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Teaching and Assessment of Professional Ethics in the Nuclear Engineering Education According to the ABET Engineering Criteria Abstract

There is a general agreement that engineering students should receive ethics instruction as a part of their undergraduate education. However, there are diverse opinions on how engineering ethics instruction should be carried out. Abiding by the American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria puts more emphasis on ethics teaching in a systematic manner that is subject to continual assessment and feedback. Preliminary surveys of ethics teaching in the nuclear engineering programs reveal adapting the trend of teaching professional ethics through ethics courses. The survey also indicates that existing code of ethics in the nuclear field need to be more comprehensive, and integrate issues related to education, and work environment, as well as industry.

It is argued that proper teaching and assessment needs to follow the triangulation approach by using multiple methods to obtain and verify the results. It is also argued that there is more to engineering ethics than dwelling on the negative, wrongdoing and its prevention. There is the more positive side that focuses on doing one's work in a responsible and ethical way.

In this work, analysis of existing methods of ethics teaching and assessment in the nuclear engineering field is presented. Proposal for integrating ethical issues in the different nuclear engineering courses are discussed. Finally, recent ethics teaching methodologies are applied to the nuclear engineering education through out-of-classroom activities such as the use of service learning approach, and use of student outreach programs directed to the local communities, as well as other on-campus activities.

Introduction

There is a general agreement that engineering students should receive ethics instruction as a part of their undergraduate education. This is true irrespective of the accreditation system under consideration. However, there are diverse opinions on how engineering ethics instruction should be carried out. Traditional approaches in teaching professional ethics include1: 1. Teaching engineering ethics on the basis of moral theories, concepts for professional ethical behavior, and codes of ethics 2. Case-based approach views engineering ethics as encompassing the more general definition of ethics, but applying it more specifically to situations involving engineers in their professional lives. 3. Solving ethics problems by using hypothetical cases and problem solving tools to create what might be called ethics construction kits. 4. Linking ethical instruction with engineering practice

With the ABET Engineering Criteria (EC 2000), which requests engineering programs, among other things, to demonstrate that their graduates have “an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility” (outcome 3f) engineering ethics courses are likely to grow more in engineering programs. Thus, focus is not just to teach ethics foundations but rather to

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Abulfaraj, W., & Hassan, M. (2007, June), Teaching And Assessment Of Professional Ethics In The Nuclear Engineering Education According To The Abet Engineering Criteria Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2006