An Assessment of Engineering Students' Curricular and Co‐Curricular Experiences and Their Ethical Development

Finelli, Cynthia J.; Holsapple, Matthew A.; Eunjong, Ra，; Bielby, Rob M.; Burt, Brian A.; Carpenter, Donald D.; Harding, Trevor S.; Sutkus, Janel A.

doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2012.tb00058.x

Cited by 122 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…12,38 The largest survey of ethical instruction in engineering to date appears to be the SEED project with 19 partner institutions and results from 4000 students. 23,26 Their model for ethical behavior included institutional culture and individual student experience in both formal courses and cocurricular environments. The survey attempted to measure the quantity and quality of students' ethical experiences paired with the level of students' ethical development.…”

Section: Ethics In Engineering Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering

Bielefeldt¹,

Canney²,

Swan³

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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There is a need for engineering education to prepare students to address macroethical issues. Macroethics refers to the broader ethical obligations of the profession such as those embodied by social responsibility and sustainability. The extent to which students graduate with an understanding of macroethical issues is unclear and in need of organization. The goal of this new research project is to evaluate the various ways in which macroethics is taught in engineering, examining variations in pedagogy and topics, as well as examining differences between disciplines and institution types. This paper describes the first phase of the research, to develop surveys that will reveal a national picture of engineering macroethics instruction. Survey development began based on a review of the literature. One survey was targeted to deans and department chairs, aimed at identifying the names of faculty at their institutions who are involved in ethics instruction. A second survey was aimed at faculty who teach macroethical topics in courses for engineering students. A third survey was aimed at faculty who mentor cocurricular activities where students may learn about or engage with macroethical issues. Pilot versions of the three surveys were distributed to selected faculty at three institutions: a large public research-intensive university, a private research-intensive university, and a Christianaffiliated, private Baccalaureate university. Approximately 30 responses indicated a breadth of courses where faculty infused a wide variety of macroethical topics. It also revealed the challenges associated with encouraging faculty to respond to surveys. A handful of faculty participated in follow-up interviews, giving feedback to help improve the surveys. The surveys were revised, with national dissemination in spring 2016.

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Section: Ethics In Engineering Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering

Bielefeldt¹,

Canney²,

Swan³

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To measure this, we included questions drawn from the SEED survey 22,24,26,35 . From this instrument, we extracted three measures of satisfaction with ethics education: (a) a 6-item scale (α = .85) measuring satisfaction with particular kinds of educational activities, such as class discussions, credit courses, extracurricular workshops; (b) a 6-item scale (α = .91) measuring satisfaction with particular concepts covered during ethics education, such as being taught about ethical codes, recognizing ethical issues, learning decision-making, and the ability to justify ethical decisions with theory; and (c) a single item measuring general satisfaction with the quality of ethics education received 25 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, many engineering colleges do not effectively prepare students to reason through the ethical challenges posed by "grey-area" ethical issues such as those stemming from new and emerging technologies 15 , nor do they demonstrate effective development of the higher levels of ethical reasoning necessary for such analysis. Furthermore, evidence indicates that while engineering students experience a wide range of ethics pedagogy, they still have lower levels of ethical reasoning than their peers in other disciplines 22 , although some studies suggest that these differences may be accounted for by other variables, such as gender 48 . As a result, there is a glaring need for coherent and effective strategies for developing ethical reasoning in engineering students, particularly in engineering contexts 34,36 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These researchers developed a survey to identify curricular practices that were effective in developing ethical reasoning in engineering students. They implemented this Survey of Engineering Ethics Development (SEED) at 18 institutions across the United States, collecting data from nearly 4000 undergraduate students 22,26 . The findings from their survey indicated college engineering students have been exposed to a high variety and number of ethics-related experiences, both formal and co-curricular, and they rate these experiences highly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The SEED researchers postulated that this inverse relationship could be explained by a discord between the approaches used to solve ethical dilemmas by students with higher level ethical reasoning and common approaches of engineering ethics educational experiences (e.g., exposure to codes or rules only) 30,33 . Nonetheless, Finelli et al 22 found that engineering students had a "surprisingly low" knowledge of ethics, and their ethical reasoning scores were at the low end compared to national norms 7 . Because these results came at a time of increased focus on the ethical development of engineering students, the researchers expressed an ongoing and critical need for new strategies to promote engineering students' ethical reasoning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Assessing a Scaffolded, Interactive, and Reflective Analysis Framework for Developing Ethical Reasoning in Engineering Students

Kisselburgh

Hess

Zoltowski

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Purdue University) examines organizing and communicative practices in sociotechnical contexts, particularly collaboration in engineering design teams, spatial and material influences on organizing, and gendered practices in technological settings. She has backgrounds in communication, human performance, and computer science, and over twenty years experience designing and supporting learning environments in academic settings. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (an Ethics in Science and Engineering project to develop frameworks for developing ethical reasoning in engineers, and a Cyberlearning project to develop collaborative design environments for engineers), and by corporate foundations, the Department of Homeland Security, Previously, we have demonstrated that ethical reasoning scores of engineering students increase significantly as a result of participating in our SIRA/RP courses. In this paper, we explore the research question: "Which characteristics of the SIRA approach contribute to changes in ethical reasoning." To assess our framework we designed a SIRA assessment scale that uses student reported ratings of effectiveness of the scaffolding, interactivity, and reflective analysis characteristics of the course. After pilot-testing and refinement, the 12-item scale and sub-scales were found to be highly consistent (α = .847). To determine which SIRA characteristics contributed to increased ethical reasoning scores we ran a hierarchical multiple regression analysis with satisfaction and SIRA efficacy scores as predictors. Controlling for GPA, course semester, and native language, we modeled pre-course satisfaction with the quality of ethics education and ethical concepts taught, and the SIRA subscales for scaffolding, interactivity, and reflectivity. The model was statistically significant in predicting ethical reasoning scores, accounting for 32% of the variance in the data. The strongest predictor was the reflectivity component of our framework (ß=.433), indicating that reflectivity elements of the course are significantly important to ethical reasoning change. We also analyzed student rankings of activities associated with the learning framework. Findings indicate that our integration of novel multimedia presentations of the case studies and the case study discussions were the two most important activities contributing to engagement, understanding, critical thinking, and guiding decision-making.These findings suggest that a coherent pedagogical framework grounded in reflexive principlism and emphasizing interactivity and reflectivity can effectively enhance the ethical reasoning of future engineers in a cyber-enabled delivery of just four cases, in as little as eight weeks. We contribute an evidence-based solution to address curricular needs of engineering ethics, and extend understanding of contributing factors to ethical reasoning development. ASSESSING SIRA FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING ETHICAL REASONING

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Ethics and Sustainability in Global Contexts: Studying Engineering Student Perspectives Through Photoelicitation

Berdanier

Tang

Cox

2018

J of Engineering Edu

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Background Ethical issues have become increasingly important in discussions of sustainability, an area involving ethical and sociotechnical decisions that engineers may not be prepared to consider. Recent literature on engineering ethics highlights the need to integrate social and environmental aspects of ethics into technical topics through culturally sensitive and community‐oriented approaches. Purpose/Hypothesis This paper explores the ethical reflections of U.S. doctoral engineering students after a two‐week experience studying electronics manufacturing in India. This authentic experience is essentially a lived case study, where the students' roles were to listen and engage with a broad range of stakeholders affiliated with the electronics industry. Design/Method This study used photoelicitation methods to elicit deep reflective interviews with the doctoral student participants, reporting the qualitative analysis of these interview transcripts. Results The concept of sustainability is typically seen as comprising the individual dimensions of economic, social, and environmental facets; however, the narratives of ethics and sustainability emerging from the interview data reported here point to the importance of the intersections among these aspects. Themes relating to safety and regulations, gender roles, and resources and waste emerged as manifestations of these intersections. Conclusions The graduate students demonstrated ethical reasoning skills related to regulations, gender roles, resources and waste, and their professional ethical responsibilities as they discussed the experiences of their trip. As students reflected on ethical tensions based on their experience, they demonstrated a deep commitment to engineering ethics, acknowledging their roles in fostering sustainability and committing to thinking about the distant stakeholders affected by engineering decisions.

show abstract

An Assessment of Engineering Students' Curricular and Co‐Curricular Experiences and Their Ethical Development

Cited by 122 publications

References 47 publications

Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering

Efficacy of Macroethics Education in Engineering

Assessing a Scaffolded, Interactive, and Reflective Analysis Framework for Developing Ethical Reasoning in Engineering Students

Ethics and Sustainability in Global Contexts: Studying Engineering Student Perspectives Through Photoelicitation

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