Engineering Ethics Education Research Articles

A Rubik’s Cube-Inspired Pedagogical Tool for Teaching and Learning Engineering Ethics

To facilitate engineering students’ understanding of engineering ethics and support instructors in developing course content, this study introduces an innovative educational tool drawing inspiration from the Rubik’s Cube metaphor. This Engineering Ethics Knowledge Rubik’s Cube (EEKRC) integrates six key aspects—ethical theories, codes of ethics, ethical issues, engineering disciplines, stakeholders, and life cycle—identified through an analysis of engineering ethics textbooks and courses across the United States, Singapore, and China. This analysis underpins the selection of the six aspects, reflecting the shared and unique elements of engineering ethics education in these regions. In an engineering ethics course, the EEKRC serves multiple functions: it provides visual support for grasping engineering ethics concepts, acts as a pedagogical guide for both experienced and inexperienced educators in course design, offers a complementary assessment method for evaluating students learning outcomes, and assists as a reference for students engaging in ethical analysis.

Overlap of Ethics and Sustainability for Responsibility Mindset: Insights for an Educational Approach Change in Ethics of Engineering

The mandate of universities and higher education institutes is to shape students' ethical wisdom and catalyze sustainable development. However, everyone does not have equal access to higher education which drives the above mindsets, leading to unequal quality of education. Today, most ethics teaching in engineering schools is narrowly micro-ethics and does not attempt to define macro-ethics’ special challenges. Micro-ethics concentrates on concerns related to the individual and the innermost workings of the profession. However, macro-ethics encompasses sustainable development with a focus on the collective social responsibility of the profession and public concerns about technology. This study examined undergraduate engineering programs in 25 major Canadian universities to see if they are adequately prepared to navigate both the micro and macro aspects of ethics education. The curricula of the programs show many courses focusing on micro-ethical concepts. The lack of explicit macro-ethical agendas for advancing society invites further work on curricula to enhance the efficacy of the content and delivery modes. This inadequate commitment to socially responsible engineering is conceptualized as a “culture of disengagement”. The study introduces important moments of change to strengthen ethics education. These include twinning engineering and computing ethics; embedding overlapped ethics, sustainability, and responsibility mindsets; and promoting the scholarship of integration through research, synthesis, practice, and teaching. By adopting these approaches to curriculum and pedagogy, the students will effectively cultivate a critical understanding of and obligation to the profession’s collective responsibility and the well-being of the greater society. These changes provide crucial insights into broadening sociotechnical-minded prospects of engineering ethics education.

How to Deal with Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice

With the accelerated pace of engineering and technological innovation, the complexity of engineering and the expanding scope of engineering influence, engineering ethics in the future will become an important issue that must be solved by the main body of engineering practice, and for this reason, the development of engineering ethics education will become an important task for the cultivation of high-quality and excellent engineering talents in the future. The benefits of engineering to human beings are self-evident, however, there are two sides of things, on the one hand, engineering will promote the development of the country, social progress, and bring human beings a more convenient living environment; on the other hand, unreasonable engineering will also bring harm to human beings and hinder the development of society. Therefore, how to prevent engineering risks, maximize the positive benefits of engineering and reduce the negative impacts of engineering is an issue we should pay attention to. Since engineering safety accidents often contain ethical factors, there is a strong necessity and urgency to analyze and prevent them from the perspective of ethics in the study of engineering risks. This paper describes how to deal with ethical problems in engineering practice in five aspects: the importance and prevalence of ethical problems in engineering, the identification of ethical problems in engineering, the exploration of methods for solving ethical problems in engineering, the response to the challenges of ethical problems in engineering, and the education and guidance of engineering ethics.

Responsible research and innovation and tertiary education in chemistry and chemical engineering

This paper investigates the relationship between Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and chemistry / chemical engineering education at university level. It does so by describing the genealogy of the RRI concept as well as outlining three different interpretations of what RRI refers to and combining them into the hexagon model of RRI. This model constitutes the theoretical framework for this work. The second part of the paper addresses how the science and engineering education research literature has embraced insights from RRI. The hexagon model of RRI explicitly includes a dimension on (science and engineering) education, and this paper will contribute to this dimension by investigating and discussing how research literature can link RRI and tertiary chemistry and chemical engineering education. The paper shows that very limited work has been done to liaise chemistry higher education and chemical engineering education with the RRI framework. In the concluding section of the paper, we discuss how the reported educational experiences on RRI in STEM can be translated into higher education in chemical engineering and chemistry. Hereby a proposal to fill the identified knowledge gap is made. The core of the paper is conceptual, and its central purpose is to introduce RRI to a chemical engineering and chemistry ethics education audience. As mentioned, the RRI approach has gone largely unnoticed within engineering ethics education, and only received limited attention within ethics of chemistry education. We hope that these research communities will find it inspirational to get involved in the RRI framework and to actively enact RRI insights.

4E cognition, moral imagination, and engineering ethics education: shaping affordances for diverse embodied perspectives

AbstractWhile 4E approaches to cognition are increasingly introduced in educational contexts, little has been said about how 4E commitments can inform pedagogy aimed at fostering ethical competencies. Here, we evaluate a 4E-inspired ethics exercise that we developed at a technical university to enliven the moral imagination of engineering students. Our students participated in an interactive tinkering workshop, during which they materially redesigned a healthcare artifact. The aim of the workshop was twofold. Firstly, we wanted students to experience how material choices at the levels of design and functionality can enable morally significant reimaginings of the affordances commonly associated with existing artifacts. We term this type of reimagining world-directed moral imagination. Secondly, through the design process, we wanted students to robustly place themselves in the lived embodied perspectives of (potential) users of their selected artifacts. We term this person-directed moral imagination. While student testimonies about the exercise indicate that both their world-directed and person-directed moral imagination were enlivened, we note that the fostering of robust person-directed moral imagination proved challenging. Using 4E insights, we diagnose this challenge and ask how it might be overcome. To this end, we engage extensively with a recent 4E-informed critique of person-directed moral imagination, raised by Clavel Vázquez and Clavel-Vázquez (2023). They argue that person-directed moral imagination is profoundly limited, if not fundamentally misguided, particularly when exercised in contexts marked by emphatic embodied situated difference between the imaginer and the imagined. Building upon insights from both the 4E field and testimonies from critical disability studies, we argue that, while their critique is valuable, it ultimately goes too far. We conclude that a 4E approach can take on board recent 4E warnings regarding the limits of person-directed moral imagination while contributing positively to the development of moral imagination in engineering ethics education.

The impact of different methods of increasing the intensity of compassion in engineering ethics cases

ABSTRACT Despite the growing interest in emotions in engineering education, empirical research on incorporating them into engineering ethics education is limited. Therefore, we designed this experimental study to assess how different methods for integrating compassion into engineering ethics cases influenced the intensity of compassion associated with the protagonists of the cases. We utilised modified versions of the Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT) cases, employing three methods to intensify compassion associated with the cases’ protagonists: (i) implicit induction, (ii) explicit expression, and (iii) through the description of severe consequences. The participants (n = 415), predominantly engineering students (90%), were divided into one control group and three experimental groups. Results indicated that all three methods increased the intensity of compassion in the cases. However, the implicit method had a relatively weaker impact than the other two methods which had similar effects on the intensity of compassion. Other emotions did not seem to be impacted by the changes. This study provides valuable insights into effective methods to increase the intensity of compassion in engineering ethics cases without affecting other emotions.

Assessing Ethical Sensitivity Development in Undergraduate Engineering Students

An essential part of upholding high ethical standards in engineering involves being able to detect and identify ethical issues. This refers to one’s Ethical Sensitivity (ES), which is often overlooked in Engineering Ethics Education (EEE). This then leads to the question, are students’ ES skills being developed over the course of their undergraduate career? There is currently very little research on ES assessment in engineering students. Additionally, current ES assessment tools are either not designed to specifically assess ES, are not designed for engineering, and/or cue the participant in some way to the ethical dilemmas, which could misrepresent the participant’s actual ES abilities. The focus of this paper is to outline the process used to develop the research instrument and to discuss some key findings after the first round of qualitative data analysis. The next steps for this research and some early limitations on the study will also be discussed.

Understanding Engineers’ Ethical Environmental Responsibility

Engineers Canada states that engineers must, “Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and the protection of the environment and promote health and safety within the workplace” [1]. This is frequently the only guideline directly related to the environment included in Canadian provincial and territorial Professional Engineering Codes of Ethics (PECoE) which are a primary resource for teaching engineering ethics [1]; notably, Ontario’s PECoE currently does not explicitly mention the environment [2]. Minimal formal ethical guidelines indicate interpretations of engineers’ professional responsibility with respect to the environment may vary in both industry and engineering education. With the growing focus on sustainable development alongside escalating environmental crises, a thorough investigation of engineers’ professional ethical responsibility to the environment is time-sensitive and necessary [3]. The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of how engineers and engineering students view and interpret their professional ethical responsibility to the environment and PECoE in a Canadian context. The ultimate goal of this research will be to aid the development of engineering ethics and sustainability curricula, as well as Professional Engineering Codes of Ethics. A key result from preliminary findings, is that participants feel there may be a need to explicitly include more guidelines on the environment in the Ontario PECoE.

Three Integrations: Exploration and Practice on Chemical Engineering Ethics Education in Chinese Universities

Three Integrations: Exploration and Practice on Chemical Engineering Ethics Education in Chinese Universities

The Ethics of Engineering Ethics Education

In this paper, we argue that engineering ethics education does have moral implications. More specifically, practices in engineering ethics education can lead to negative moral consequences if not conducted appropriately. Engineering ethics educators are often passionate about teaching students ways to examine the ethical implications of engineering and technology. However, ethics educators may overlook the moral significance of their instructional classroom practices. In this paper, we discuss two issues: First, we discuss the moral impacts of ethics curriculum and pedagogies on students’ learning experiences. Then we discuss the professional responsibilities of educators who are involved in designing ethics learning experiences for engineering students. The reflections presented in this paper will serve as catalysts for more comprehensive discussions regarding the impact of engineering ethics education on the ethical development of engineering students.

Current issues and future directions in engineering ethics education

This paper reports on engineering ethics education (EEE)-related issues based on a comparison of three technical universities: Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Friedrich-Alexander University, and Istanbul Technical University. Besides the presentation of the current state of EEE, future challenges are also discussed.

Exploration and Practice of Teaching “Engineering Ethic” for Professional Degree Graduate Students Under the Background of “New Engineering”

Under the background of new engineering and curriculum ideological and political construction, the ethics education of engineering ethics courses for engineering graduate students must be constantly explored and tried. Based on the actual situation of the training of professional degree graduate students in our university, this paper starts from various aspects such as teaching content, teaching methods, textbook cases and comprehensive assessment. This paper probes into the course construction and teaching reform of engineering ethics for engineering graduate students, and explores the mode of engineering ethics education which adapts to the needs of our country’s own development.

A Study on Engineering Ethics Education in China

A Study on Engineering Ethics Education in China

Research on the Evaluation Dimension of Engineering Ethics Education Ability of Engineering Teachers in China

Research on the Evaluation Dimension of Engineering Ethics Education Ability of Engineering Teachers in China

Pedagogical innovation to captivate students to ethics education in engineering

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to develop an innovative pedagogic tool: an escape room board game to be played in-class, targeting an introduction to an ethics course for engineering students. The design is student-centred and aims to increase students' appreciation, commitment and motivation to learning ethics, a challenging endeavour for many technological students.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology included the design, development and in-class application of the mentioned game. After application, perception data from students were collected with pre- and post-action questionnaire, using a quasi-experimental method.FindingsThe results allow to conclude that the developed game persuaded students be in class in an active way. The game mobilizes body and mind to the learning process with many associated advantages to foster students' motivation, curiosity, interest, commitment and the need for individual reflection after information search.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the game is its applicability to large classes (it has been successfully tested with a maximum of 65 students playing simultaneously in the same room).Originality/valueThe originalities and contributions include the presented game that helped to captivate students to ethics area, a serious problem felt by educators and researchers in this area. This study will be useful to educators of ethics in engineering and will motivate to design tools for a similar pedagogical approach, even more so in areas where students are not especially motivated. The developed tool is available from the authors at no expense.

Compassion and engineering students' moral reasoning: The emotional experience of engineering ethics cases

AbstractBackgroundThere has been an increase in interest in emotion in engineering and science ethics education. There is also evidence that emotional content in case studies may improve students' learning and enhance awareness, understanding, and motivation concerning ethical issues. Despite these potential benefits, however, emotions' relationship to moral reasoning remains controversial, with ongoing debate as to how much and in what way emotional content impacts on moral reasoning. Furthermore, only limited empirical research has explored how emotions affect students' moral reasoning in educational settings.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine whether mild to moderate compassion‐induced engineering ethics case contents affected the moral reasoning schemas activated in students.Design/MethodWe conducted experimental research using the Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT). First, we modified the six case studies of the ESIT, to increase the compassion associated with the cases' protagonists to a mild to moderate level. We tested this instrument with 207 participants to ensure the changes did affect compassion without impacting on other potential emotions. Then, in a second study with 305 participants, we investigated whether the changed compassion intensity of the protagonists in the case studies affected the moral reasoning schemas activated in participants.ResultsThe induction of mild to moderate compassion did not impact the moral reasoning schemas activated. Findings also show that we managed to affect compassion intensity in the case studies without changing other emotions.ConclusionThis study reveals how to include a targeted emotion in engineering case studies in order to improve students' learning without affecting the moral reasoning schemas activated.

Fostering responsible anticipation in engineering ethics education: how a multi-disciplinary enrichment of the responsible innovation framework can help

ABSTRACT It is crucial for engineers to anticipate the socio-ethical impacts of emerging technologies. Such acts of anticipation are thoroughly normative and should be cultivated in engineering ethics education. In this paper we ask: ‘how do we anticipate the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies responsibly?’ And ‘how can such responsible anticipation be taught?’ We offer a conceptual answer, building upon the framework of Responsible Innovation and its four core practices: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness. We forge a more explicit link between the practices of anticipation, reflexivity, and inclusion, while also enriching them with insights from disability studies, STS, design theory, and philosophy. On this basis we present responsible anticipation as an activity of reflective problem framing grounded in epistemic humility. Via the RI-practice of responsiveness we present responsible anticipation as a creative approach to engineering ethics, offering engineering students a critical yet productive perspective on how ethics may inform innovation.

Development and reform of the curriculum of engineering ethics education in biology and medicine under the background of "new engineering"

The "new engineering" concept requires that in addition to laying a solid professional foundation, engineering colleges and universities in China should also pay attention to improving the humanistic quality and developing a professional ethics education in training the engineering and technical talents. One important way is to carry out the engineering ethics education. By referring to the mature case-teaching ideas around the world and combining the practical experience accumulated in recent years, this paper focuses on the curriculum development and teaching reform of engineering ethics for students studying biological and medical engineering, from the perspectives of case selection and teaching method innovation. It also introduces some typical case studies, and summarizes the teaching effect analyzed from questionnaire.

Constructing a role ethics approach to engineering ethics education

ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with the gap between the ideology of ‘autonomous individualism’ deeply embedded in Western-centric engineering ethics education and the social and relational nature of engineering practice. The so-called ‘individualistic approach’ to engineering ethics often treats students as fully rational and autonomous individual decision-makers. Such an approach mainly emphasizes teaching students moral reasoning skills, including the skills of applying dominant Western ethical theories (mainly deontology and consequentialism) into hypothetical cases. What might be overlooked or could be further emphasized in dominant approaches to engineering ethics education is what philosophers call the ‘role ethics’ of engineers. The role ethics approach to engineering ethics focuses on the the moral obligations of engineers that are derived from the specific roles they assume and the relationships they have developed with others in communal contexts. This paper aims to construct a role-based approach to teaching professional ethics to engineering students. It mainly draws on role ethics theories from the Confucian philosophical tradition. It first provides a short introduction to the fundamentals of Confucian role ethics from a comparative perspective. It then discusses what a role-based approach to engineering ethics might entail. Finally, this paper briefly explores how the insights from Confucian role ethics can inform future engineering ethics education.

Discussion on Political Construction of Circuit Course

Under the background of engineering, in order to achieve the teaching goal of “Cultivate people with virtue”, the ideological and political construction of engineering courses pays more attention to strengthening students’ engineering ethics education, cultivating students’ spirit of striving for excellence as a great country craftsman, stimulating students’ feelings and mission of serving the country with science and technology, so that to help students get better knowledge and skills. The paper takes the course of circuit as an example, organically integrates the ideological and political elements of the curriculum into the learning process of the circuit curriculum so that to eliminate students’ fear of difficulties in curriculum learning, and increase their self-confidence by excavating the ideological and political elements in the circuit curriculum, carrying out reasonable curriculum design.