Identifying Bad Practices: A Way to Introduce Ethics in the Classroom

Abstract

<jats:p>According to the Civil Engineering Bachelor Degree program, students should have acquired, among other knowledge, the skill: “to understand and assume the ethical and professional responsibility of the activity of the Civil Engineer”. In order to do this, they can take an optional subject (not all the students enroll), called “ethics of civil engineering” and also the transversal skill “ethical, environmental and professional responsibility” is taught in several subjects of the degree program. This communication presents the methodology used in the subject “Constructions Materials” of second degree course to introduce this transversal skill. The great achievement of this methodology is to have this transversal skill present in all work sessions in the classroom, so the skill becomes part of the daily work of the student. Moreover, it presents additional advantages for the evaluation of the skill thanks to the continuous acquisition of evidence.</jats:p>

What works (and what does not) to incorporate ethics as a cross curricular competence?

“…It is desirable to develop coordination between lecturers who are going to work on this transversal competence throughout the degree, in order to correctly design the activities and increase the degree of complexity without repeating content, and taking into account the progress in the development of the competence. − Accordingly it is interesting to start in the first years (first proficiency level) with less complex activities (identification of unethical and unprofessional behavior, for instance [3][4]). As the curriculum progresses, more complex activities such as the resolution of ethical dilemmas that require knowledge in order to be able to argue the most appropriate solutions can be proposed.…”