Chapter 3 Questions to Consider

Chapter 3

(3.1) Personal and social development can have a major influence on both individual student

learning and the learning environment as a whole. Identify a case from the CSEL guidelines

that you would like to address in your paper. Then, examine the possible developmental

factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study. Consider

all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social,

emotional, and moral development. 

There are several factors contributing to the undesired behavior being demonstrated by this senior English class. The first and most obvious (and probably most understandable) is the restlessness caused by the quickly approaching graduation. Another factor, though, that is contributing to their behavior lies beneath the surface. In accordance with Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning and levels of morality, these students are most likely operating at the third level: postconventional morality (Ormrod 2011, p. 92-93). While they agreed upon a set of rules at the beginning of the year, the seniors have determined that the rules no longer apply as inflexible, dictated law. No one’s human rights or safety is necessarily being jeopardized, so the class probably sees no harm in their disruptive behavior and lack of cooperation with the established classroom procedures. While the three boys seem to be serving as the class’s three ringleaders, the rest of the class is most likely succumbing to peer pressure and demonstrating what is known as self-socialization, or “[adopting] the behaviors they think others will find acceptable” (Ormrod 2011, p. 76-77). As mentioned in the case vignette, the students have formed cliques, and the socially acceptable behaviors of the cliques are serving as the new standard for classroom behaviors, rather than the previously established and agreed upon classroom policies and procedures (Ormrod 2011, p. 77). Also mentioned in the vignette is that the three boys are laughing at other groups who are presenting projects and disrupting the few students in the class who are actually still engaged in learning. In this way, the boys and the rest of the class who are being disruptive are demonstrating the crowd mentality and behavior. As defined in the Ormrod text, “Crowds are …larger than cliques and may not have the tight-knit cohesiveness and carefully drawn boundaries of cliques. [They] tend to share certain characteristics and behaviors” (Ormrod 2011, p. 78). Overall, the presence of cliques and the crowd’s social attitudes have contributed to the shift of the classroom environment.

(3.2) Check out tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age

ranges you are interested in teaching. Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can

promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

In table 3.3 on page 91, one suggestion for 9-12th graders is to "explore moral issues in social studies, science, and literature." I like this suggestion for a couple of reasons. I like that it gives me another opportunity to have my students explore the literature they're reading for class on new levels and in other contexts other than just the typical literary device conversation. Also, I think this would be an interesting place to maybe tie in some cross-curricular work. For example, I might be able to open up a discussion on moral issues in a science-fiction work we're reading (such as Brave New World or 1984) and tie that to something current going on in the science field that relates to morality issues or at least to the book.