On the implications of development for moral education

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of development and the implication it has for moral education. While using the word “development” in its general understanding as change from one stage to the other, it went beyond this to the psychological. It alludes that in terms of moral education, development is not just any behaviour change, but a change toward greater differentiation, integration, and adaptation. In other words, that development as a movement through a sequential progression represents movement from a less adequate psychological state to a more adequate psychological state. Using the method of analysis and description, it came to the conclusion that education for moral and general cognitive development must be judged by its contribution to a more general concept of egodevelopment.