite
him. Do you help him obtain his freedom, and break the law doing so, or not?
BECAUSE
I SAY SO!