Ecological and Contextual and Theories of Moral Development
Bronfenbrenner developed the theory of child development which is influenced by various factors which include human life. In summary this theory says that child development is influenced by microsystem contexts (family, school and peers), mesosystem context (family and school relationships, schools with peers, and peers with individuals), ecosystem contexts (social background of parents and government policies), and macrosystem context (the influence of the cultural environment, norms, religion, and social environment in which children are raised.
This Bronfenbrenner theory helps provide an explanation for educators to understand the various risks that can negatively affect the child's development process such as the problem of poverty, child abuse, and conflict in the family. A teacher will establish relationships with children who have negative backgrounds by giving special attention that children do not get from their environment.
Detecting the Development of Children from Early Childhood
In the field it is often found that cases have gone too far, so that the assistance needed to "normalize" the child's development takes longer, of course. It should be stressed here that assistance to be given to children who experience developmental delays is a "learning process", in which we must know the stages that children must go through in accordance with when the development begins to stop or experience disruption. Therefore the programs needed are also different from one child to another, because their abilities are also different.
So we as parents / educators who will train the child must know the exact stage where and when the development goes on place. If necessary also through collaboration with therapeutic institutions or child development experts. Regarding the term for this type of assistance, such as "sensory integration (SI) or often also called" basic stimulation "etc. do not need to be questioned, the important thing here is the Playground where children in school have people who are experts to observe children, so that interference child developmental disorders can be detected early. These people must really understand the problem of child development in a "holistic" manner and be able to create an appropriate training program for every child in need, so that the target to "normalize" the child's development can be achieved as expected.
Who is able to detect children who are experiencing developmental obstacles? The answer is a child developmental expert who understands the child's problem "holistically" meaning that truly understands the overall development of the child and its obstacles and who understands that no part of a child's development can develop by itself without getting "input", stimulation / stimulation from the outside.
Theories of Moral Development by Kohlberg and Thomas Lickona.
Kohlberg as an expert on moral development, relies on Piaget's theory which states that affective development occurs in children aged 1 to 5 years. At that time the child is in "self oriented Morality". As an initial stage of moral development this condition is "the Golden Rule" because at this stage begins to grow "mutual respect" in children. To them began to be introduced to courtesy, and other good deeds, although sometimes they get into conflict because they are difficult to manage and are in an egocentric period. The clash between egocentric thinking and mutual respect is an exciting arena for the growth of the transformation of values in children. Virtue will grow through a long series of processes that involve and hone logic and emotions to clash with one another. But from this condition emotion intelligence will emerge which will maintain the child's moral growth can run properly. Thomas Lickona, father of the character from Cortland University stated that at the age of 4 to 6 years the middle child is at the stage "OBODITY WITHOUT TERMS" (Authority Oriented Morality). In this phase the child shows a submissive attitude, is easy to work with, and is willing to do the commands of parents and teachers. But sometimes their egocentric nature also arises as a form of moral development in which they are looking for form. There are several characteristics of moral development in this phase, namely:
Regard adults as being all-knowing
Can accept the views of others
Easily affected by peer delinquency
Like to complain when cheated by friends
Sometimes it tends to break the rules