Moral development as the goal of moral education

Don Locke

pp. 147-161

in: Roger Straughan, John Wilson (eds), Philosophers on education, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1987

Abstract

It is a tribute to the richness of Kohlberg's theory of moral development that it straddles the three disciplines of psychology, philosophy and education in a way which is, in my experience, unique. I have discussed some of the psychological and philosophical claims elsewhere (Locke, 1979, 1980, 1985); in this chapter I want to look at their practical application in the sphere of moral education. It can hardly be doubted that the approach which Kohlberg and his associates have developed provides a valuable educational tool, in ways which extend well beyond its specifically moral application. But Kohlberg has also argued that moral development, as he conceives it, should be the goal of moral education, that moral development provides a rationale and a justification for moral education, and that moral education should therefore be directed primarily at the development of moral reasoning, rather than, for example, the improvement of moral conduct or the teaching of moral standards.