The Evolution of Individual Ethics into Group Ethics
One of the quickest ways to turn lecture-laden courses into active learning environments is through group discussion. Instructors diligently break up content where they can and turn appropriate portions into group discussions and group project assignments. Then some teachers take advantage of the time the students are occupied in their group work to grade papers or surf the Internet. Other teachers turn groups loose on out of class projects with the wave of a magic wand and expect great things to happen. As some of you may already know, it doesn’t always work out quite the way you envisioned during your planning. A newly formed group of 5 is not yet a group with a sense of teamwork. Rather it is a collection of 5 individuals, each with their own ethical principles regarding what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. A set of ethical principles within a group and specific … Read More..
Student-Centered Learning – The Ethical Dilemma of Confidentiality
For over one hundred years progressively-thinking educators have been calling for a shift from pedagogical methods that allow students to passively sit back and wait for infusions of knowledge towards methods that require their active involvement. Today brain-based research gives us a critical clue to one requirement to secure that involvement – relevance. Students learn best what they can see as relevant to their lives. Mathematical teachers in the past sought to breathe life into numbers with word problems involving apples and train trips and the like. The problem was few students actually went to market to buy apples and fewer still took long train trips. Contemporary teachers know to tap into relevance they need to know something about how students today live their lives. We can see three strategies for accomplishing this: Becoming friendlier Becoming Friends Socializing All three break down the accepted expert/novice barrier of traditional education to … Read More..
Socializing with Student Learners – Can it Lead to an Ethical Abyss?
Looking for ways to promote active learner involvement has become commonplace in all educational venues. It is hard to imagine a teacher in any setting who has not heard that students learn best when they can see meaning and relevance in the content they are learning. To accomplish this end, instructors need to learn what is going on in the learner’s world. What things do they find meaningful and what things do they see as relevant to their present and future lives? This has led to an increase in a variety of out of class efforts to get to know students. Some teachers limit their efforts to non-academic chats before and after class while others participate in every institution sponsored activity they can. They go to pep rallies and athletic events and volunteer to accompany learners on field trips of all kinds. Trainers join company athletic teams and attend all … Read More..
Conflicts in Ethics – When Teachers and Authorities Have Divergent Views
With only a few exceptions, teachers around the world in every educational environment are in the employ of others. In some cases, teachers have little control over both what they teach and how they teach it. University and college professors are at the mercy of department heads and university boards. High school and elementary school teachers answer to the beck and call of local school governing councils. Business trainers do the bidding of human resources departments and corporate management. It is hard to imagine a single field of study that does not cry out for consideration of ethical and unethical uses of the knowledge learned. Even the pure science of mathematics can be used by accountants to hide financial realities from an unsuspecting public. Perhaps nowhere in the modern world is this issue more prevalent than in medical education. Breakthroughs in medical technology allow us to prolong life beyond its … Read More..
A Case for Integrated Ethics Education
Anyone who has invested even a small amount of time and effort trying to understand exactly how the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) came to be knows questionable ethics played a role. Indeed, ethics – or more appropriately lack of ethics – seems to have undergone a major shift as societies world wide become increasingly materialistic. While some might argue that the field of medicine and the law have done better at maintaining some modicum of ethical standards, few would dispute the fact business ethics are in serious decline. Anything that yields a profit seems to be the rule of the day. Yet all three of these fields share a common practice when it comes to ethical education for the members of their profession – courses in ethics are compartmentalized into stand alone offerings. Thus, the notion of introducing business or law or medical students to ethical issues regarding what they … Read More..
