EAGER: Prototyping a Virtue Ethics Game

人们普遍认为科学家应该接受伦理方面的训练。但是，对于如何实现以及如何评估帮助科学家和工程师做出良好伦理决策的预期结果，人们知之甚少。如何将科学中的伦理教育与科学家的伦理决策联系起来？在这个探索性研究中，PI将解决这个问题。特别是，他将开发一个原型美德伦理游戏，目的是为玩这样的游戏会提高道德决策的想法提供概念证明。如果成功，这将在两个方面代表研究生道德教育的变革方法。首先，就方法而言，尽管教育学的游戏化有了很大的发展，但很少有人尝试通过游戏来教授道德。其次，在理论方面，PI的方法强调美德和判断力的培养，而不是内容和规则的传递。考虑到EAGER资助机制的局限性，PI将从两个方面缩小他的关注点。首先，他将专注于开发和引导游戏概念、机制、规则和教学目标的迭代过程，而不是尝试开发电子游戏。其次，他不是试图证明玩游戏能培养出更多有道德的科学家，而是试图证明玩道德游戏能增强玩家对自己做出道德决策的能力的信心，以及他或她作为科学界值得信赖的成员在其他玩家中的声誉。这些初步步骤将为PI提交后来的EESE提案做好准备，以验证、放大和数字化游戏。游戏的前提将是模拟NSF研究提案的审查过程。通过扮演不同的角色（提案人、审稿人和项目官员），学生们将沉浸在需要道德决策的情境中。这个项目不是指导学生“做正确的事”，然后测试他们是否知道“做正确的事”，而是将学生置于他们必须决定做什么的情境中。因此，游戏环境将成为培养合理道德决策所必需的实用技能的训练场所。PI认为，与任何预包装的、静态的、单向的内容相比，这种环境更真实地反映了科学家面临的模糊、动态和复杂的情况。PI的团队整合了来自跨学科研究中心（CSID）、学习增强、评估和重新设计中心（CLEAR）、哲学和宗教研究系以及北德克萨斯大学图卢兹研究生院（UNT）的专业知识。更广泛的影响：这个项目有很大的潜力为一个特定的，期望的社会结果做出贡献：提高科学家的道德决策。《美国竞争法案》要求接受美国国家科学基金会资助的学生接受负责任研究行为（RCR）的指导，美国国家科学院建议，获得必要的道德决策技能是RCR指导中最重要的方面。项目成果将广泛传播，包括对伦理核心（协作在线资源环境）数字图书馆和科学、技术和工程伦理的贡献，这是广受好评的科学、技术和伦理百科全书的第二版。

There is widespread agreement that scientists should receive training in ethics. But little is known about how to achieve and how to assess the desired outcome of helping scientists and engineers to make good ethical decisions. How is it possible to connect ethics education in science to ethical decision making by scientists? In this exploratory research, the PI will address that question. In particular, he will develop a prototype virtue ethics game with the goal of providing proof of concept for the idea that playing such a game will improve ethical decision making. If successful, this will represent a transformative approach to graduate ethics education in two respects. First, in terms of method, despite promising developments in the gamification of pedagogy more generally, few attempts have been made to teach ethics through games. Second, in terms of theory, the PI's approach emphasizes the cultivation of virtues and judgment rather than the delivery of content and rules. Given the limitations of the EAGER funding mechanism, the PI will narrow his focus in two ways. First, rather than attempt development of an electronic game, he will focus on an iterative process of developing and piloting the game concept, mechanics, rules, and pedagogical goals. Second, rather than attempt to demonstrate that game play produces more ethical scientists, he will aim to show that playing the virtue ethics game increases a player's confidence in his or her own ability to make ethical decisions and his or her reputation among fellow players as a trusted member of the scientific community. These preliminary steps will position the PI for submission of a later EESE proposal to validate, scale-up, and digitize the game.The premise of the game will be to simulate the NSF research proposal review process. By adopting various roles (proposer, reviewer, and program officer), students will be immersed in situations that call for ethical decision making. Rather than instructing students in "the right thing to do" and then testing whether they know "the right thing to do," this project will place students in situations in which they must decide what to do. Thus, the gaming environment will serve as a training ground for developing the practical skills necessary for sound ethical decision making. The PI argues that this environment is more true to the ambiguous, dynamic, and complex situations faced by scientists than any pre-packaged, static, and unidirectional content. The PI's team incorporates expertise from the Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity (CSID), the Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign (CLEAR), the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies, and the Toulouse Graduate School at the University of North Texas (UNT).Broader Impacts: This project has great potential to contribute to a specific, desired societal outcome: the improvement of ethical decision making in scientists. The America COMPETES Act requires that students who receive funding from NSF receive instruction in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), and the National Academies have recommended that acquiring the skills necessary for ethical decision making is the most important aspect of RCR instruction. Project outcomes will be disseminated broadly, including contributions to the Ethics CORE (Collaborative Online Resource Environment) Digital Library and to Ethics of Science, Technology, and Engineering, the second edition of the widely acclaimed Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics.