Exploring the Ethical Perceptions of First Year Engineering Students: Public Welfare Beliefs, Ethical Behavior, and Professional Values

Qin Zhu; Andrea Gammon; Rockwell Franklin Clancy; Anna Angeli; Scott Streiner; Ryan Thorpe

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference
Location: Vancouver
Publication Date: May 12, 2022
Start Date: May 12, 2022
End Date: May 14, 2022
Conference Session: Equity and Ethics in Engineering-I
Tagged Topic: Conference Submission
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44734
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44734
Download Count: 69

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Paper Authors

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Qin Zhu Colorado School of Mines orcid.org/0000-0002-6673-1901

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Dr. Zhu is Assistant Professor of Engineering Education and Ethics in the Department of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Engineering, Design & Society and the Robotics Graduate Program at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Zhu is Editor for International Perspectives at the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science, Associate Editor for Engineering Studies, Chair of American Society for Engineering Education's Division of Engineering Ethics, and Executive Committee Member of the International Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum. His research interests include the cultural foundations of engineering (ethics) education, global engineering education, and ethics and policy of computing technologies and robotics.

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Andrea Gammon Delft University of Technology orcid.org/0000-0003-4972-7254

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Andrea Gammon is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at TU Delft.

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Rockwell Franklin Clancy III Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University orcid.org/0000-0002-7797-7835

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Rockwell Clancy conducts research at the intersection of technology ethics, moral psychology, and Chinese philosophy. He explores how culture and education affect moral judgments, the causes of unethical behaviors, and what can be done to ensure more ethical behaviors regarding technology. Rockwell is a Research Scientist in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Before moving to Virginia, he was a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines. Rockwell holds a PhD from Purdue University, MA from Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, and BA from Fordham University.

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Abstract

In the engineering ethics education literature, there has recently been an increasing interest in the longitudinal studies of engineering students’ moral development. Understanding how first year engineering students perceive ethics can provide baseline information critical for understanding their moral development during their whole engineering learning journey. Existing studies have mainly examined how first year engineering students perceived the structure and elements of ethics curricula, personal ethical beliefs, pregiven ethics scenarios, institutional ethical climate, and certain political ideas (e.g., fairness, political involvement). Complementary to the existing studies, our project surveyed how first year engineering students perceived public welfare beliefs, examples of (un-)ethical behavior in engineering, and professional ethical values. More specifically, we adopted the well-known instrument developed by Erin Cech to assess how students perceived public welfare beliefs. An important goal of replicating Cech’s work is to examine whether students from a different cohort (e.g., 18 years after the cohort in Cech’s study; a much more specialized institution than the institutions in Cech’s study) have changed their public welfare beliefs. We invite engineering educators to carefully examine how temporality might matter when considering the connections between previously conducted studies with their own ongoing projects. Our survey also asked students to provide an example of unethical behavior in engineering and possible ethical problems they may anticipate in their future careers. Finally, we asked students to list three most important values for defining a good engineer. Such a question on professional ethical values responds to a gap in the engineering ethics literature that engineering students’ perceptions of professional virtues and values are not sufficiently addressed (especially among first year students). This paper is part of a much larger project that compares how students develop moral reasoning and intuition longitudinally across three cultures: United States, Netherlands, and China. We are hoping that findings in this paper can be useful for engineering educators to reflect on and design subsequent ethics education programs that are more responsive to students’ backgrounds and needs when they start their first year in engineering programs.

Citation
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Zhu, Q., & Gammon, A., & Clancy, R. F., & Angeli, A., & Streiner, S., & Thorpe, R. (2022, May), Exploring the Ethical Perceptions of First Year Engineering Students: Public Welfare Beliefs, Ethical Behavior, and Professional Values Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Zone IV Conference, Vancouver. 10.18260/1-2--44734

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In the engineering ethics education literature, there has recently been an increasing interest in the longitudinal studies of engineering students’ moral development. Understanding how first year engineering students perceive ethics can provide baseline information critical for understanding their moral development during their whole engineering learning journey. Existing studies have mainly examined how first year engineering students perceived the structure and elements of ethics curricula, personal ethical beliefs, pregiven ethics scenarios, institutional ethical climate, and certain political ideas (e.g., fairness, political involvement). Complementary to the existing studies, our project surveyed how first year engineering students perceived public welfare beliefs, examples of (un-)ethical behavior in engineering, and professional ethical values. More specifically, we adopted the well-known instrument developed by Erin Cech to assess how students perceived public welfare beliefs. An important goal of replicating Cech’s work is to examine whether students from a different cohort (e.g., 18 years after the cohort in Cech’s study; a much more specialized institution than the institutions in Cech’s study) have changed their public welfare beliefs. We invite engineering educators to carefully examine how temporality might matter when considering the connections between previously conducted studies with their own ongoing projects. Our survey also asked students to provide an example of unethical behavior in engineering and possible ethical problems they may anticipate in their future careers. Finally, we asked students to list three most important values for defining a good engineer. Such a question on professional ethical values responds to a gap in the engineering ethics literature that engineering students’ perceptions of professional virtues and values are not sufficiently addressed (especially among first year students). This paper is part of a much larger project that compares how students develop moral reasoning and intuition longitudinally across three cultures: United States, Netherlands, and China. We are hoping that findings in this paper can be useful for engineering educators to reflect on and design subsequent ethics education programs that are more responsive to students’ backgrounds and needs when they start their first year in engineering programs.  
AU  - Qin Zhu
AU  - Andrea Gammon
AU  - Rockwell Franklin Clancy III
AU  - Anna Angeli
AU  - Scott Streiner
AU  - Ryan Thorpe
CY  - Vancouver
DA  - 2022/05/12
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Exploring the Ethical Perceptions of First Year Engineering Students: Public Welfare Beliefs, Ethical Behavior, and Professional Values 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44734
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44734
ER  -