The Importance of Formative Assessment in Science and Engineering Ethics Education: Some Evidence and Practical Advice

Recent research in ethics education shows a potentially problematic variation in content, curricular materials, and instruction. While ethics instruction is now widespread, studies have identified significant variation in both the goals and methods of ethics education, leaving researchers to conclude that many approaches may be inappropriately paired with goals that are unachievable. This paper speaks to these concerns by demonstrating the importance of aligning classroom-based assessments to clear ethical learning objectives in order to help students and instructors track their progress toward meeting those objectives. Two studies at two different universities demonstrate the usefulness of classroom-based, formative assessments for improving the quality of students’ case responses in computational modeling and research ethics

A formação ética nos cursos de engenharia em Portugal: contributos para a repensar numa perspetiva do bem comum

O papel que a tecnologia desempenha na contemporaneidade, e que se prevêdesempenhar no futuro, alerta para a importância de uma reflexão crítica eética sobre a sua evolução, uso e impactos. Neste contexto considerou-sepertinente analisar o que se passa na formação em engenharia pelodeterminante papel que este domínio do saber tem na evolução da tecnologia,e deste modo na construção social e ambiental do presente e do futuro.Pretendeu-se saber se está a ser promovida uma formação ética e reflexivados estudantes dos cursos de engenharia, que abranja o debate e a análisecrítica sobre o papel da tecnologia e da engenharia quer no presente, quer naconstrução que no presente se faz do futuro.Neste enquadramento, a presente investigação teve por objetivo indagar comoé que as instituições de ensino superior portuguesas que lecionam cursos deengenharia contemplam a formação ética dos seus estudantes e integram odebate sobre o papel da engenharia no presente e no futuro. O processo deinvestigação organizou-se em três fases: análise das missões das instituiçõesportuguesas que lecionam cursos de engenharia; análise dos currículos doscursos de engenharia; análise das fichas das unidades curriculares que, nestescursos, contemplam uma formação ética. O processo de investigação originoua produção de vários estudos que deram lugar a artigos, três dos quaisconstituem o fio condutor do trabalho aqui presente.Os resultados evidenciam que as instituições de ensino de engenharia centramas suas missões numa perspetiva de serviço ao sector económico, que aformação ética dos estudantes de engenharia ainda não é largamentereconhecida como fundamental e que está pouco presente nos currículos doscursos. Evidenciam também que o debate sobre o papel da engenharia nasociedade ainda está quase ausente da educação superior em engenharia

Razvoj in validacija kompetenčnega profila za poučevanje in učenje raziskovalne integritete

Since research integrity is not external to research but an integral part of it, it should be integrated into research training. However, several hindrances regarding contemporary research integrity education exist. To address them, we have developed a competency profile for teaching and learning research integrity based on four assumptions: 1) to include all levels of study (BA, MA, and PhD); 2) to integrate research integrity into research education itself; 3) to address research integrity issues in context-specific practices; and 4) to pay particular attention to the ‘grey zone’ or questionable research practices. To assess the validity of the content of the competency profile and to determine if some adjustments to the profile are needed, we translated the competencies of the profile into items of a measurement instrument (a questionnaire) and conducted a survey amongst University of Ljubljana students that allowed us to 1) obtain information about students’ attitudes toward issues of integrity in research; 2) analyse differences in these attitudes among BA, MA, and PhD students; and 3) statistically validate the competency profile and suggest possible improvements. The results showed that 1) students are highly aware of research integrity issues, as scores were high on all items assessed. However, there were some deviations to lower scores, especially in relation to questionable research practises, confirming our assumption that the ‘grey zone’ issues are those that should be particularly addressed and given special attention in contemporary research integrity education. 2) The differences in the attitudes of BA, MA, and PhD students showed that higher-level students showed significantly more awareness of integrity issues than lower-level students did, suggesting that research integrity issues should be given special attention at the BA study level. 3) The measurement characteristics showed that the reliability of the questionnaire was very high, suggesting a good overall structure of the competency profile. The principal component analysis also confirmed the four-field structure of the Competency profile (Values and Principles, Research Practise, Publication and Dissemination, and Violations). However, the analysis also showed that the substructure of the four main areas of the profile did not fully match the results of the factor analysis, suggesting that the distribution of competencies in the competency profile could be reconsidered, especially in the area of Research Practice. The most recent developments in the field of research integrity also suggest that the competency profile should be updated with issues regarding the impact of artificial intelligence on research integrity. (DIPF/Orig.

A Multi‑level Review of Engineering Ethics Education: Towards a Socio‑technical Orientation of Engineering Education for Ethics

This paper aims to review the empirical and theoretical research on engineering ethics education, by focusing on the challenges reported in the literature. The analysis is conducted at four levels of the engineering education system. First, the individual level is dedicated to findings about teaching practices reported by instructors. Second, the institutional level brings together findings about the implementation and presence of ethics within engineering programmes. Third, the level of policy situates findings about engineering ethics education in the context of accreditation. Finally, there is the level of the culture of engineering education. The multi-level analysis allows us to address some of the limitations of higher education research which tends to focus on individual actors such as instructors or remains focused on the levels of policy and practice without examining the deeper levels of paradigm and purpose guiding them. Our approach links some of the challenges of engineering ethics education with wider debates about its guiding paradigms. The main contribution of the paper is to situate the analysis of the theoretical and empirical findings reported in the literature on engineering ethics education in the context of broader discussions about the purpose of engineering education and the aims of reform programmes. We conclude by putting forward a series of recommendations for a sociotechnical oriented reform of engineering education for ethics

Investigating Game-Based Instruction as a Tool for Engineering Ethics Education in a First-Year Engineering Program

Behaving ethically is a core foundation within engineering and is a necessity according to the National Society of Professional Engineers. Therefore, engineering ethics education has been increasingly encouraged within engineering curriculums in higher education. Many instructors have found it difficult to teach engineering ethics effectively using traditional strategies such as lectures. This has caused a trend toward more active learning strategies being researched and utilized within the engineering ethics space. One strategy that has been growing in popularity in instruction both inside and outside of engineering is game-based learning or using educational games with instruction to accomplish learning goals. To this end, three games have been created by researchers at Rowan University, University of Connecticut, University of Pittsburgh, and New Jersey Institute of Technology that are designed to aid in the instruction of first-year engineering students around ethical decision making, reasoning, and awareness. This thesis study explores how first-year engineering students conceptualize engineering ethics prior to formal education and investigates how game-based instruction can be used as an effective, situated and playful learning strategy. Students were assessed on their ethical knowledge and reasoning through concept map analysis as well as with the moral reasoning instruments, the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) and the Engineering Ethical Reasoning Instrument (EERI). Student attitudes towards the three games were assessed through responses to a survey. While there was little to no change in the learning outcomes of the students, it was found that the students were engaged and enjoyed the games. This study adds to the field of engineering ethics education and spreads the use of different active learning strategies that can be used to improve the quality of instruction

WHAT IS IT TO BE AN ETHICAL ENGINEER? A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ENGINEERING ETHICS PEDAGOGY

Two concerns are prominent in engineering ethics pedagogy and, together, pose a conundrum for ethics educators: 21st century technologies raise daunting ethical questions that require a strong engagement with and understanding of ethics by engineers; at the same time, however, engineering students don’t care much about studying ethics. Ethics instruction, however, seems nonresponsive to these issues. It continues to rely on Western ethical theories using case studies to analyze professional engineering conduct. And, although instructors want better student learning outcomes, assessment continues to use quantitative measures of ethical knowledge and ethical reasoning skills which disregard students’ emotional engagement with ethics and underestimates ABET’s Engineering Criterion 3(f) which requires that engineering students have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities. In the end, dissatisfaction with instruction and student learning outcomes persists. Given the epistemological foundations of engineering – that engineering is applied science using knowledge that is universal, objective, certain, and discoverable through reason – it is unsurprising that engineering ethics is taught the same way science is taught using a linear, positivistic, problem-solving approach that assumes reason will yield correct and usually quantitatively determined answers to ethical questions. In this dissertation, I argue that, contrary to the dominant thinking passed on to generations of students that engineering is applied science and, as such, largely ethically neutral beyond safe an d efficient design, the practice of engineering actually arises from a contingency model of knowledge and is, correspondingly, imbued with both uncertainty and ethics. I contend that the way we teach engineering ethics must change if we expect different learning outcomes from undergraduate engineering students. In this research, I introduce an engineering ethics pedagogy informed by phenomenology, the study of human meaning from the standpoint of experience. Students are asked to research the phenomenological question, “what is it to be an ethical engineer?” and employ principles of hermeneutic phenomenology to interpret and understand that experience. Quantitative measures test changes in students’ ethical sensitivity and ethical reasoning skills, and qualitative methods informed by philosophical hermeneutics are used to assess changes in students’ emotional engagement with ethics and their understanding of professional and ethical responsibilities. I draw two principal conclusions from my work on this project. First, a one-credit ethics course using a phenomenology-informed engineering ethics pedagogy can contribute to undergraduate engineering students’ improved ethical sensitivity, ethical reasoning skills, emotional engagement with the study of ethics, and understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. Second, qualitative assessment revealed that we educators of engineering ethics are not attuned to what is important to our undergraduate engineering students. While we are intent on imparting ethical knowledge, our students worry about how they will fit into the world of engineering as ethically competent professionals when they move from undergraduate student to practicing engineer. This is a gap we must fill if we expect our students to graduate with an understanding of their professional and ethical responsibilities. A phenomenological approach to engineering ethics education – where students are given the opportunity to investigate, encounter, and understand the real, lived experience of what it is to be an ethical engineer – can help fill this gap

Towards a Sociotechnical Reconfiguration of Engineering and an Education for Ethics : A Critical Realist Investigation into the Patterns of Education and Accreditation of Ethics in Engineering Programmes in Ireland

The focus of this thesis is on the provision and evaluation of ethics in engineeringprogrammes in Ireland, by placing this examinationin the wider cultural context of engineering education.The study benefitted from the support of the national accrediting body Engineers Ireland, and included 23 engineering programmes from 2 institutes of technology and 4 universities in Ireland which underwent accreditation between 2017-2019.By using a Critical Realistframe, the study undertakes a multi-layeredinvestigation of the engineering education system that takes into consideration theindividual level of single agents such as instructors and evaluators, the institutional level comprised of engineering programmes, as well as the policy level represented by the national accrediting body. Furthermore, through retroduction,the generative mechanism affecting the activity at these levelsis explained to be theculture of engineering education and its valorisation of the technical over the social dimension of engineering, at societal level.The analysis suggests that thelower weight of ethics and its unsystematic implementation in the engineering curriculumas well asthe challenges encountered in the teaching and evaluation of ethicsare rooted in a cultural perception of engineering as a “nuts and bolts” discipline.To dismantle the two distinct societal and technical cultures existing in engineering education, the study proposes moving from a treatment of ethics as a curriculum add-on towards a full reorientation and development of engineering curriculum “for” ethics. Engineering education “for” ethics is a transformative process, which aims to challenge existing core assumptions and values promoted in engineering education.The studyarguesthat measures targeting each of theontological domains andlevelsmentionedabove need to be considered in the process of transformation of engineering education towards a hybrid modeland its identification as a socio-technical discipline

Bone Vibration Analysis as a Novel Screening Tool for Long Bone Fractures

The aim of this study is to reduce the number of X-ray scans taken to detect fractures, by developing a bone fracture screening system. When assessing a bone injury, doctors need to decide whether the injury has resulted in a fracture or a sprain so that they can provide appropriate treatments. The current way to differentiate between these is by an X-ray scan. In 2011, the 46,000 children attending Sheffield Children’s Hospital Emergency Department had 10,400 X-rays, mostly to help diagnose bone fractures. Roughly half the X-ray scans taken indicate that the injury is sprain. Unnecessary X-ray scan means raising costs and exposing patients to ionising radiation. Vibration analysis is a well-established technology for condition monitoring for defect detection in industries however; its use in the medical field is still evolving. In bone vibration analysis, periodic or aperiodic oscillations or oscillating signals are introduced, and subsequent responses are recorded followed by using mathematical methods to reach a conclusion. In this study, a computer-controlled mechanism induces a mild vibration and successive responses are recorded via a piezoelectric sensor. To demonstrate the method's feasibility, a preliminary study was carried out on five blocks of wood of different density, with the same dimensions. The tests indicated a significant reduction in the blocks' vibration frequency following their fracture. After obtaining National Health Services (NHS) Research Approval, appropriate number of bone vibration responses was recorded from adults’ wrists and children’s wrists and ankles who attended local hospitals following wrist or ankle injuries. Suitable signal processing and pattern recognition techniques were developed on the basis of vibration responses from bones at various stages to interpret the recorded signals. Data were acquired from healthy participants at a local school which were compared with the data acquired from hospital participants to verify the methods. Currently, this study differentiates around 80% of the injuries accurately. Additionally, both the data acquisition program and the device have been modified to improve the developed procedures. This study made some promising discoveries and the resulting techniques can be used for further explorations