Training STEM Ph.D. Students to Deal with Moral Dilemmas

Abstract

Research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has become much more complex in the twenty-first century. As a result, the students of our Graduate School, who are all Ph.D. candidates, need to be trained in essential skills and processes that are crucial for success in academia and beyond. Some research problems are inherently complex in that they raise deep moral dilemmas, such as antimicrobial resistance, sustainability, dual-use research of concern (defined as well-intentioned scientific research that may be misused for nefarious purposes), and human cloning. Dealing with moral dilemmas is one of several core competencies that twenty-first-century Ph.D. students must acquire. However, this might prove difficult for STEM Ph.D. students who have had limited exposure to moral philosophy. Since the task of dealing with moral dilemmas in STEM research requires input from both scientific and philosophical disciplines, it is argued with the help of the 4 examples above that this task be explicitly modelled as an interdisciplinary process. Furthermore, it is argued that a particular model from the interdisciplinary education literature could serve as a learning tool to support ethical decision-making in research ethics and integrity courses for doctoral students.

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“…Many studies provide insight into the search for effective ways to cultivate moral values in a growing personality (Bespalov et al, 2017;Fry & Souillac, 2013;Löfström et al, 2021;Maxwell & Beaulac, 2013;Nucci, 2016;Rashid, 2020). It is significant to organize the integration process of moral education, which provides the formation of critical and reasonable moral considerations in solving real-life moral dilemmas (Nucci, 2016;Löfström et al, 2021).…”

“…Intelligent Matter Following the target goal, we propose developing the author's concept of moral values formation in the personal worldview (see Figure 1). Сoncept basis is the modern foreign and domestic scientists ideas on the peculiarities of the human worldview formation (Buchtel, 2020;de Vries, 2019); the role and place of morality in a society considered by philosophical moralists (Hartman, 2019;Luco, 2019;Severini, 2021); the process of self-awareness (Munzel, 2019;Thapan, 2019); essence and values structure (Maslova et al, 2020); the specifics of moral values and the need for their formation in a growing personality (Curry et al, 2019;Narvaez, 2021;Rashid, 2020;Stringer, 2021). These methodological principles, identified as a result of analysis, synthesis and generalization of the scientific base of the research question, have provided the basis for constructing a scheme of the conceptual model of the place of moral values in the personal worldview (see Figure 1), which is described below.…”

Collect data in home country: Negotiations, supervisors and ethics

“…Researchers as PhD students need dialogue to make the ongoing situation clear and transparent to themselves and to those with whom they are engaging in the inquiry team including supervisors. From supervisors' perspectives, they have a responsibility to provide advice on ethical considerations as well as practical aspects of post-graduate research (Rashid, 2020) . This ranges from what they can do to ensure the research outcomes are of benefit and do not cause harm, what they do to protect the reputation of the university, and how to avoid adverse consequences for the researcher.…”

Graduate students reported practices regarding the issue of informed consent and maintaining of data confidentiality in a developing country

“…In this context, research ethics should be an integral part of students' scientific training to ensure the rights and welfare of study participants [ 4 ]. This includes following appropriate procedures during the informed consent process, guaranteeing voluntary participation, respecting the privacy and confidentiality of research subjects, minimizing harm, ensuring justice, and maximizing benefits [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…Such training allows students to obtain the necessary skills needed to ensure responsible conduct of research in their projects [ 8 , 9 ]. This includes graduate courses, training workshops, and online-specialized and training modules [ 6 , 7 , 10 ]. Therefore, academic institutions with biomedical and health graduate programs are required to invest in education of responsible conduct of research and research ethics.…”