Integrating Ethics into the Curriculum Through Design Courses

Scott A. Civjan; Nicholas Tooker

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Ethical Design
Tagged Division: Engineering Ethics
Page Count: 19
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34841
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34841
Download Count: 509

Paper Authors

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Scott A. Civjan University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Scott Civjan is a faculty member at UMass Amherst where he has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses over the past 20+ years. He has 4 years of consulting experience between obtaining his BSCE from Washington University in St. Louis and his MS and PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Texas Austin.

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Nicholas Tooker University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Nick Tooker is a Professor of Practice at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He teaches courses ranging from Intro to Civil & Environmental Engineering for first year students to a seminar on Professional Practices and Ethics to seniors. He is also heavily involved with the online graduate program.

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Abstract

Objective: Improve student internalization of ethics curriculum through modifying the ethics content delivery method.

Relevance: Ethics in the engineering curriculum has been reported to have mixed effectiveness, especially when delivered as an isolated topic within courses such as a capstone or purely through case studies. Unfortunately, this is how most Departments include the topic. An effective supplemental framework for integrating ethics through the curriculum would ensure that engineers make decisions with integrity appropriate to the profession.

Pedagogical and ethical frameworks: Approaches to moral learning theory, (such as Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, Social Intuitionism and Dual Process Theory), can explain macro-ethics versus micro-ethics as a progression of ethical thought along a spectrum, with the differences defined by the individual’s experiences or stages of moral development. In the limited ethics content included in most engineering curriculum it is unrealistic to expect that instructors would observe ethical enlightenment in students or that advanced ethical thought processes could be evaluated beyond eliciting of a “correct” ethical response from students. This approach does little to advance the student’s framework for making ethical decisions and has been shown to confirm student perceptions that ethics instruction is irrelevant if they do not agree with the “correct” response. Similarly, the authors propose that case studies are a misguided approach with common examples relying too heavily on cognitive evaluation of situations, thereby missing the intuitive and reflexive components of ethical decision processes. Further, case studies are often concluded by comparing to an ethics board or lawsuit decision, thereby equating ethical decisions with legality or the minimum requirement to not be disciplined by the profession. The authors propose that an effective ethics curriculum should focus on the decision process, raise awareness of all stakeholders and differing perspectives, be integrated through the curriculum and provide relatable situations for the students.

Analysis and Assessment: A series of ethics and work environment assignments were introduced into a senior level steel design course. At the same time these students took a capstone seminar that addressed ethics in the traditional course and case based approach. A control group were only taking the seminar. The new material introduced into the steel design course were short assignments related to ethical theory, work environment and decision making that included brief case studies directly relevant to class content. The capstone simultaneously included a three week section on ethics based on ASCE and NSPE codes of ethics and traditional case studies.

A survey will be administered to students in each course to evaluate their experiences and collect comments on how the two methods were received individually and as a co-experience. The control group exposed to only the traditional approach will provide comparison to the mixed method of instruction.

Findings: Survey results will be presented as well as qualitative perspectives from the instructors of each class. These will be collected and evaluated prior to paper submission.

Next Steps: Findings will be used to further develop the individual courses and develop recommendations for integrating ethics assignments throughout the curriculum.

Citation
Format

Civjan, S. A., & Tooker, N. (2020, June), Integrating Ethics into the Curriculum Through Design Courses Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34841

TY - CPAPER
AB - Objective: Improve student internalization of ethics curriculum through modifying the ethics content delivery method.

Relevance: Ethics in the engineering curriculum has been reported to have mixed effectiveness, especially when delivered as an isolated topic within courses such as a capstone or purely through case studies. Unfortunately, this is how most Departments include the topic. An effective supplemental framework for integrating ethics through the curriculum would ensure that engineers make decisions with integrity appropriate to the profession.

Pedagogical and ethical frameworks: Approaches to moral learning theory, (such as Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, Social Intuitionism and Dual Process Theory), can explain macro-ethics versus micro-ethics as a progression of ethical thought along a spectrum, with the differences defined by the individual’s experiences or stages of moral development. In the limited ethics content included in most engineering curriculum it is unrealistic to expect that instructors would observe ethical enlightenment in students or that advanced ethical thought processes could be evaluated beyond eliciting of a “correct” ethical response from students. This approach does little to advance the student’s framework for making ethical decisions and has been shown to confirm student perceptions that ethics instruction is irrelevant if they do not agree with the “correct” response. Similarly, the authors propose that case studies are a misguided approach with common examples relying too heavily on cognitive evaluation of situations, thereby missing the intuitive and reflexive components of ethical decision processes. Further, case studies are often concluded by comparing to an ethics board or lawsuit decision, thereby equating ethical decisions with legality or the minimum requirement to not be disciplined by the profession. The authors propose that an effective ethics curriculum should focus on the decision process, raise awareness of all stakeholders and differing perspectives, be integrated through the curriculum and provide relatable situations for the students.

Analysis and Assessment: A series of ethics and work environment assignments were introduced into a senior level steel design course. At the same time these students took a capstone seminar that addressed ethics in the traditional course and case based approach. A control group were only taking the seminar. The new material introduced into the steel design course were short assignments related to ethical theory, work environment and decision making that included brief case studies directly relevant to class content. The capstone simultaneously included a three week section on ethics based on ASCE and NSPE codes of ethics and traditional case studies.

A survey will be administered to students in each course to evaluate their experiences and collect comments on how the two methods were received individually and as a co-experience. The control group exposed to only the traditional approach will provide comparison to the mixed method of instruction.

Findings: Survey results will be presented as well as qualitative perspectives from the instructors of each class. These will be collected and evaluated prior to paper submission.

Next Steps: Findings will be used to further develop the individual courses and develop recommendations for integrating ethics assignments throughout the curriculum.
AU - Scott A. Civjan
AU - Nicholas Tooker
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Integrating Ethics into the Curriculum Through Design Courses
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34841
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34841
ER -