Assessment 1 THOMAS 1

Assessment 1

Tch&Lrn 301

Brooke Thomas

Washington State University

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Kohlberg and Maslow

Kohlberg (1981), describes the way people make decisions by the Stages of Moral

development as represented in the textbook as Woolfolk (2016, p.105-107). Kohlberg came up

with six different stages of moral development, explaining how people make choices and their

reasoning based on what an individual’s morals consist of. The first level is called the

“Preconventional Level”, containing the first two stages. The first stage being “Obedience

Orientation”, and a person in this level is likely to always follow every rule avoiding any kind of

trouble at all costs. After that comes the second stage- “Reward/ Exchange Orientation.” In this

stage the person will be more selfish when making decisions thinking their way is always the

right way.

The second level containing the next two stages is where “The expectation of society and

laws are taken into account.” In the third stage, a person makes their decisions based on pleasing

others around them. Next, in the fourth stage someone would base their moral reasoning on all

laws and authorities. For a student in grades K-12 this could be a student who only follows the

expectations of a principal or teacher in charge. The third and final level is referred to as the

stage where people make decisions more on their personal morals rather than society’s laws.

This level contains stage five; where a person makes their choices on what would be the best for

a large group of people. And lastly, stage six would be the stage that a person who looks upon

“human dignity and social justice,” to guide their decisions.

Kohlberg’s theory of moral development can relate to the different experiences K-12

students have in many ways. This theory is great due to the fact that there is no age or gender

limit for any of the stages. Every student is a different stage of their life and this alters the way
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they make decisions. Students who are rule abiders and have been raised to not test authorities

may fall under stage one or four. A student who loves to please others and is concerned highly

about others might fall under stage three or five. The examples could go on, but the main point is

that at any given moment as a teacher is is important to be aware of how your students make

decisions based on their morals and experiences they have had in their lifetime.

Maslow (1970), as discussed in Woolfolk (2016, p. 448-449) explains how humans

survive based on a “hierarchy of needs.” There is a figure in the textbook that gives examples of

lower needs to higher demanded needs in a pyramid shaped form. The four lower levels of needs

have to do with “survival, then safety, following by belonging, and then self esteem- deficiency

needs” (Woolfolk, 2016, p.448). The higher-levels of the hierarchy consist of cognitive,

aesthetic, and self-actualization. These are considered the “being needs” and are found in the

upper half of the pyramid. As a person goes through life their needs become more specific and

demanding. Instead of the more basic needs such as food and water, a person needs to figure out

who they are as a person in life, hence why this is at the top of the pyramid.

Every student has different needs based on what they have experienced throughout their

life. With this being said, every student somehow goes through this hierarchy at one point or

another. For example, in a third grade classroom you could have one child who is more mature

and starting to have cognitive needs. Maybe something at home is making them think this way or

they have just developed a little faster. But on the other hand you could have a very sheltered

student, who’s main priorities in life are their physiological needs still because they have never

grown out of that mindset yet. As a teaching adapting to each child’s is very important when

starting to form strong and healthy relationships with their students.

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Bronfenbrenner and Moll

Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005), created a biological model of human development as

shown in Woolfolk (2016, p. 82). This diagram represents how an individual develops through

different systems. The first system and the one that is closest to the middle (which represents the

individual), is called Microsystem. This includes a person’s friends, family, home and other

items in a person’s life that are closest to their heart. The next system is called the Mesosystem.

This system gets a little bit broader and incorporates an individual’s school, neighborhood and

etc. This system includes all the relations and interactions in the in the Microsystem. The next

system is called the Exosystem. The Exosystem includes “social settings that may effect the

child,” like mass media or community services (Woolfolk,2016, p.82). The last system in the

model is called the Macrosystem. In this system it targets how an individual acts and develops

into a larger community. This system includes items such as religion and law.

This model relates to many experiences that K-12 students might have. The way that a

child is raised and brought up in their Microsystem effects how an individual will act in the rest

of the systems. For example, if a student were to have a rough home life they are more likely to

act out in the other systems. Like the activity we did in class about how a “bad kid” would act in

each system and where the lashing out comes from. A bad home life might cause them to be

bully at school and break laws.

Luis Moll (1992), is the founder of “funds of knowledge” as stated in Woolfolk (2016,

p.199). Moll felt that there needed to be a better way to teach children who come from culturally
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diverse families. The motive that started his thinking was targeting how he could make school

better for the students from Mexican-American families. Eventually this knowledge was use to

make school more understandable for all ELL types of students. He interviewed different diverse

families to find out what the basic funds of knowledge he could relate back to school work were.

He ended up finding out that if you focus on a family’s recourses instead of the items they don’t

know about then it is more easy to relate to their children. This is what the whole funds of

knowledge is based off of. When teachers base their lessons and assignments on children’s funds

of knowledge then “students are more engaged and teachers are more educated about their

students lives” (Woolfolk, 2016, p.199).

Today as teachers we have to be prepared, and know how to reach every student in the

most effective way possible. Moll’s theory can relate to many different experiences K-12

students go through each and everyday. For example, a student coming from a predominantly

Spanish speaking household might struggle with getting the full grasp of ideas being discussed in

class. This can really take a toll on how this student and can even make them complexly shut

down and not want to learn at all. If a teacher made lessons that acquired some of this students

“funds of knowledge” then this student would be overall more engaged. Every student has a

different family and life experiences so its important to adapt to that as much as possible.

Bronfenbrenner’s model and Moll’s funds of knowledge connect more than one might

think. They both have to do with how a student or individual background effects the way one

might act or learn. For example, say you have a student that seems to be falling behind in school

but as a teacher you’re struggling to find out why. Using the funds of knowledge, a teacher might
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ask the students family what has been going on. Finding out that this student is falling behind

because the student comes from a Russian speaking household is something that comes to a

shock to the teacher. With this new knowledge the teacher can now figure out how the student is

developing using Bronfenbrenner’s model and figuring out the best way to teach this student.
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References

Woolfolk, A. (2016). Educational Psychology (13th ed.). The Ohio State University: Pearson

Education, Inc .