Moral development theory, based on the work of Kohlberg and others, offers an approach to growth and stage change which may be applied to the everyday schooling process. Although there are now four general ways in which theory of developmental change is currently being applied, this paper proposes an alternative application of the stage transition aspects of moral development theory. In the major portion of the document, the author presents a proposal for a "Developmental Atmospheres" approach, viewing the elementary classroom as a total social environment where a student's moral development occurs. This plan for movement from theory to program reality for the stage-transition aspect of moral development theory defines the nature of a socially stimulating environment through theoretical definition of how stage change occurs. Further, the plan explains how the connection between theory and practice can be made through four phases of a model: (1) description of essentials of the theoretical explanations of stage change; (2) description of conditions for change evident in this theoretical explanation -- interaction, conflict, +1 reasoning, and restructuring; (3) translation of the four general conditions into classroom process objectives which can be used for observation -- categorizing them by general classroom procedures, children's work activities, the nature of class discussion, and teacher's action; and (4) validation of the observation instrument by data collection, analysis of data, and discussion. (Author/ND)