Exploring Ethical Development from Standard Instruction in the Contexts of Biomedical Engineering and Earth Science

Abstract

Ethics continues to be required in the accreditation of engineers. However, ethics is seldom the core focus of departmental instruction. Yet, standard instruction may have myriad impacts on students' ethical development. This study explores students’ ethical formation when ethics is a peripheral or non-intentional aspect of instruction in departmental courses in Biomedical Engineering and Earth Science. The research question that we seek to address is, “In what different ways and to what extent does participation in departmental engineering and science courses cultivate STEM students’ ethical formation?” To address our research question, we disseminated a survey to students before (pre) and after (post) their participation in one of 12 courses offered in Earth Science or Biomedical Engineering during the Fall 2017 or Spring 2018. The survey included four instruments: (1) the Civic-Minded Graduate scale; (2) the Interpersonal Reactivity Index; (3) two relational constructs developed by the authors; and (4) the Defining Issues Test-2. Results suggest that current Earth Science curriculum, overall, positively contributes to students' ethical growth. However, the Biomedical Engineering courses showed no evidence of change. As the Earth Science courses do not explicitly focus on ethics, one potential explanation for this trend is the community-engaged nature of the Earth Science curriculum. These findings will be beneficial locally to help direct improvements in departmental STEM instruction. In addition, these findings pave the way for future comparative analyses exploring how variations in ethical instruction contribute to students' ethical and professional formation. © 2019 American Society for Engineering Education