Child Psychology and Childhood Education: A Cognitive-Developmental View

Kohlberg argues that the aim of early education should be development itself—the stimulation of stage progression—rather than the transmission of culturally prescribed content. He rejects two dominant alternatives: romanticism (Rousseau to A.S. Neill), which leaves the child to unfold naturally without structured stimulation, and cultural transmission (Locke, Thorndike, Skinner), which treats the child as a passive recipient of adult knowledge. The cognitive-developmental view, by contrast, treats the child as an active philosopher whose interactions with the world drive structural reorganization. Education should provoke cognitive conflict that moves children toward more adequate stages of reasoning.

The book divides into two parts across nine chapters. Part 1 reviews educational psychologies and articulates development as the aim of education. Part 2 covers specific developmental domains: intelligence (psychometric and Piagetian measures), language and thought, social-self theories of Baldwin, Mead, and Vygotsky, moral judgment and action, ego development, and play. Kohlberg wrote or coauthored all chapters with seven colleagues: Rheta DeVries, Greta Fein, Daniel Hart, Rochelle Mayer, Gil Noam, John Snarey, and James Wertsch. The volume runs 452 pages and was published by Longman in 1987.

Kohlberg traces this tension to its historical roots: Dewey's progressivism versus Thorndike's behaviorism in early twentieth-century America. He argues that behaviorism's cultural transmission model treats the child as a container to be filled, ignoring the structural transformations that characterize cognitive development. While acknowledging that behaviorist methods can produce surface-level compliance, Kohlberg contends they cannot foster the deeper reorganization of reasoning that constitutes genuine development. The book's first chapter offers a historical account of how cognitive-developmental thinking emerged as a distinct alternative to both romantic laissez-faire and behavioral engineering.

Kohlberg means that even very young children actively construct theories about the world—about reality, causation, and morality—rather than passively absorbing adult beliefs. The chapter 'The Young Child as a Philosopher' illustrates this through examples like peek-a-boo, where children explore the nature of reality and appearance. Educationally, this implies that teachers should engage children's existing theories and create situations that provoke cognitive conflict, rather than simply presenting correct answers. The goal is to stimulate the child's own constructive activity, not to replace one set of content with another.

Reviews were mixed. CHOICE Magazine called it a 'landmark exposition of Kohlberg's views' essential for libraries serving psychologists and educators. Peter Sutherland in a British journal, however, described it as 'a curate's egg'—scholarly and wide-ranging but lacking a unifying theme, with dense prose and an unfair treatment of alternative perspectives. He noted that despite Kohlberg's claim to address both development and education, the book remained centered on academic theory rather than practical guidance for teachers. Reviewers agreed it was a major reference work, not an accessible guide for practitioners.

Published in 1987, the year of Kohlberg's death, the book represents his final statement on child development and education. Reviewers noted the absence of a synthetic final chapter that might have addressed criticisms from Gilligan, Fowler, and constructivist critics of stage theory. The volume's range—intelligence, language, ego development, play, moral judgment—shows Kohlberg surveying domains beyond his primary focus on moral reasoning. Sutherland observed that the book would have benefited from Kohlberg's ultimate response to his critics, which never came. It remains a comprehensive sourcebook rather than a culminating synthesis.