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Can you feel it? A case for reflexive response and imagination in ethics discussions [Theory Paper]

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Division: Approaches to Ethics Education (Part 2)

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40992

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40992

Download Count

249

Paper Authors

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Scott Civjan University of Massachusetts Amherst

biography

Yousef Jalali EPFL

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Yousef Jalali is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN) at EPFL. He received a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. His research interests include interaction between critical thinking, imagination, and ethical reasoning; interpersonal and inter-institutional collaboration; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yousef taught chemical engineering courses for six years in his home country, Iran, and first-year engineering courses for several semesters at Virginia Tech. He has provided service and leadership in different capacities at Lehigh University and Virginia Tech.

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Abstract

This paper makes a case for the importance of moral imagination in ethics instruction. Incremental imagination exercises can effectively include important components of real-life ethical decisions, including the inner conflict between reflexive and cognitive responses during the decision process and perspectives that differ from personal experiences. Ethics discussions can be enriched through stretching a student’s capacity to imagine increasingly distant situations and perspectives while accounting for a variety of possible outcomes and impacts. It is important to make the imaginative leap incremental so that students can relate to and imagine themselves in the scenario. This differs from some instruction methods by incorporating reflexive responses, divergent thought processes, and an understanding of an individual’s decision process. Examples are provided that relate student experiences to future decisions, demonstrate how experience and time can affect decisions, and show the impacts of perspectives and decision processes on ethical decisions.

Civjan, S., & Jalali, Y. (2022, August), Can you feel it? A case for reflexive response and imagination in ethics discussions [Theory Paper] Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40992

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