Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that the development of moral reasoning is characterized by a series of stages. Each stage builds upon the foundation of the previous stages.

Preconventional

Stage 1 - Punishment Avoidance & Obedience

• People make decisions based on what is best for them. They obey only if established by more powerful individuals, they may disobey is not likely to get caught.

Stage 2 - Exchange Favors

• Recognize other people's needs, look for favors (you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours). Right and wrong are primarily related to consequences to self.

Conventional

Stage 3 - "Good Child"

• Concerned about how actions will please others, especially authority figures (teachers, popular peers). They are concerned about maintaining relationships.

Stage 4 - Law & Order

• Look to society for rules of right and wrong and believe that rules keep society running smoothly. Rules are perceived to be inflexible and not that rules may need to change with society needs.

Post Conventional

Stage 5 - Social Contract

• Rules represent agreements made between many individuals about appropriate behavior. Rules are useful mechanisms that maintain social order and protect rights.

Stage 6 - Universal Ethic Principle

• People adhere to a few abstract universal principles (equality fo all people, commitment to justice) that transcend rules and norms. Strong inner conscience and disobey laws that don't conform to this conscience.

Most educators are trained to teach facts and skills, not engage students in discussions of right and wrong, fairness and justice, values and moral responsibility. Every subject worth learning has moral and ethical dimensions. Exploring these disciplines honestly can invigorate a classroom and help students grow, think, and speak out.

How educators can incorporate moral inquiry into the curriculum:

Acknowledge that young people encounter difficult moral questions every day, and they want guidance

• Instead of teaching history primarily as a set of facts about and actions by leaders, encourage students to examine the choices of ordinary citizens such as themselves: Why did some people conform, and some remain silent, and some dare to protest? Ask students to explore parallels in their own lives and current events. History can help young people understand the present - and contemporary struggles can help students make sense of seemingly incomprehensible events in the past.

Recognize that no subject is morally neutral

• Studying DNA leads naturally to discussions of eugenics and race. A unit about filmmaking readily brings up Leni Riefenstahl and D. W. Griffith. Math instruction is basic for discussions of voting and political polling. Embrace these connections and discuss compassion, indifference, resistance, propaganda, myth making, and knowledge.

Build trust in the classroom

• Establish basic rules of respect - and model them. Listen to your students. Challenge ideas, not people. Work with your class to develop a language for moral inquiry. Let no subject be off limits. If a word makes everyone squirm, bring it up and encourage the class to decide, together, whether it's ever okay to use, and in what context. Recognize the difference between being safe and being comfortable; students must feel safe, but discomfort will help them learn and grow.

Enlist support from your colleagues and administrators

• This is tough ground to march solo on. "Teachers need to come together and get the same kind of experience that doctors get in grand rounds,... they need to discuss race and identity and prejudice - not avoid them. They need to study subjects they never learned as students."

Gather great learning resources

• "History textbooks are watered down ... they give everybody three equal pages of good or bad history -- it's like the Victim Olympics." Supplement required texts with memoirs, poetry, essays, and films. Bring in speakers.

Permit ambiguity

• Encourage questions, curiosity, and moral struggle. Moral inquiry is a journey; opinions and values evolve. Ask students to keep a journal of their thoughts, questions and opinions - and encourage them to read it every so often to see how far they have traveled.

Have faith in your students

• Young people are moral philosophers. "They care about the world they live in ... they want to belong. They want to do right. They want to make a difference." Help students show their smarts, not only to you or to their classmates but also to themselves.

Sorced from: https://www.edutopia.org/how-approach-moral-issues-classroom

The 5 E learning cycle is a method of structuring a lesson that is based upon constructivist learning theory, research-based best practices in pedagogy, and cognitive psychology. It is a recursive cycle of distinctive cognitive stages of learning that include: engage, explore, explain, elaborate (extend), and evaluate. The lesson often takes several days or weeks to complete.

1. The first stage is the “engage”. This is the introduction to the lesson that motivates or hooks the students’ interest in the learning to follow. It can be a demonstration, a discussion, a reading, or other activity used to tap into prior knowledge about the lesson and engage the students’ curiosity. It is used to uncover what students know and think about the concept or topic.

2. This is followed with an “explore” activity that allows the students to have experiences with the concepts and ideas of the lesson. Students are encouraged to work together without direct instruction from the teacher. They observe, question, and investigate the concepts to develop fundamental awareness of the nature of the materials and ideas.

3. The “explain” stage encourages students to explain concepts and definitions in their own words. Students are asked to justify and clarify their ideas. Formal definitions, explanations, and labels are provided. This is done through such activities as discussions, chalk talks, films, etc. and can be didactic in nature.

4. The “elaborate” (extend) stage allows students to apply their new labels, definitions, explanations, and skills in new, but similar situations. It often involves experimental inquiry, investigative projects, problem solving, and decision making. This is also a good time for extension for higher students and intervention or reteach for lower.

5. The “evaluate” stage assesses both learning and teaching and can use a wide variety of informal and formal assessment strategies. Teachers frequently observe students as they apply new concepts and skills to assess students’ knowledge and/or skills, looking for evidence that the students have changed their thinking or behaviors. The opportunity to allow students to assess their own learning and group-process skills is often provided.

Even though the 5 E’s were just described in linear order, there are times when it is appropriate to loop back into the cycle before going forward. For example, several explore/explain loops may need to occur before the students have the full ability to move forward into an extend session. Or, it may be that during the extend stage, the teacher may find students who need to revisit an engage activity. Evaluation is an ongoing process and is not generally left for the end activity. It is helpful to think of the 5 E’s as recursive and looping back on itself. It is also possible for a single E activity to have all of the other E’s embedded within it. For example, an extend session may well begin with engage, followed by brief explore/explain, and be embedded with informal evaluations along the way. The idea of the 5 E’s cycle being somewhat like a fractal with mini 5 E’s building upon one another to create a 5 E’s lesson can be an appropriate analogy.

Sourced from: https://www.mabankisd.net/.../docs/TeachingUsingthe5E.pdf

Coyote mentoring is a unique educational approach that has been developed over the past 25 years by Jon Young at the Wilderness Awareness School in Washington State. It uses children’s passion and excitement for nature as a catalyst to actively engage them in their learning process.

Deep nature connection through coyote mentoring is full of storytelling and music. It follows a child’s passion, incites awareness, and follows a natural cycle. Experimentation and play encourage adventure and fun. Children stretch their curiosity to the edge of nature learning—and through this comes healing and empowerment.

When there is a bird or an animal in the forest, do you hear it? Do you see it? Or are you too distracted and disconnected by the modern world to even notice it? Do you know what is happening around you? Are we so disconnected in the modern world that we are missing out on the natural things that surround us in our lives?

Coyote mentoring calls on us to stretch our awareness and become trained to see what is happening all around us each time we are in nature. As Jon Young explains, our ecological footprint tells us we can’t afford not to be aware of things that are happening around us in nature. It’s quite simple: if people don’t connect with nature, they won’t love it. If they don’t love it, then they likely won’t support conservation efforts. If we don’t have a population of people who care about the earth, then we don’t have the capacity to create change.

Sourced from: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/deep-nature-connection-modern-world-coyote-mentoring

Sharing Nature is a worldwide movement dedicated to helping people of all ages deepen their relationship with nature developed by Joseph Cornell.

The FLOW LEARNING sequence:

Stage One: AWAKEN ENTHUSIASM

• Without enthusiasm, people learn very little, and can never have a meaningful experience of nature. By enthusiasm, I don’t mean jumping-up-and-down excitement, but an intense flow of personal interest and alertness.

• Awaken Enthusiasm games make learning fun, instructive, and experiential-and establish a rapport between teacher, student, and subject.

Stage Two: FOCUS ATTENTION

• Learning depends on focused attention. Enthusiasm alone isn’t enough. If our thoughts are scattered, we can’t be intensely aware of nature, nor of anything else. As leaders, we want to bring students’ enthusiasm toward a calm focus.

• ​Focus Attention activities help students become attentive and receptive to nature.

Stage Three: OFFER DIRECT EXPERIENCE

• During immersive nature experiences, students make a deep connection with an aspect of nature. Offer Direct Experience activities are built on the students’ enthusiasm and receptivity, and are generally quiet and profoundly meaningful.

• By bringing us face to face with a bird, a wooded hill, or any natural subject, Offer Direct Experience activities give us intuitive experiences of nature.

Stage Four: SHARE INSPIRATION

• Reflecting and sharing with others strengthen and clarify one’s experience. Sharing brings to the surface unspoken but often universal feelings that—once communicated—allow people to feel a closer bond with the topic and with one another.

• Share Inspiration activities create a sense of completion and an uplifting atmosphere conducive to embracing noble ideals.

Find out more at: www.sharingnature.com