Bridging the Gap Between Engineers and Society: Learning to Listen

这个科学和工程伦理教育项目，弥合工程师与社会之间的鸿沟：学会倾听，将研究和教育结合起来，探索工程、科学和社会之间的关系。该项目将开发一个理论框架，一个研究生水平的工程伦理课程，以及四个独立的多媒体模块，利用经验社会科学理论和研究方法来弥合工程师和客户之间的关系差距。工程伦理教育的目标将通过教导工程师承认和倾听他们所服务的社区的声音来促进。该项目有以下目标：目标1：建立一个理论框架，用于扩展工程伦理学的教学方法，将伦理困境根植于正在展开的现实、不确定性、不同视角和受工程和科学决策、研究和产品影响的公众的多层次技术专业知识中。目标2：建立一个多学科，多媒体，经验工程伦理研究生课程，教授伦理和科学探究的最佳实践，明确考虑利益相关者的需求，价值观，观察和知识。目标3：与参加该课程的工程、科学和公共卫生研究生合作，创建四个教学模块：倾听、负责任的研究行为、负责任的实践行为、目睹不法行为和防止伤害的义务。目标4：评估课程和模块的有效性，帮助学生理解他们在更大的社会结构中作为重要参与者的角色，并认识到考虑公众是他们研究的重要资源和实践的关键组成部分。提出的研究和教育计划将促进对一种非常有前途但目前尚未充分利用的工程伦理教学方法的理解。四所大学的教师拥有不同的受众，他们致力于教授项目的原理和材料。作为项目合作者，环境工程和科学教授协会将协助开发和传播工作产品。项目团队和参与的学生包括工程和科学领域代表性不足的群体，他们扮演着各种各样的贡献角色。

This Ethics Education in Science and Engineering project, Bridging the Gap Between Engineers and Society: Learning to Listen, will combine research and education to explore the relationships between engineering, science, and society. The project will develop a theoretical framework, a graduate-level engineering ethics course, and four freestanding multimedia modules that draw on empirical social science theory and research methods to bridge the relational gap between engineers and their clients. Goals of engineering ethics education will be promoted by teaching engineers to acknowledge and listen to the voices of the communities they serve. The project has the following objectives: Objective 1: Develop a theoretical framework for an expanded pedagogical approach to engineering ethics that grounds ethical dilemmas in the unfolding realities, uncertainties, diverse perspectives, and multiple levels of technical expertise of the publics affected by engineering and science decisions, research, and products. Objective 2: Build a multidisciplinary, multimedia, empirical engineering ethics graduate course that teaches ethical and scientific inquiry best practices, with explicit consideration of stakeholder needs, values, observations, and knowledge. Objective 3: Partner with the engineering, science, and public health graduate students who take the course to create four teaching modules: Listening, Responsible Conduct of Research, Responsible Conduct of Practice, and Witnessing Wrongdoing and the Obligation to Prevent Harm. Objective 4: Assess the effectiveness of the course and modules in helping students understand their role as vital actors in a larger social fabric, and recognize that consideration of the public is an essential resource for their research and a critical component of their practice. The proposed research and education plan will advance understanding of a highly promising and currently underutilized method of teaching engineering ethics. Faculty at four universities with diverse audiences have committed to teaching the project's principles and materials. As project collaborator, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors will aid in the development and dissemination of the work products. The project team and participating students include underrepresented groups in engineering and science, in a variety of contributing roles.