scholarly journals Aspirational Ethics as a Contributing Factor in Engineering Students’ Ethical Awareness and Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Zuraida Ahmad ◽  
Noraini Mohamed Noor ◽  
Siti Fauziah Toha ◽  
Nurul Fadzlin Hasbullah ◽  
Ali Sophian ◽  
...  

As ethical behavior is a part of engineers' professional identity and practice, developing ethical behavior skills in future engineers is a vital component of the engineering curriculum. There are already established instructional methods to teach engineering ethics (EE), however, it is concentrated on ethical awareness, and little attention has been given to how this will affect the ethical behavior. Even though students are capable of exercising ethical judgment, it does not mean that they are ethically literate or likely to act ethically. The assessment of engineering ethics cannot be conducted based on ethical judgment, because the ethical awareness of some engineers has not translated into ethical behavior. An alternative instructional method for measuring the ethical behavior is required to see how the ethical awareness given in the classroom setting is translated to the actual ethical behavior. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to propose an instructional method that correlates with both ethical awareness and ethical behavior, through aspirational ethics which require the students to contribute to the society. This method integrates the theory of morals and values, ethical and unethical conduct, code of practices of an engineer, ethics with the environment, and the responsibility of the engineer for the safety of everybody. Students’ ethical behavior in the society will be demonstrated through the University Social Responsibility (USR) projects. From these projects, the students’ ethical behavior is assessed by their peers, beneficiaries that they are serving, as well as by the educators, regarding their ethical conduct. This will be the tools to observe the degree of correlations between the ethical awareness instilled and behavior manifested. Applying these instructional methods will allow educators to build confidence and trust in their students' ability to build a professional identity and be prepared for the engineering profession and practice.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 287
Author(s):  
Roxana Maria Ghiaţău ◽  
Liliana Mâţă

In this article, we intend to review the factors that contribute to the non-ethical use of information technology by academics. The ultimate goal of this approach is to construct a possible explanatory model of teachers' unethical attitudes. As premises, we consider that such a model of factors must take into account several theoretical and empirical previous variables and achievements, such as: theories or models that explain the relationship between attitudes and behavior; models of ethical decision making; the environment and values of information and communication technologies (ICT); research that highlights the relationship between individual factors and ethical judgment versus ethical behavior; research that highlights the relationship between external factors and ethical judgment versus ethical behavior. Therefore, our presentation will take these support points into account in how content is structured.


Author(s):  
Julie M. Little ◽  
Patricia S. Fox

This chapter describes the process of developing both an engaging and motivating online ethics course for future engineers; and includes major concepts in engineering ethics beginning with why engineering students should study ethics at all. Next the various levels of ethics are examined, which include personal, organizational, and global ethics, and how each level then applies to the profession of engineering. Ethical behavior, ethical dilemmas and whistle-blowing are also defined and discussed. Ethical decision-making models, which are used to solve ethical dilemmas, are explained and examples are presented to engage students in the process. The significance of how engineers are held to higher standard and must adhere to both their professional code of ethics along with their organization's code of ethics is also emphasized. Understanding the role of ethical leadership and how it impacts an organization follows. Finally, engaging online methods for teaching ethics to engineering students will be explored throughout.


Author(s):  
Josep M. Basart

Engineering students are introduced to their profession's ethical and social responsibilities along with their education and training at university. This might be the only time and place where public welfare engagement may be promoted by the institution and acknowledged by students. Their future behavior as engineers heavily depends on the understanding and commitment they may develop during this process. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the main points related to the teaching and learning of Engineering Ethics at universities. In order to gain insight into this complex educational scene, a set of questions are formulated and explored. The discussion of these questions amounts to explain what Engineering Education consists of, how to integrate Engineering Ethics courses into the curriculum and develop instructional designs for classroom teaching, who should assume teaching responsibilities, and finally, what Engineering Ethics goals should be. For each query, the primal issues, controversies, and alternatives are discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Van Bossuyt ◽  
Andy Dong ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer ◽  
Lucila Carvalho

Risk management is a critical part of engineering practice in industry. Yet, the attitudes of engineers toward risk remain unknown and are not measured. This paper presents the development of a psychometric scale, the engineering-domain-specific risk-taking (E-DOSPERT) test, to measure engineers' risk aversion and risk seeking attitudes. Consistent with a similar psychometric scale to assess general risk attitudes, engineering risk attitude is not single domain and is not consistent across domains. Engineers have different risk attitudes toward five identified domains of engineering risk: processes, procedures and practices; engineering ethics; training; product functionality and design; and legal issues. Psychometric risk profiling with E-DOSPERT provides companies a standard to assess domain-specific engineering risk attitude within organizations and across organizations. It provides engineering educators a standard to assess the understanding of engineering students to the types of risks they would encounter in professional practice and their personal attitude toward responding to those risks. Appropriate interventions can then be implemented to shape risk attitudes as appropriate. Risk-based design decisions can also be shaped by a better understanding of engineer and customer risk attitude. Understanding engineers' risk attitudes is crucial in interpreting how individual engineers will respond to risk in their engineering activities and the numerous design decisions they make across the various domains of engineering risk found in professional practice.


2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 206-212
Author(s):  
Marla Mastin

All educators continually search for ways to assist students in learning mathematical concepts. The challenge for teachers is to provide a “thinking” curriculum and creative instructional methods while helping students recognize that they should be actively involved in their own learning. This article presents a way to engage students in mathematics through the use of an innovative instructional method based on constructivist theory, which emphasizes the “building” that takes place in the brain as a person learns and which is rooted in both the social and the cognitive perspective of learning.


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