The Effectiveness of Ethics Education: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

Abstract

Ethical conduct is the hallmark of excellence in engineering and scientific research, design, and practice. While undergraduate and graduate programs in these areas routinely emphasize ethical conduct, few receive formal ethics training as part of their curricula. The first purpose of this research study was to assess the relative effectiveness of ethics education in enhancing individuals' general knowledge of the responsible conduct of research practices and their level of moral reasoning. Secondly, we examined the effects of ethics education on the positive psychological outcomes of perspective-taking, moral efficacy, moral courage, and moral meaningfulness. To examine our research hypotheses, we utilized a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design consisting of three ethics education groups (control, embedded modules, and stand-alone courses). Findings revealed that both embedded and stand alone courses were effective in enhancing participants' perspective-taking, moral efficacy, and moral courage. Moral meaningfulness was marginally enhanced for the embedded module condition. Moral judgment and knowledge of responsible conduct of research practices were not influenced by either ethics education condition. Contrary to expectations, stand alone courses were not superior to embedded modules in influencing the positive psychological outcomes investigated. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.

Infusing Ethics and Ethical Decision Making into the Curriculum

“…While stand-alone ethics courses can be highly suitable for teaching students basic philosophical theories and frameworks, and universal standards, enhanced learning can powerfully result from the opportunity to revisit these ideas at multiple points across the curriculum Felton and Sims 2005;May and Luth 2013;McDonald 2004;Oddo 1997;Ritter 2006;Sims and Felton 2005;Trevino and McCabe 1994). The embedding or integration of ethics education enables students to practice decision-making and do so within the types of specific contexts that they will likely face as students, employees, and professionals McDonald 2004;Oddo 1997;Ritter 2006;Sims and Felton 2005).…”

Editors’ Overview Perspectives on Teaching Social Responsibility to Students in Science and Engineering

“…Anecdotal evidence suggests that curriculum time is often quite limited. As an example, Douglas May and Matthew Luth, reporting on the relative effectiveness of ethics education courses for students in engineering and science created through a multi-institutional faculty development program in the USA, note in passing that ''departments were reluctant to allocate more than 1-2 credit hours 17 for students taking a [stand alone] research ethics course'' (May and Luth 2013). There is no reason to assume that what May and Luth observed is an exception.…”

Evidence of Sustainable Learning from the Mastery Rubric for Ethical Reasoning

“…This failure may arise from the learning itself (e.g., [21]), or from perceived failures of the applicability of the ethics instruction to real world contexts and situations. From a cognitive scientific perspective, the dominant training paradigm for "training in ethics" assumes that mastering the information associated with RCR topics (functioning at the "cognitive stage") will lead to the habits of mind that characterize real mastery of the key constructs in RCR (functioning at the "autonomous stage" [22] (pp.…”