How do we teach empathy? The 6 Stages of Moral Development

Effective teaching leads students not to an understanding of material but rather a way of thinking, learning, and doing. Character education is no different - we want our students to be better people, not just understand what being good means.

Two weeks ago I introduced Lawrence Kohlberg's 6 Stages of Moral Development. The research has been around for four decades now, and used by educators for just as long. After reading about them in Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, I was drawn to their alignment with the 'growth mindset' that we hammer home with our students - that they have the power to affect change in themselves, in this case with what kind of a person they are. Taught with a reminder about malleable intelligence, I began down the road with my students with the understanding that we are all on individual levels, joined by our common desire to be better.

The 6 stages are remarkably simple and straightforward. which is why many of my colleagues seemed intrigued by the experiment I was proposing. Teaching them, however, has not yet made the impact I'm hopeful it will have.

We began with the connection to malleable intelligence (or the 'growth mindset' as we call it) - Want to get stronger? Lift. Want to get smarter? Work harder. Want to become a better person? Think of others. Reviewing the stages, I asked the students to consider what stage they themselves were on, but also to try to identify people in their life who are on the respective stages. I used the following Prezi to give a basic overview:

After our discussion, as part of their homework, I asked the students to self-select their current level and explain why. The responses gave me hope. While determining how to invest them in the stages has and will continue to be tricky, it became clear that my students understood how they could be better. Their responses (or some of my 7th graders), viewed here, provide a glimpse at how my students currently operate.

Many of them are able to articulate that they follow the rules and look for guidelines; that they like to please their parents and others; and generally that, as is common for a 7th grader, they're not always thinking of others over themselves.

In class, I continually reference the 6 stages. "Quiet down" is replaced with a reminder to be considerate of others around you while you're working. When they need another reminder, I'll remind them that those of us operating below a Level 5 need to remember that the rule is to talk quietly for those Level 4s, or that I really like it quiet for the Level 3s. The question then can become, "how many of you need a specific reward or punishment to stay quiet?" My students know that, by 7th grade, they should be beyond Levels 1 and 2, but most importantly, they can see that we're still coming back to the why. Don't be quiet because of a consequence, be quiet because it's the right thing to do.

The next step for us is to find ways of motivating the students to move up. Selling them on "stages of moral development" is not easy, and incentivizing would defeat the purpose. So instead, I'm constantly looking for examples and nonexamples (the latter of which is always easier to come by), and reminding the students to be considerate of others.

What it comes back to, for me, is why are students behaving the way they are. Rafe explains how his students are quiet in the hallways, for example. But unlike my students, they're not quiet because they might get yelled at, or because it's the rule. They're quiet because they understand they might disrupt another class. They understand why being quiet is the respectful, responsible thing to do. They get it.

Have you taught Kohlberg's 6 Stages? Do you have a different way of teaching character? Would love to hear feedback on how to make this really stick with my students, and to help them strive for level 6.

For more information, check out this slideshare:

Lawrence kohlberg's moral development theory from Virginia Sevilla