Evaluating the effectiveness of the MacIntyrean philosophical approach in delivering a professional ethics course

Abstract

This paper measures the effectiveness of a professional ethics course using the MacIntyrean Philosophical Approach (MPA) which incorporates virtues, narrative, tradition, and community. There has been limited empirical work using this framework in which the emphasis has been on ‘thick descriptions’ created through narrative, mainly the case methodology. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no attempt to quantify the constructs of the MPA which is one of the contributions of our paper. Our approach is the first to use a mixed method approach in applying the MPA and utilizes ten (10) virtues captured in the Moral Competency Inventory, developed by Lennick et al. (2011), to measure virtues at the personal and social levels. Data were collected from eighty-nine (89) students (comprising the treatment and control groups) and analyzed using various multivariate techniques including Exploratory Factor Analysis, MANOVA and Structural Equation Modeling. The results were also triangulated with self-reflective essays that were analysed using content analysis. The findings showed that students’ virtues were higher after exposure to the MPA which confirmed that it had a significant and positive impact on the delivery of the professional ethics course.