School Structures and Moral Learning

Abstract

Two models of schooling, conformity and process, are distinguished. Conformity schools are involved in the transfer of particular values and attitudes concerning the mutual interaction of people, and process schools in facilitating the growth of students with respect to sophisticated moral processing styles.

Research in this area has been fragmentary and often lacking in a coherent conceptual framework. The account of moral development by Piaget and Kohlberg is useful as a language for describing styles of handling moral problems, but instrumentation in this area is presently weak.

Environmental variables, called here “activity structures”, play an important role in the direct learning of moral content, when their perceived importance exceeds their functional importance. The present model suggests several hypotheses concerning relationships between the school environment and the moral learning of students.