Evaluating the Intervention of an Ethics’ Class in Students’ Ethical Decision-making

Abstract

In this pilot study, the author evaluated the impact of an ethics class in terms of students’ ethical decision-making. The research compares aggregate responses from scenario-based pre- and post-survey open-ended survey questions designed to elicit changes in ethical decision-making by comparing students’ cognitive and affective perceptions about ethical workplace behavior. Grounded in constructivist theory, which explains how individuals “know” and “come to know something (Reeves, 2003), this intervention encourages students to make better and more informed ethical decisions in the workplace based on their understanding of their value and belief system. The findings suggest increased positive cognitive and affective changes in student perceptions that inform one’s value and belief system, the student’s ability to remain open-minded and reconsider previous beliefs and actions from a 360 degree perspective, and the student’s ability to apply new information to ethical dilemmas in the workplace