Moral Cognitive-Developmental Theory And Its Enlightenment On The Reform Of Moral Education In China

Our society is now undergoing great changes. With the rapid development of economy and the transfer of our society in multiple levels and aspects, the moral education suffered serious challenge. The severest and biggest blame of moral education mainly refers to the lasting lower efficiency in touching the students'deep soul. Aiming at those deficiencies, the voice of moral education reform became louder and louder. If we took a look at the moral education in our country, we have to recognize that whether from the theoretical or practical aspects, our moral education in a large sense has always based on a traditional model. To break this kind of model, a renewing of our concept is very necessary. We should have the courage to reconsider and explore a new direction for moral education. So discussing the moral cognitive-developmental theory will sure get some inspiration for the reform of our moral education, which is full of puzzle, stress as well as hope and vigor. The whole paper can be divided into three parts.The first part introduces and analyses the moral cognitive-developmental theory. Under the background of moral crisis and the reform of school traditional moral education in western society, the moral cognitive-developmental theory arises. The precursor of this theory is Dewey's moral developmental stages theory. Later on, Piaget's genetic epistemology gives the psychological support for the moral cognitive-developmental theory. The genetic epistemology supposes the ultimate drive arise from the interactive process between the individual and the circumstance. Children's moral development is a part of the whole cognitive development, so it is the same as the development of cognition in substance. In Piaget's opinion, children's moral developmental process can be found in cognitive development. Basic on these, he establishes the moral cognitive-developmental theory. While Kohlberg, the most outstanding researcher of the moral cognitive-development theory, put forwards the stages and models of moral development. He thought the principles to separate the stages of moral development were the structures rather than the contents of the moral judgment. As the stages of moral development were the core concept in his moral cognitive-developmental theory, this paper gave a detailed analysis on the meanings and features of the moral development stages. The idea of moral education in moral cognitive-developmental theory also attracted our attention. In moral education, they thought the process of moral study was a kind of active construction, and completed through the active construction in the social practice especially the intercourse between person and person. In this paper, there is a comparison between the moral cognitive-developmental theory and other traditional moral theory. We found the moral cognitive-developmental theory more intensively and thoroughly explain the meaning of moral education. It promoted the research of moral phenomena become scientifically and expanded as well as provided a new field and a new method for moral educational research.The second part gave reconsiderations for the theory and practice aspects in our moral education. First, our country's moral educational theories mainly adopt the acquiring theory. Acquisition theory laid emphasis on the external circumstance's leading role in the behavior acquirement. Though it has its own the value to some extent, we can never consider it as a reasonable and meaningful theory in a large sense. Second, because of the improper theory, there are many irrational phenomena in the practical field: the astray of the moral educational aim; the confusing of the moral educational content; and the traditional spoon-feed approach and measure in moral education.The last part focuses on the enlightenment of moral cognitive-development theory on our moral educational reform. First, we should follow the moral development rules to promote the moral progress. Second, the paper discuss the new moral models, strongly against the spoon-feed education, and advance the classroom discussion strategy, role-play strategy and the just community strategy in moral education. This new model laid emphasis on subjective education and self-determination choice for students. Last, the paper advances a new idea for moral education in its aims, contents and methods.