CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR S.C. TEACHER CADET COURSE | EXPERIENCING EDUCATION, TENTH EDITION
Scenarios Regarding Moral Development
Preconventional Stage
Conventional Stage
Postconventional Stage
1. A homeless mother steals a loaf of bread from a grocery store in order to feed her starving
baby.
Kohlberg’s Stage __________________________________________
2. The teacher has her class lined up in the hall to go to lunch. She has asked the students
to walk in a single file. A child who sees another child get out of line to get a drink of water
tells the teacher.
Kohlberg’s Stage _________________________________________
3. One student knows that another classmate downloaded a research paper from the Internet
and turned it in as his own writing. The student did not tell on the classmate.
Kohlberg’s Stage _________________________________________
4. A principal finds a pocketknife in the back of a student’s truck in the student parking lot. The
student says that it is not his. The day before he had taken several bags of donations to
Goodwill for a neighbor, and he says that the knife must have fallen out of one of those bags.
The school board expelled the student based on the “Zero Tolerance” policy about having
weapons on school grounds.
Kohlberg’s Stage _________________________________________
5. A single father of three children was jailed for protesting an environmental issue. The
children have been in his care; no other relatives live nearby.
Kohlberg’s Stage __________________________________________
Source:
Adapted from PACE I Curriculum, SC Department of Education, 2003
PAGE I – 3 -22
Theme I: Experiencing Learning
Unit 3: Growth and Development
Directions: Read the following moral dilemmas and rank the individual’s or group’s (in bold
type) behavior according to Kohlberg. Note: Based on varied rationale and perceptions, more
than one acceptable answer might be given.