Table Of Content}VI.oral elassrooms,
}VI.oral ehildren
Creating a Constructivist
Atmosphere in Early Education
Rheta Devries di rJetty ~an
Promoting Social and Moral Starting School: From Separation
Development in Young Children to Independence
CAROLYN POPE EDWARDS NANCY BALABAN
A Teacher at Work: Professional Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic:
Development and the Early Childhood Implications of Piaget's Theory
Educator CONSTANCE KAMII
MARGARET V. YONEMURA
Ideas Influencing Early Childhood
Education
Today's Kindergarten
EVELYN WEVER
BERNARD SPODEK, Ed.
Diversity in the Classroom:
Supervision in Early Childhood
A Multicultural Approach
Education
FRANCESE.KENDALL
JOSEPH J. CARUSO
M. TEMPLE FAWCETT The Joy of Movement in Early Childhood
SANDRA R. CURTIS
Visions of Childhood: Influential Models
, from Locke to Spock Island of Childhood: Eduation in the
JOHN CLEVERLEY Special World of Nursery School
D. C. PHILLIPS ELINOR FITCH GRIFFIN
Moral Classrooms,
Moral Children
Creating a Constructivist Atmosphere in
Early Education
Rheta De Vries and Betty Zan
T64CHERS
a
OLLEGE
~PRESS
Teachers College, Columbia University
New York and London
Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York,
N.Y. 10027
Copyright© 1994 by Rheta DeVries and Betty S. Zan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ
ing photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeVries, Rheta.
Moral classrooms. moral children: creating a constructivist
atmosphere in early education/ Rheta De Vries and Betty Zan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8077-3342-3.-ISBN 0-8077-3341-5 (paper)
1. Moral education (Early childhood) 2. Constructivism
(Education) 3. Moral development. I. Zan, Betty. JI. Title.
LB1139.35.M67D48 1994
370.11'4-dc20 93-44317
ISBN 0-8077-3341-5 (paper)
ISBN 0-8077-3342-3
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United·States of America
01 00 99 98 97 96 95 94 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
f) \l 3'1. 35'
1-·
(o
Li~
l°l°L'i
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 What Do We Mean by "Moral Classrooms?" 7
Vignettes from Three Classrooms 7
Sketches of the Sociomoral Atmospheres in
Three Classrooms 10
Components of the Sociomoral Atmosphere 22
Research on Sociomoral Atmosphere and
Children's Sociomoral Development 23
The Sociomoral Atmosphere as Hidden Curriculum 25
So What Is the Constructivist Sociomoral
Atmosphere? 26
2 What Do We Mean by "Moral Children?" 28
What We Do Not Mean by "Moral Children" 28
How Children Think About Moral Rules· 31
How Children Think About Others 32
Observing Moral Children in the Classroom 38
Summary 41
3 How the Sociomoral Atmosphere Influences the 43
Child's Development
Social Interaction and Construction of the Self 44
The Teacher-Child Relationship 45
Peer Relationships 52
Summary 57
v
vi Contents
4 Establishing a Constructivist Sociomoral Atmosphere 58
Classroom Organization 58
Activities 62
The Teacher's Role 70
Summary 78
5 Conflict and Its Resolution 79
The Role of Conflict in Development 79
Sociomoral Atmosphere and Conflict Resolution 81
Conflict Between Teacher and Child 101
Summary 102
6 Grouptime 104
Objectives for Grouptime 104
The Role of the Teacher 106
Conducting Grouptime 108
Grouptime Lost, Grouptime Regained 122
Summary 123
7 Rule Making and Decision Making 125
Objectives 125
Rule Making 126
Decision Making 139
Summary 144
8 Voting 145
Objectives 145
Guidelines for Voting 146
Summary 161
Social and Moral Discussions 162
What Is "Social," "Moral," and "Sociomoral?" 162
Moral Judgment Theory 164
Moral Dilemmas 166
Objectives of Sociomoral Discussions 168
Guidelines for Conducting Hypothetical Sociomoral
Discussions 168
Real-Life Moral Discussions 174
Hypothetical Dilemmas Drawn from Real-Life
Experiences 175
Summary 177
Contents vii
10 Cooperative Alternatives to Discipline 178
The Role of Personal Experience in Social and
Moral Development 17 9
Two Types of Sanctions 180
Guidelines for Implementing Constructivist
Alternatives to Discipline 185
Summary 190
11 Activity Time 192
Objectives and Rationale 193
Three Categories of Knowledge Reflected in
Activities 193
Planning for Activity Time 197
Implementing Activity Time 201
Three Sources of Difficulty in Implementing
Activity Time 216
Summary 216
12 Clean-Up Time 218
Objectives 218
How to Present Clean-up to the Class 219
Problems with Clean-up 221
Solutions to Clean-up Problems 222
Summary 232
13 Lunch Time 233
Objectives 234
Guidelines for Lunch Time 234
Summary 242
14 Nap Time/Rest Time 243
Problems of Nap Time 243
Guidelines for a Less Stressful Nap Time 244
Summary 249
./15
Academics 250
The Sociomoral Context for Teaching Academics 251
The Conditions for Promoting Academics 252
The Constructivist Integration of Academics 254
Summary 262
viii Contents
16 The Difficult Child 264
The Behaviorist Approach 265
Integration of Psychodynamic and Constructivist
Theories 268
Guidelines for Working with the Difficult Child 270
Summary 278
17 The Sociomoral Atmosphere of the School 279
Kohlberg and Colleagues' Work on Assessing
Moral Culture 279
Children's Experience of the School Atmosphere 281
The Teacher's Experience of the School Atmosphere 283
Principles for Principals 284
The Sociomoral Atmosphere of the State
Department of Education 289
Summary 290
Appendix 293
References 297
Index 301
About the Authors 310
Acknovvledgments
This book is the result of collaboration with many teachers over a
number of years. In particular, we draw from videotapes made in the
Human Development Laboratory School (HDLS) at the University of
Houston. We videotaped once each week during 1989-1990 in Peige
Fuller's classroom, and twice each week during 1990-1991 in Coreen
Samuel's classroom. Other videotaped resources were collected less
systematically from the classrooms of Karen Capo, Stephanie Clark,
Carol Olson, Angie Quesada, Kathryn Saxton, Mary Wells, and Marti
Wilson.
To Ms. Lorraine Bradley Goolsby we express appreciation for
help in developing social and moral dilemma discussion stories that
provided the basis of Chapter 9.
We want to express our appreciation to the Limited-Grant-in-Aid
Program at the University of Houston for support of the classroom
videotape research, to the Harry S. and Isabel C. Cameron Founda
tion. for support of program development reflected in the book, and
to the Spencer Foundation for support of the research described in
chapter 1 that serves as the inspiration for this work.
We owe special thanks to Ms. Deborah Murphy, Dr. Juanita Copley,
and Dr. Hermina Sinclair who reviewed the entire manuscript and
offered many helpful suggestions. We also thank our editor, Ms.
Susan Liddicoat at Teachers College Press for her faith in the idea for
the book and for all her help throughout the publication process.
We want to express our deep appreciation to all the children and
teachers whose efforts have contributed so much to our understand
ing and formation of constructivist education.
ix
