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What follows is work by the faculty of Raritan Valley Community College
produced through an Ethics, Values and Technology grant from the National
Science Foundation and published in its present form under the auspices
of another NSF grant, the funding source for The New Jersey Center for Advanced
Technological Education. Both projects share the goal of infusing issues
of ethics and values into technology education. Our work has been focused
on two basic principles. First, if we want to produce ethical technologists,
then we have to teach ethics across the curriculum. Just teaching ethics
in technology courses won't do the job. Second, ethics and values cannot
be taught as a course or even as a discrete unit within several courses.
Instead, principles of ethics are best taught when they arise naturally
out of course content. For example, a chemistry instructor teaching titration
takes the opportunity to discuss the ethical aspects of recording data accurately;
a mathematics instructor whose students are working on group projects makes
sure that they are aware of the ethical obligations of working with a team;
a business instructor posing problems in database marketing inquires about
the ethical issues raised by the students' solutions.
It was EVT grant participant Rosalia Hamilton who first put a name to the
teaching strategy that the RVCC group was defining. She describes reviewing
course outlines and class notes, realizing that there were already numerous
issues of ethics and values embedded in the existing content of her courses:
"As my exploration progressed, the notion of 'teachable moments' began
to form. . Teachable moments are all the areas that contain some element
of ethics and values that can be incorporated easily and quickly into classroom
instruction and discussion."
By giving a name to the strategy, she also helped to clarify it. Ethics
and values are best taught when integrated into existing course content.
Each opportunity to discuss one of these issues is a Teachable Momentp;that
precise instant in the progress of a course when an issue of ethics occurs
naturally and can be discussed, not as a side issue, but as part of the
focus of the course.
Subsequent extensions of the original EVT grant allowed us to expand on
this idea. At several junctures faculty participants were asked to produce
short descriptions of Teachable Moments from their own courses. Those descriptions
are contained in this book. They are offered as models to follow or to inspire
your own production of Teachable Moments. They are clustered into disciplines
so that readers can consult their areas of interest first. We hope, though,
that they will read beyond their own discipline and note both the breadth
and the similarity of approaches developed across the curriculum.
Barbara Bretcko
Editor
On the Distinction Between Ethics and Morality
Jere Jones, Philosophy
A philosopher makes a clear distinction between ethics and morality,
and explains why teachers who blanch at teaching morality are obliged to
teach ethics.
The Ethics and Technology Grant: Lessons Learned
Rosalia Hamilton, Nursing
One of the first group to study Ethics, Values and Technology under
the NSF grant describes the process she experienced as she moved from being
a teacher who thought she "knew it all" in her field to one who
realized that she wasn't communicating everything she knew to her students.
Teachable Moments in Business
Jacki Belin, Business Administration
Professor Belin provides scenarios for discussing issues of ethics and
values inherent in the topics of market segmentation, database marketing
and psychographics.
Ethos and Ethics in Business
Patricia Davis, Business Administration
Students in business classes can be exposed to ethical issues through
careful questioning and through case studies. Professor Davis offers examples
of both.
Teaching Ethics in a Practical Legal Setting
Maria DeFilippis, Business Law
Noting that it would be difficult to teach any course in legal assisting
without dealing with numerous issues of ethics, Professor DeFilippis offers
some illustrations of how those issues can be approached.
Ethical Values in Classroom Instruction in the Technologies
William de Versterre, Somerset County Technical Institute
Professor de Versterre presents a concise argument for why technology
teachers ought to be concerned with teaching ethics.
Computer Ethics Scenarios
Pratap Reddy, Computer Science
A professor of computer science offers a list of extremely concise and
to-the-point issues of ethics and values in the computing world.
Three Teachable Moments in English
Barbara Bretcko, English
Composition classes offer many teachable moments that arise from content.
Here Professor Bretcko notes that there are issues of ethics and values
embedded even in the instructions writing teachers give their students.
The Ethics of Group Work
Myrna Smith, English
In this essay an English teacher explores the ethical responsibilities
of the teachers who assign group work and the students who work in groups.
Presenting Information in Written Form
Lisa Tucker, English
Three cases can be used to discuss issues of students "sharing"
work, students maintaining confidentiality when they work on a service-learning
project, and the issue of accurate reporting for a school newspaper.
Teachable Moments in Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man
Carroll Wilson, English
An English professor shows how he uses a modern classic to teach some
classic principles of ethics and values.
The Ethics Committee: A Role-playing Exercise
Jan Buttler and Candice Knight, Nursing
Two members of the nursing faculty show how students can be taught not
only ethics, but also how nursing professionals actually contribute to the
resolution of real ethical dilemmas.
Ethical Issues in Health and Physical Education
Sally Custer, Physical Education and Recreation
A professor of physical education notes that people don't often think
of her discipline as one that deals with issues of ethics and values, then
lists just some of the issues that do, in fact, arise routinely in her courses.
A Teachable Moment in Nursing of Adults II: Renal Diseases/Multi-System
Involvement
Rosalia Hamilton, Nursing
A nursing professor shows how the briefest case study can yield some
of the numerous issues of ethics and values that nurses routinely deal with.
Ethics, Technology and Computer Art
Alan Cosgrove, Fine and Performing Arts
Technology has expanded the horizons of artists. Professor Cosgrove
points out that it has also introduced some knotty issues of ethics both
for the creative artist and for those who see their creations.
The Ethics of Teaching in the Foreign Language Classroom
S.L. Reynolds, Spanish and French
Foreign language classes offer students unique opportunities for unethical
behavior, several of which Professor Reynolds explores.
Ethics and Communications Courses
Thomas Valasek, Communications and Humanities
In an attempt to give his students the feeling of actually "owning"
some intellectual property, Professor Valasek constructed a series of assignments
which require that students usep;and citep;each other's work.
Case Studies for Issues in Environmental Science
Dan Aronson, Business and Economics
Roger Johnson, Biology
The authors have team-taught a course titled Issues in Environmental
Science, which looks at those issues from the perspectives of economics
and ecology science. The case studies presented here arose from two articles
that appeared in The New York Times.
An Ethical Issue in Statistics
Tomas Kovarik, Mathematics
Interjecting personal bias into the statistical decision making process
is unethical. Professor Kovarik illustrates a way to demonstrate this to
students.
Teachable Moments in Chemistry
Paul Schueler, Chemistry
Even Nobel laureates in chemistry started by taking Chemistry I and
II. Professor Schueler cites two cases that can be used at those introductory
levels to introduce future chemists to the ethics of the discipline.
Ethics and Ophthalmic Science
Brian Thomas, Ophthalmic Science
Professor Thomas presents a series of case studies that his students
act out in class and describes how to teach ophthalmic science students
some of the basic ethical principles of their future profession.
Teachable Moments in Psychology Courses
Mimi Dumville, Psychology
Professor Dumville cites some of the many teachable moments that occur
as a matter of course in psychology classes.
Teachable Moments in Introduction to Sociology
Barbara Seater, Sociology
The conduct of sociological research is studded with ethical issues.
One sociology professor describes how she uses her own field work to illustrate
some of those issues to her introductory students.