- Student development
In a way this last point is discouraging news for teachers, who apparently must spend their lives providing as
best they can for individuals—students—still immersed in deficit needs. Teachers, it seems, have little hope of ever
meeting a student with fully fledged being needs. Taken less literally, though, Maslow’s hierarchy is still useful for
thinking about students’ motives. Most teachers would argue that students—young though they are—can display
positive qualities similar to the ones described in Maslow’s self-actualizing person. However annoying students may
sometimes be, there are also moments when they show care and respect for others, for example, and moments
when they show spontaneity, humility, or a sound ethical sense. Self-actualization is an appropriate way to think
about these moments—the times when students are at their best. At the same time, of course, students sometimes
also have deficit needs. Keeping in mind the entire hierarchy outlined by Maslow can therefore deepen teachers'
understanding of the full humanity of students.
Moral development: forming a sense of rights and responsibilities.............................................................
Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad. Moral
development refers to changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity. Moral beliefs are
related to, but not identical with, moral behavior: it is possible to know the right thing to do, but not actually do it.
It is also not the same as knowledge of social conventions, which are arbitrary customs needed for the smooth
operation of society. Social conventions may have a moral element, but they have a primarily practical purpose.
Conventionally, for example, motor vehicles all keep to the same side of the street (to the right in the United States,
to the left in Great Britain). The convention allows for smooth, accident-free flow of traffic. But following the
convention also has a moral element, because an individual who chooses to drive on the wrong side of the street can
cause injuries or even death. In this sense, choosing the wrong side of the street is wrong morally, though the choice
is also unconventional.
When it comes to schooling and teaching, moral choices are not restricted to occasional dramatic incidents, but
are woven into almost every aspect of classroom life. Imagine this simple example. Suppose that you are teaching,
reading to a small group of second-graders, and the students are taking turns reading a story out loud. Should you
give every student the same amount of time to read, even though some might benefit from having additional time?
Or should you give more time to the students who need extra help, even if doing so bores classmates and deprives
others of equal shares of “floor time”? Which option is more fair, and which is more considerate? Simple dilemmas
like this happen every day at all grade levels simply because students are diverse, and because class time and a
teacher’s energy are finite.
Embedded in this rather ordinary example are moral themes about fairness or justice, on the one hand, and
about consideration or care on the other. It is important to keep both themes in mind when thinking about how
students develop beliefs about right or wrong. A morality of justice is about human rights—or more specifically,
about respect for fairness, impartiality, equality, and individuals’ independence. A morality of care, on the other
hand, is about human responsibilities—more specifically, about caring for others, showing consideration for
individuals’ needs, and interdependence among individuals. Students and teachers need both forms of morality. In
the next sections therefore we explain a major example of each type of developmental theory, beginning with the
morality of justice.