How do we use moral dilemmas to examine moral issues with students?

As research consistently indicates, most people's thinking is concrete operational, which means that they need concrete examples if they are to develop a meaningful understanding of the topic. This is certainly true when dealing with abstract issues, such as morality, and it's particularly true of students in elementary schools. Moral issues come up in classes more often than we realise. For instance, in elementary classrooms discussions about whether it's okay to retaliate if someone on the playground pushes you down, or someone butts in front of you in the lunch line, can lead to meaningful discussions of right and wrong. With older students, a friend, for example, asks if we think a new hairstyle looks good, and we think it is most unflattering. Do we respond truthfully, and likely hurt her feelings, or do we say it looks good, which is technically a lie? Many other examples exists, and discussing them when they come up can, in time, lead to moral growth.