Why should we teach Moral Reasoning? | Phil Temple | TEDxNorwichED

[Music] I was playing on a console in my parents' bedroom on a Formula 1 racing game at a crucial point in the race when my father told me to stop stop stop now stop at this crucial point I decided to reason with him to explain to him the significance of where I was in the game to explain to him how important it was that I could finish what I'd started to explain that pausing the game would risk overheating the console and that there'd be a danger that wouldn't be able to get back in the zone

when I resumed at least that's what I wish I'd done instead I decided to try out a new phrase a phrase I'd heard from some of the older kids at school some of the cooler kids it's a two-word phrase that that expressed my dissatisfaction with what it was that he was suggesting that clearly describe the fact that I did not agree with what he said I didn't realize I didn't quite understand the emotional impact of those two words that I was about to utter not until I said them at least and then the shouting started

something about getting out of the room and going to my room immediately something about how I would would never use that kind of language again perhaps words like grounded were banded about my father is a calm rational Fair reasonable man but I was terrified it was something about his reaction that was so shocking so surprising I I learned then that what I had done was wrong I learned that it was not okay and it was not good and I swear to you I never said the fword to my father again I wonder how you learned

it not that word not any word but I wonder how you learned what was right and what was wrong I I wonder how you came to understand what was good and what was not maybe you can remember moments like that one snapshots in time maybe you got caught speeding maybe you got told off by a teacher when you were a student or recently maybe you did something that you deeply regret maybe you can't pick out specific moments and actually this stuff doesn't develop in an instant does it it develops over time it is not a

collection of snapshots but how do we develop moral reasoning how do we come to understand what is right and what is wrong and what happens if we don't I have a confession to make today I am not primarily an educator I'm not a teacher or a lecturer education is not my primary vocation I'm a psychiatrist that's right I have one of those jobs that makes people look at you a bit funny but it's okay don't worry cuz I am analyzing you I work in forensic neurodevelopmental psychiatry which I think sounds really exciting I think it

sounds like I run around chasing an analyzing criminals and helping to catch them does anyone remember waking the dead it was a TV show it's on Netflix or something but that's not what I do I work in an impatient secure unit for people with learning disabilities autistic Spectrum conditions or both and most of our patients have had some involvement with the criminal justice system many of them are in our care instead of being imprison so I'm fascinated by this question of how we develop moral reasoning how moral decision making develops in our lives because what's

striking is that the people that I work with are not bad people they are warm friendly fun and yet they have done things that are shockingly wrong in the 4 and 1 half years that I've been working in this area I have worked with with people who when you spend time with them are absolutely fine but under stress or pressure have done things that the rest of society would consider completely unacceptable where does that come from what happens I've also seen though that when we intentionally teach moral reasoning to the people that we work work

with the effect the impact is significant people go from having a pro-criminal antisocial attitude to having a pro-social positive view of themselves and the world and I wonder if we're leaving it too late if we wait until people come into forensic Services before we teach them this stuff should we teach moral reasoning sooner should we teach it more widely and to answer that question I want to look a little bit at where our understanding of morality comes from there are many models that might help us to do this but probably one of the most well-known

and most established the foundational one for this whole area was developed by a person called Colberg who who put out six stages of moral development who explained that as we age as we go through maturity we go from a a moral understanding that is very much based on meeting our own needs to an understanding of morality based in the social consensus and and one stage particularly is significant as we go from stage two to stage three as we go from sta a stage which is defined by a what's in it for me approach to a

stage that is more about the golden rule of treating others as you would want to be treated yourself but what's interesting is that progress does not always happen and there are many reasons why it may not occur for for some people it may be that it doesn't occur because of an intellectual disability or problems with perspective taking or a Mis understanding of social cues for others it's because the environment that they grow up in do not provide the circumstances for ongoing moral development and and the Colberg himself talked about the fact that that the more

sociable the environment the faster we develop morally others like John C Gibbs have talked about the fact that if people grow up in a in an Environ whether is neglect or abuse they are primed to develop antisocial attitudes that actually the circumstances that we grow up in have a key role in our moral development and we've seen that in my own life how with the nurturing support of my parents and their gentle guidance when I went astray I learned moral reasoning imagine if you don't have that input actually you probably don't have to imagine it

you've probably seen it you've probably seen seen it in some of your students you probably rub shoulders with people who have not had that background and that nurture and developed I was talking to one of my colleagues recently very recently about how about one of our patients and about how the pattern of abuse and neglect that he suffered in his early life so clearly shaped the offending behavior that occurred later on so what we've done where we work is that we run a course that intentionally teaches moral reasoning that that doesn't expect people to catch

it just by default but by Design we have a course that helps people to catch it and to understand it that provides the environment in which they can learn it it's a course called equip that runs in a 12 rep program four days a week for about an hour a day and it covers things like social skills like moral judgment anger management all in the context of mutual support and encouragement that are addresses some of the key key problems that lead to antisocial Behavior it it covers things like thinking errors mistakes in the way that

we perceive ourselves or the world things like thinking the worst which is when we assume the worst possible outcome of people or situations or blaming others which is when we ascribe our negative attitudes or the things that we do and we say that they are someone else's responsibility or they are someone else's fault it also teaches things like coping skills about the way to deal deal with stressful situations about not becoming the clown in the ring and there is a picture here of someone taunting us like a clown in a ring and we have a

decision as to whether we step into the ring with them and become a clown ourselves or cut the strings and step away as you can hear there is a common language that develops a language that endures through people's progress and I've seen the impact as we've taught this I've seen what happens as people have Tak these principles on board how they have moved very quickly from the disordered environment in our admissions Wards on into a rehab context and out into the community I've seen how the lights have come on as people have discovered a different

way of living I've seen people for whom even in even in the midst of a very severe relapse of their mental illness have held on to these principles I've seen how they have prevented much harm in people's lives but I wonder I wonder about our approach if we only teach it in forensic Services I wonder if we're missing the boat I wonder what would happen if we taught it earlier because what we do is reactive it is treatment could we take a prophylactic approach could we be proactive could we teach this stuff in schools or

everywhere else could we make it so that a child regardless of their upbringing regardless of whether they're in an environment where they they they catch this stuff will experience it for certain that if it isn't at home that they will experience it at school can we help those who have who have missed out to catch up can we intentionally teach it not just to say that oh well the environment of our school is such that they are going to pick up on it because if they're already heading in an antisocial Direction they're not going to

engage with the environment of the school what if we taught this stuff by design what if we taught it by intention what if we found a way to teach a different way of living a different way of thinking a different way to view the world now I'm not naive I know that we've heard about a lot of ideas today hundreds of ideas hundreds of brilliant ideas and many of them are going to be much easier to implement than this but the impact if we could do it would be so significant how could it be possible

in your context is there a way that you could teach moral reasoning in your school or your organization maybe it's something that could happen in form time maybe it could be a set block maybe you could just take some of the difficult disengage students and run a program like the one we use with them maybe you want to try it out with your staff team maybe there a as an organization that you work in that's not in mainstream education but where you could help people to move forward in this area I know that it would

take a lot of energy and effort I know that it would l a lot of thought I know that exams are looming and we've heard this afternoon about all the different boxes that need to be ticked but it strikes me that if we could do this along with teaching certain subjects that moral reasoning would set each and every one of our students up to win in life if we could teach moral reasoning by Design not by default if we no longer left it to chance and Circumstance whether or not kids picked up this stuff what

difference could we make in our world I I believe that moral reasoning is too important to be left to chance and Circumstance I've seen the worst case scenarios of the time times when it goes wrong and I believe that if we could find a way to intentionally teach this stuff in our context we would see happier students more successful schools a safer society and best case scenario we can make our world a better place thanks very [Applause] much