Connecting Past with Present: A Mixed-Methods Science Ethics Course and its Evaluation

Abstract

We present a graduate science ethics course that connects cases from the historical record to present realities and practices in the areas of social responsibility, authorship, and human/animal experimentation. This content is delivered with mixed methods, including films, debates, blogging, and practicum; even the instructional team is mixed, including a historian of science and a research scientist. What really unites all of the course's components is the experiential aspect: from acting in historical debates to participating in the current scientific enterprise. The course aims to change the students' culture into one deeply devoted to the science ethics cause. To measure the sought after cultural change, we developed and validated a relevant questionnaire. Results of this questionnaire from students who took the course, demonstrate that the course had the intended effect on them. Furthermore, results of this questionnaire from controls indicate the need for cultural change in that cohort. All these quantitative results are reinforced by qualitative outcomes.

Comparative use of Tuskegee Syphilis Study Film vs. Text Triggers to Teach Bioethics: The Spheres of Ethics Teaching Using Film (SOETUF) College Study

“…The medical education literature presents many articles and studies that discuss the value and the importance of using film in teaching bioethics to a variety of health care student groups from around the globe [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Angelo E Volandes, medical doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital points out that although written or verbal vignettes are useful as a pedagogic tool for teaching ethics and introducing students to real cases, they are limited, since students must imagine the clinical scenario…[while] Film vignettes fill in that imaginative leap.…”

Description of Student Expectations on the Use of Film Vs. Text to Teach Bioethics: The Spheres of Ethics Teaching Using Film (SOETUF) College Study

“…While the published literature on using film in bioethics education even includes the description of one curriculum that uses films to teach biomedical ethics specifically to enhance the emotional and intellectual impact as well as numerous articles from around the world endorsing the use of film in the teaching bioethics [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Nevertheless, there is scant research literature to support these published viewpoints.…”