Professional Values and Ethical Issues in the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers

近年来，人们提出了许多问题，涉及影响科学家和工程师在其专业工作中的行为的价值观，可能改变这些价值观的不确定性和压力的来源，以及什么构成或应该构成研究生教育的规范内容。诸如此类的问题刺激了职业道德和道德和价值研究的工作，并有助于恢复对大学道德气候和责任及其在学生道德发展中的作用的兴趣。该项目的目的是提供一个基于数据的检查的专业价值观正在获得的科学和工程专业的研究生，包括价值观的冲突和道德问题，在他们的教育过程中遇到的分析。调查人员将通过开发和管理一项全国性的调查来实现这一目标，调查对象是主要部门四个学科的研究生和教师。他们还将在两所研究型大学的这些部门进行实地研究案例研究。该项目这一阶段将研究的学科是土木工程、实验心理学、地质学和微生物学。一个咨询小组和顾问对该项目进行监督。预计传播工作将包括项目通讯和共同赞助者出版物中的信息项目（即，《美国科学家》、《CGS杂志》和《科学》）;在专业会议上发表演讲;在各大学举办邀请讲座和研讨会;在专业和学术期刊上发表文章;以及一本专著。本研究成长的规划阶段，这导致了一个参考书目，接受出版或在专业会议上介绍的几篇论文，几个探索性的案例研究，并提出了第一个系统的数据有关大学的政策和做法，影响价值观和价值观培训的科学家和工程师的研究生教育的学术研究生院院长的调查成功完成。共同主要研究人员是非常合格的;机构的支持和学生和博士后援助是适当的;研究计划是好的，应该提供有关社会和部门对科学和工程研究生的价值观的影响丰富的数据。研究结果将广泛传播，并与研究人员和教育决策者相关。建议提供支持。

Many questions have been raised in recent years about the values that influence the conduct of scientists and engineers in their professional work, about the sources of uncertainty and strain that may be altering those values, and about what does or should constitute the normative content of graduate education. Questions such as these have stimulated work in professional ethics and ethics and value studies more generally, and have contributed to a revival of interest in the university's ethical climate and responsibilities and its role in the moral development of students. The objective of this project is to provide a data-based examination of the professional values being acquired by graduate students in science and engineering, including an analysis of the value conflicts and ethical problems encountered during their education. The investigators will address this goal by developing and administering a national survey to graduate students and faculty in four disciplines at major departments. They will also conduct field research case studies in those departments in two research universities. The disciplines that will be studied in this phase of the project are civil engineering, experimental psychology, geology and microbiology. An advisory group and consultants provide oversight of the project. Dissemination is expected to include information items in the project's newsletter and in co-sponsors' publications (i.e., American Scientist, CGS Communicator, and Science); presentations to professional meetings; invitational lectures and seminars at various universities; articles in professional and scholarly journals; and a monograph. This study grows out of the successful completion of a planning phase, which resulted in a bibliography, several papers accepted for publication or presentation at professional meetings, several exploratory case studies, and a survey of academic graduate school deans which presents the first systematic data about university policies and practices affecting values and values training in the graduate education of scientists and engineers. The co-principal investigators are very well-qualified; institutional support and student and post-doctoral assistance are appropriate; the research plans are good and should provide rich data about societal and departmental impacts on the professed values of science and engineering graduate students. Results will be widely disseminated and relevant to both researchers and educational policymakers. Support is recommended.