06.04.2018 Views

Oi Magazine reviews - Aura & Co. Infrared Sauna Studio,Thao Dien... "Heavenly Heat"

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Talking about ethical issues in the classroom<br />

Text by Sasha Emmons<br />

“THAT’S NOT FAIR!” “SHE HIT<br />

ME ON PURPOSE.” “HE’S NOT<br />

FOLLOWING THE RULES.”<br />

Issues of right and wrong come up in<br />

classrooms all the time, and it can be<br />

hard to know how to deal with them.<br />

Punching a classmate is obviously a<br />

different kind of ‘wrong’ than disrupting<br />

a lesson by yelling out an answer, yet<br />

these are both things that students<br />

shouldn’t do. And that’s not to mention<br />

the moral questions that can arise when<br />

studying history, science or literature.<br />

How should we think and talk about<br />

these kind of issues with our students?<br />

Studies reveal that people across<br />

cultures, including children as young as<br />

three years old, make social judgments<br />

that can be categorized into three<br />

“domains,” or types of knowledge.<br />

This can be a different and useful way<br />

of thinking about rules and “right vs.<br />

wrong”:<br />

• The moral domain focuses on<br />

things that are inherently right or wrong<br />

based on their effects on others. Moral<br />

issues usually have to do with justice<br />

and fairness or (avoiding) harm. Hitting,<br />

stealing and malicious teasing, for<br />

instance, are prototypical moral issues.<br />

• The conventional domain has to<br />

do with social norms, traditions and<br />

rules that depend on context, and thus<br />

are changeable. Social-conventional rules<br />

could include not wearing a swimsuit to<br />

school (though it’s okay at the beach), or<br />

raising your hand before speaking. Social<br />

conventions create common<br />

expectations<br />

and help<br />

societies<br />

run<br />

more<br />

smoothly, but even young kids rate<br />

conventional violations as less serious<br />

than moral ones.<br />

• The personal domain includes<br />

issues that people believe should not be<br />

governed by universal moral rules or<br />

societally determined conventions, but<br />

instead should be up to personal choice.<br />

Issues in this category include such<br />

things as who your friends are or the<br />

contents of your journal.<br />

Of course, many real-life issues are<br />

multifaceted, with components from<br />

more than one domain. For example,<br />

in many societies, the legalization<br />

of same-sex marriage involves<br />

conventional as well as moral and<br />

personal factors.<br />

What happens when two<br />

domains, such as morality and<br />

convention, seem to conflict? If<br />

people are prioritizing different<br />

domains in regard to the same<br />

issue, it may be hard for them<br />

to agree or even communicate.<br />

This is one reason why moral<br />

development is important:<br />

When students learn to<br />

understand and balance different<br />

considerations that play into moral<br />

issues, they can make better decisions<br />

and work with others on resolving<br />

problems in more fair and<br />

caring ways.<br />

90 04/2018

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!