GENDER DIFFERENCES AND ACQUIRED STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN SCHOOLS

Abstract

Decline of morality in a society is an important issue faced by the world today. Moral values are the code of conduct and standards of life set by a particular society and international community in general and school is an 
important social institution to indoctrinate moral values in students. 
This research study explores the acquired stages of moral development by male and female students who had completed first ten years of schooling from the selected private schools of Karachi and Lahore. It was retrospective causal-comparative research. The accessible population of this study comprises 297 students. A sample of 69 students were randomly selected from the total population. Moral development interview inventory containing ten dilemmas was used as a tool to measure the stages of moral development. Data analysed indicate that no significance difference was observed between the acquired stages of moral development by male and female students. Students have shown the tendency of remaining between 2nd and 5th stage of moral development proposed by Kohlberg. The findings of the study narrate that first ten years of schooling has transformed students into morally developed beings who believe in practicing values and taking fair and neutral actions at the time of temptations. The findings further state that morally developed students are empowered to differentiate between right and wrong, to make the right decisions when faced with complex choices and have the freedom and courage to act in line with the right choices.