Cover of Teaching Ethics
Already a subscriber? - Login here
Not yet a subscriber? - Subscribe here

Displaying: 1-20 of 30 documents


1. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Mark Vopat, Alan Tomhave A Note From the Editors
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
2014 presidential address
2. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Deborah S. Mower Reflections on . . . A ‘Group’ Culture
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The facility and rapidity with which we form groups—and that we often do so on the basis of manipulated and inconsequential features—highlights the fact that group identification, and hence in-group favoritism, is often arbitrary. I call the arbitrariness of in-group favoritism the “moral problem of group identity.” Focusing on helping behaviors, I argue that although the exposed arbitrariness of our motivations and actions is both surprising and discomforting, we can use knowledge of the moral problem of group identity as both a theoretical and a pedagogical tool.
articles
3. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
David J. Burns, Pola B. Gupta Ethics Integration across the Business Curriculum: An Examination of the Effects of the Jesuit Approach
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
In response to recent lapses in business ethics, ethics have become integral components of the curricula of most business schools. The effectiveness of these attempts, however, is in doubt. The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of one form of ethics integration by exploring whether business students attending Jesuit universities differ in their perceptions towards ethics and social responsibility from business students attending state universities. It is hypothesized that students at a Jesuit university more strongly believe in ethics and social responsibility than students at a state university. Interestingly, the results were opposite of those hypothesized. The results seem to suggest that even when ethics are incorporated throughout a university curriculum (not just in the business school), it does not appear to be effective. Indeed, the results seem to support research which suggests that ethics instruction may have an effect opposite of that generally believed.
4. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Roslyn Weaver, Jack Menzies Freak Show Bodies and Abominations: Teaching Research Ethics From Dark Angel
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Teaching research ethics often relies on a textbook-approach that is heavily theory-based. Students can find it difficult to engage with the material because of the difficulty of learning new terminology. In the health professional education disciplines in particular, students may perceive these courses to be difficult or irrelevant because their other courses are usually, in comparison, highly practical, hands-on, or more obviously relevant to their future career. This paper therefore explores another approach to teaching research ethics. Popular culture texts have been used in health education previously to engage students in lessons about communication, professionalism, and clinical ethics. This could be extended to teaching research ethics generally, and this paper outlines suggestions for doing this using one television program, Dark Angel, which offers potential for provoking discussions and learning about research ethics, in and outside of health education. Dark Angel, a science-fiction television program, reflects real-life ambivalence about medical research in the program’s presentation of medical experiments, suggesting that genetic research leads to grotesque monsters and also flawless superhumans. The series offers many storylines and episodes dealing with key ethical principles: research merit and integrity, informed consent, respect and vulnerable groups, and risk and benefit. Dark Angel and popular science fiction texts like it provide—even if unintentionally—the opportunity to consider possible consequences of scientific research, and potential ethical dilemmas. The program offers a forum for discussing real-life research issues in an accessible medium that could be used as a supplement to the ethics education of students.
5. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
J. Alden Stout Pedagogy and Principled Thinking about War
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Students generally approach the topic of warfare with naïve assumptions. They tend to believe that the U.S is always on the right side of any conflict. This is particularly prevalent in discussions of terrorism. Terrorism is what the “bad guys” do and fighting terrorists is what we, the “good guys,” do. The goal of this paper is to present a Socratic strategy to challenge these assumptions. This approach involves showing that a popular conception of terrorism entails the conclusion that nuclear deterrence is itself a form of terrorism. I call this “the terrorist problem for deterrence.” When students are presented with the deterrence problem, they must either reject the conclusion that terrorism is always wrong or that U.S foreign policy is always right. Presenting students with this dilemma leads them to a more complex perspective regarding the ethics of war and peace.
6. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Stephan Millett, William Budiselik, Andrew Maiorana Teaching Ethics in Exercise Science
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Against a background of scandals involving misuse of drugs and other substances, the discipline of exercise and sports science has come under intense scrutiny. Exercise and Sports Science Australia is the national association for practitioners and among its core functions is the accreditation of university courses in which practitioners are to be trained. One of the important elements for accreditation is that a course should include components dealing with legal and ethical competency. This paper discusses the development of a unit of instruction that addresses legal and ethical competency for exercise science courses via a pedagogical approach predicated on constructed understanding through collaborative learning. The choice to implement such a pedagogical approach was predicated on the authors’ experience in ethics education, an understanding of what a profession is and the idea that for sports and exercise science to be a profession it must help future professionals to understand that they need to adopt a moral fiduciary relationship with discipline peers and clients. Student responses provide rich data as to the effectiveness of the unit.
7. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Azalea M. Hulbert Better World Theatre: A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Teaching Ethics through the Arts
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Better World Theatre is a unique arts-based ethics pedagogy introduced at Samford University that effectively and creatively provides students the opportunity to 1) identify and explore real-life ethical issues; 2) practice ethical deliberation and engage in structured and intentional moral discourse; and 3) develop and strengthen their own ethical values through the lens of professional identity. This pedagogy can be effectively applied in either a course-based or co-curricular context. As there is to date no formal data on the effect of this particular pedagogy at Samford, this paper focuses on the anecdotal evidence that points to increased moral reasoning capacity in previous student participants, as well as on evidence in existing literature on the topic. It also examines the pedagogical structure, as well as variables that may impact its effectiveness, such as the maturity of student participants, their field of study, and the method of delivery (i.e., curricular or co-curricular).
8. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
William J. Frey Teaching Responsibility: Pedagogical Strategies for Eliciting a Sense of Moral Responsibility
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This paper will outline a pedagogical approach to teaching moral responsibility by unpacking this concept, following Herbert Fingarette, as moral responsiveness to essential moral relevance (Fingarette 1971: 186–7). As response to relevance, moral responsibility begins with sensitivity to the moral aspects of the surrounding situation and unfolds with the development and execution of skillful action to transform surroundings in light of this moral relevance. Developing moral responsibility poses a series of pedagogical challenges that arise out of its cognitive and volitional skills, the first detailing how the agent hones in on moral relevance, the second how the agent responds through action to this relevance. These challenges overlap substantially with the widely known skill sets laid out by the Hastings Center. Teaching modules published in an ethics across the curriculum toolkit will show how responsibility can be learned by redeploying existing pedagogical practices such as case discussion, role-playing, debating, dramatizing, and framework-aided practice sessions in problem-solving. These familiar classroom practices can be used to support a skills-based pedagogical approach that directly addresses the unique challenges presented by the practice of moral responsibility. In summary, this essay outlines a proactive approach to moral responsibility, describes the pedagogical challenges it poses, and offers specific and concrete classroom responses to these challenges.
9. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Barry Sharpe, Reba West From a Student’s Perspective: Faculty Workshop as Faculty-Student Collaboration
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
To support faculty who teach sections of a new general education course that focuses on ethical reasoning skills, I offered a three-day Ethics Across the Curriculum (EAC) workshop. I wanted to ground the faculty development experience by framing it in terms of expected student learning. In other words, I structured the workshop so as to put faculty in the position of students for the workshop. This student-based experience was supported by having a student serve as co-facilitator of the workshop. The decision to make the EAC workshop a faculty-student collaboration proved to be the most important one I made in the design of the workshop. This essay will document parts of this faculty-student collaboration and review some of the important faculty learning that took place as a result of student involvement and leadership.
10. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Daniel F. Hartner Should Ethics Courses Be More Practical?
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Philosophy courses are now regularly under fire from educators, administrators, politicians, and financially overextended students and parents demanding shorter and more economically fruitful college degree programs in a climate of economic austerity. Yet, perhaps in the face of a number of high-profile ethical violations in the business and professional world, many of these groups have been calling for more, and more effective, pre- and professional ethics education. This paradoxical call for more ethics and less philosophy is finding unlikely support from a number of academic philosophers who argue that traditional forms of ethics education, which emphasize reflection on abstract normative theories and principles, ought to be replaced with more practical ethics courses that emphasize real-world moral training and which focus on shaping character and behavioral dispositions. I examine this trend toward practical ethics education and argue that it wrongly decouples rationality and moral motivation, threatens to erode a crucial distinction between ethics and policy, and contributes to widespread misunderstanding of the nature of ethics.
11. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
William L. Blizek Ethics in Stranger Than Fiction
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
In this paper I try to show how ideas proposed by Alasdair Mac­Intyre in his book, After Virtue, can be found in Marc Forster’s 2006 film, Stranger Than Fiction. The movie provides excellent examples of various ideas in After Virtue. And, After Virtue provides a number of topics for discussion relating to the virtues and virtue theory in general. Since students enjoy the movie, it is an excellent way to introduce students to virtue ethics.
case study
12. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Steven M. Cahn The Bus Puzzle
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
book review
13. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Tim Shiell Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases, by William H. Shaw
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
14. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 2
Contributors
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
2013 presidential address
15. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Deborah S. Mower Reflections on . . . A Culture of Sensitivity
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The robust research within Project Implicit drives home the discomforting fact that many of us have implicit biases that we may believe lead to unethical action and which we may have attempted to eradicate from our thoughts. I examine the problem that implicit bias poses for moral education, and search for a solution by examining the alternatives of culture, character, conscience, and moral sensitivity. I argue that each fails individually, but that a potential solution to the problem comes through the creation of a limited “culture” within our classrooms; specifically, a culture that cultivates moral sensitivity as a collaborative endeavor.
special section: philosophical practices for pre-college ethics education
16. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Maughn Gregory Introduction: Ethics Education as Philosophical Practice: The Case from Socratic, Critical, and Contemplative Pedagogies
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
John Dewey wrote of moral education as growth from impulsive behavior to a “reflective morality,” involving the pursuit of ends-in-view identified through practices of critical reflection and social interaction. The essays in this section explore a variety of such practices as a philosophical approach to K–12 ethics education. The essays draw on, and contribute to three educational movements that aim for particular kinds of reflective consciousness and agency. Socratic Pedagogy engages students in problematizing the status quo, inquiry to identify truth, and self-correction. Critical Pedagogy utilizes school subjects to raise students’ political awareness and as methods of political inquiry and agency. Contemplative Pedagogy introduces practices of mindfulness to help students cultivate curiosity and attention and to bring personal insight to bear on their studies. Teaching ethics as a series of philosophical practices helps students and teachers become more sensitive to ethical meaning and skillful in ethical inquiry and agency.
17. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Stefano Oliverio Narcissus and the Care of the Self: Promoting Ethical Life in a Foucaultian-Kierkegaardian Vein
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
The paper takes its cue from the emergence in our society of a new view of the adolescent, which a branch of the psychological literature has spelled out in terms of a passage from Oedipus to Narcissus. It is argued that pre-college ethics education should engage with this passage by deploying educational strategies modelled according to the Care of the Self paradigm (as theorized by Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot) but revisiting it through Kierkegaard’s idea of repetition. The latter prevents that paradigm from fostering a sort of aestheticization of ethical life and allows us to mobilize it in ethics education. Against this backdrop two pedagogical methods—autobiographical writing and essay writing—are discussed as possible tools for a Care-of-the-Self-oriented education.
18. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Gabriele Münnix Against Prejudice: Justice as Virtue: An Example of Teaching Ethics in German Secondary Schools
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
In German schools, philosophy, ethics, or practical philosophy (the names differ) are ordinary school subjects in lower secondary education (beginning at the age of 11). The author who was member of a commission to introduce the subject and to prepare a curriculumin for North Rhine Westphalia has formed teachers of “Practical Philosophy”and “Ethics” and gives an insight into didactical principals, methods and media of a problem centered teaching of philosophical ethics by describing an example, a unit about prejudice and justice.
19. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Beth Dixon Fables and Philosophy
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
In our local school district some teachers have chosen to use fables as a way of integrating character education into their 4th and 5th grade curriculum. This paper about fables and philosophy illustrates how to employ philosophical inquiry to discuss the moral virtues. Aristotle’s remarks about the particular moral virtue of friendliness is a paradigmatic example for writing philosophy discussion plans that cultivate ethical judgment—one component of educating for moral character. However, the methodology I recommend can be generalized to stories that are not fables, and also can be made appropriate for different grade levels. Included here is a lesson plan for Arnold Lobel’s fable “The Lobster and the Crab,” used in a 4th grade classroom. Also included is a short transcript of the students’ dialogue.
20. Teaching Ethics: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
John Fantuzzo Towards a "What-If" Class: Practices of Respect as the Aim of Teaching Ethics to Court-Involved Youth
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
This paper contends that the primary aim of teaching ethics to court-involved youth should be the realization of respect. I make this argument by defining what is meant by a practice of respect using Bernard Williams’s "The Idea of Equality." I then couch this understanding in my recent experience leading a moral/political philosophy workshop with court-involved youth in Harlem, New York. Raising the objection that educational opportunity, not the practice of respect, should be the primary aim of teaching court-involved youth, I respond to this objection by examining the stated aims of two prison education programs, Inside Out and Bard Prison Initiative. I argue that the educational opportunities within a broken system can hinder the practice of respect, while educational opportunities can arise from the practice of respect.