Reflecting on the use and abuse of scientific data facilitates students’ ethical and epistemological development

Abstract

Scientists use judgment in deciding what and how much data to present in publications but science degrees rarely address this issue. Instead, scientific knowledge is presented as certain and students have limited opportunities to use their own judgment in the laboratory. A consequence of this may be that students approach science with a moral absolutist mindset, believing that science is about learning facts and scientists have little need to exercise ethical judgments in relation to data. Students may also hold different ethical standards for themselves and professional scientists. We draw on data from a first‐year science module to show that these views can be challenged by encouraging students to reflect on their own behavior and that of famous scientists in situations with varying degrees of professional ethical ambiguity. We provide evidence of significant transitions in students’ thinking, suggesting that reflection on these issues may lead to substantial epistemological and ethical development. By the end of the module, many students had moved from an initial position of certainty to the acceptance of multiple viewpoints or to a more mature understanding of the evidence‐based nature of science, as well as gaining the ability to critique decisions and make ethical judgments.

Integration of Philosophy of Science in Biomedical Data Science Education to Foster Better Scientific Practice

“…Throughout our discussion of educational approaches, we have expressed our concern that undergraduate students (and other biomedical scientists) are under the impression that science is about truth and good science leads to unambiguous results. That students and science teachers hold these positivistic, idealistic views of science is also supported by others (Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000;Howitt & Wilson, 2018). However, these studies of views of the nature of science have mainly been conducted among primary and high school students, and their science teachers (Deng et al, 2011).…”

Developing critical being in an undergraduate science course

“…As the analysis proceeded, it became evidence that ethicality was intertwined with criticality, as judgments were made on ethical as well as rational and emotional grounds. We explore different degrees of ethical awareness and nuance in detail in a separate publication (Howitt and Wilson 2016). In the following, we present and discuss excerpts illustrating the development of a hyperopic view and criticality, highlighting the reliance of this development on interactions and discussions between students.…”

Adult Educators’ Approaches to the Educational Process and the Expected Results Introspection Reconstructed in the Phenomenographic Research

“…Phenomenography is a well-established qualitative research method and has been widely adopted for research education in multiple disciplines. In the last years, the method has been especially appealing to science educators (Chiu et al, 2016;Howitt & Wilson, 2018).…”