Ethically Contentious Research and Innovation: An Interdisciplinary and Interinstitutional Experiment in Ethics Education and Assessment

这个项目，在科学和工程伦理教育的跨NSF计划的支持下，进行研究生工程和科学的学生和实验，在评估这种教育努力的伦理教育实验。这些实验借鉴了理论基础，整合了道德和政策，基于问题的学习和认知科学支持基于问题的学习的情境化方法。如果这些实验产生了有希望的结果，这将需要更大规模的进一步研究，以检查是否可以提供有效的伦理教育，并通过本项目测试的方式进行评估。研究和创新的进步有时会刺激“难以驾驭的”政策问题，引发有争议的和非生产性的政策辩论，有可能破坏公众对科学和工程的信任。这些棘手的问题有五个共同的特点：（1）新颖，（2）复杂，（3）充满伦理问题，（4）分裂，（5）公众关注。棘手问题的例子包括围绕神经成像技术的开发和使用的政策问题;人类-非人类嵌合体;人类增强技术;以及预测疾病发作，预测行为或识别个体的遗传技术。未来的科学家和工程师可以为理解和解决这些棘手问题的社会能力做出贡献，科学和工程专业人员以及教育工作者有责任让未来的专业人员具备这样的能力。研究人员将设计和提供实验伦理课程，旨在培养理解和解决“难以驾驭”问题的五个特征所需的技能，元素：由不同的多学科学习者组成的小组;以问题为基础，以学生为导向的学习;由同样不同的多学科教师导师提供便利;就当前政策关注的两个或更多棘手问题编写调查结果和政策建议;并向公众和决策者和/或其工作人员介绍这些调查结果和建议。学习者将从四个亚特兰大地区的机构，包括私人和公共和历史上的黑人和主要是白色机构：格鲁吉亚技术（研究生在生物工程和公共政策），埃默里（研究生在生物科学和伦理学），医学院莫尔豪斯（研究生在生物科学），和格鲁吉亚国家（法律学生）。研究人员还将设计和测试一种新的评估工具，旨在衡量发展这些技能的进展，名为SkillSET（科学/工程道德测试技能）。

This project, supported by the cross-NSF program in Ethics Education in Science and Engineering, conducts an experiment in ethics education for graduate engineering and science students and an experiment in assessment of this educational effort. These experiments draw on a theoretical foundation integrating contextualized approaches to ethics and policy, problem-based learning, and the cognitive science supporting problem-based learning. If these experiments yield promising results, this would invite further research on a larger scale to examine whether effective ethics education can be delivered and assessed in the ways tested by this project.Advances in research and innovation sometimes stimulate 'fractious' policy problems that generate contentious and unproductive policy debate, threatening to undermine public trust in science and engineering. These fractious problems share five characteristics; they are (1) novel, (2) complex, (3) ethically fraught, (4) divisive, and (5) unavoidably of public concern. Examples of fractious problems include policy problems surrounding the development and use of neuroimaging technologies; human-nonhuman chimeras; human enhancement technologies; and genetic technologies to predict the onset of disease, predict behavior, or identify individuals. Future scientists and engineers can contribute to the social capacity to understand and address these fractious problems, and it is the responsibility of the science and engineering professions and of educators to equip future professionals to do so.Investigators will design and deliver experimental ethics courses aimed at cultivating skills needed to understand and address the five characteristics of 'fractious' problems by incorporation of the following course elements: small groups of diverse, multi-disciplinary learners; problem-based, student-directed learning; facilitation by similarly diverse and multi-disciplinary faculty mentors; preparation of findings and policy recommendations regarding two or more fractious problems of current policy concern; and presentation of these findings and recommendations to the public and to policymakers and/or their staffs. Learners will be drawn from four Atlanta-area institutions, including private and public and historically black and primarily white institutions: Georgia Tech (graduate students in bioengineering and in public policy), Emory (graduate students in bioscience and in ethics), Morehouse School of Medicine (graduate students in bioscience), and Georgia State (law students). Investigators will also design and test a new assessment instrument aimed at measuring progress in developing these skills, named SkillSET (Skills for Science/Engineering Ethics Test).