EESE: Development & Evaluation of a Work Practices Approach for Ethics Education in Science & Engineering

该奖项由科学与工程伦理教育(NSF 05-532)颁发。研究人员的道德行为对科学进步和公众对科学事业的支持都至关重要。尽管存在许多可用于加强道德行为的干预措施，但指导性干预仍然是最常见的。不幸的是，这些教学干预措施的影响往往有限，因为它们没有纳入实地的日常做法和人们在解决工作过程中遇到的道德问题时采用的战略。拟议努力的目的是开发和评估研究伦理教育的专业实践模式。首先，将对多学科应用研究中心应用的专业实践和问题解决策略进行定性的人类学分析。这些观察性分析的结果将用于确定多学科中心出现的日常道德问题，以及用于解决这些问题所带来的工作问题的社会认知策略。根据这些信息，将制定一项教学计划，其基础是：1)导致问题解决的关键行动，2)执行这些行动的有效战略，以及3)支持这些战略有效应用的实际步骤。这项培训将在参加一个多学科中心的四个机构进行。培训将使用嵌入式教学方法，让学生和教职员工参与合作学习练习，旨在说明并提供实践，以应用有效的战略来解决中心背景下出现的伦理问题。该计划的有效性将使用多站点、多方法方法进行评估，该方法针对个人级别的结果(例如，知识结构、决策)、小组级别的结果(例如，本地站点伦理氛围、负面事件)、组织级别的结果(例如，跨站点协作、中心发起的新项目)来评估计划结果。如果这项多层次、多措施的评估工作取得积极成果，该计划将传播到其他跨学科中心和科学和工程领域的相关领域。智力价值：这一努力将初步检验基于日常专业实践的道德教育模式是否将为开发更有效的教育计划提供基础。此外，这一努力将有助于确定大型多学科应用研究中心出现的独特伦理问题，以及可以应用于解决这些问题的战略类型。最后，这一努力将提供评估道德行为的措施，说明道德行为对个人、群体和组织成果的影响。更广泛的影响：拟议的努力将提供一种新型的示范课程，可用于替代目前在科学和工程领域的伦理教育中应用的课程。此外，还将确定解决应用多学科研究中心遇到的伦理问题的关键战略。将针对正在研究的中心涉及的三个领域(气象学、计算机科学和电气工程)制定道德教育课程和评估措施。最后，将确定制定课程的新程序，以解决专业实践中遇到的日常道德问题。

This award is made under Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (NSF 05-532). The ethical conduct of investigators is critical to both progress in the sciences and public support for the scientific enterprise. Although many interventions exist that might be used to enhance ethical conduct, instructional interventions remain the most common. Unfortunately, these instructional interventions often have limited impact because they are not embedded in the day-to-day practices of the field and the strategies people apply in resolving ethical issues encountered in the course of their work. The intent of the proposed effort is to develop and evaluate a professional practice model for research ethics education. Initially, qualitative anthropological analyses of the professional practices and issue resolution strategies applied in a multi-disciplinary applied research center will be conducted. The results of these observational analyses will be used to identify day-to-day ethical issues arising in multidisciplinary centers, and social cognitive strategies used to resolve the work problems posed by these issues. Based on this information, an instructional program will be developed that is based on: 1) key actions leading to problem resolution, 2) effective strategies for executing these actions, and 3) practical steps that will support effective application of these strategies. This training will be delivered at four institutions participating in a multi-disciplinary center. The training will use an embedded instructional approach, involving both students and faculty in cooperative learning exercises intended to illustrate and provide practice in the application of effective strategies for resolving ethical issues arising in a center context. The effectiveness of this program will be evaluated using a multiple-site, multi-method approach that appraises program results with respect to individual-level outcomes (e.g., knowledge structures, decision-making) group-level outcomes (e.g., local site ethical climate, negative events), organizational-level outcomes (e.g., cross-site collaborations, new projects initiated by the center). If positive results are obtained in this multi-level, multi-measure evaluation effort, the program will be disseminated to other interdisciplinary centers and relevant fields in science and engineering. Intellectual Merit: This effort will provide an initial test of whether ethics education models based on day-to-day professional practice will provide a basis for the development of more effective educational programs. Additionally, this effort will help to identify the unique ethical issues arising in large multi-disciplinary applied research centers and the kind of strategies that can be applied to resolve these issues. Finally, this effort will provide measures for assessing ethical conduct, illustrating the impact of ethical conduct on individual, groups and organizational outcomes. Broader Impacts: The proposed effort will provide a new type of model curriculum that might be used to provide an alternative to the curricula currently being applied in ethics education in science and engineering fields. Additionally, key strategies for resolving the ethical issues encountered in applied multi-disciplinary research centers will be identified. An ethical education curriculum and evaluation measures will be developed for the three fields (meteorology, computer science, and electrical engineering) involved in the center being studied. Finally, new procedures for developing a curriculum addressing day-to-day ethical issues encountered in professional practice will be identified.