Teacher Talk and Students' Reasoning about Morals, Conventions, and Achievement

Abstract

BLUMENFELD, PHYLLIS C.; PINTRICH, PAUL R.; and HAMILTON, V. LEE. Teacher Talk and Students' Reasoning about Morals, Conventions, and Achievement. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 1389-1401. First and fifth graders' reasons for adhering to classroom achievement, moral, and conventional norms were collected during individual interviews. Reasons were coded into 2 intrinsic and 4 extrinsic categories. Developmental change and individual consistency in offering of intrinsic reasons across domains were assessed. In addition, to explore teachers' influence on children's reasoning in each of the 18 classrooms, 10 hours of teacher communication were categorized by domain of norms referred to and types of explanations provided (inductive or extrinsic). Results indicate that older children offered more intrinsic reasons in each domain than did younger children. At both grade levels, children distinguished between social and academic conventions. They offered intrinsic rationales such as consequences to others as reasons for adhering to moral and social conventional norms and self-affirmation as the major rationale for achievement; rationales for academic conventions stood out as distinctly extrinsic. Teachers' use of inductions did not significantly affect children's responses. However, in classrooms where teachers focused proportionately less of their communication on conventions (procedures), first graders offered more intrinsic reasons for adhering to conventional and achievement norms; fifth graders showed no impact of teachers' procedural emphasis, and children's thinking about morals was not influenced at either grade level. Results are interpreted as indicating that teachers influence student understanding, and that developmental change limits the potential impact of teachers.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Michigan Department of Education US
• University of Michigan US

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