Using Problem-Based Learning to Increase the Ethical Reasoning Skills of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

该项目旨在通过提高电气和计算机工程(欧洲经委会)学生的伦理推理能力和对工程中社会责任的看法来服务于国家利益。对工程伦理学教学的关注已经存在了一段时间，早在20世纪40年代，工程专业人员就认识到有必要关注公共安全、健康和福利。最近，学生认识到道德和职业责任并作出知情判断的必要性被列入教唆认证的学生成果要求。该项目侧重于向欧洲经委会一年级学生讲授伦理推理和社会责任的有效方法。这项研究将评估被称为基于问题的学习的主动学习方法是否比传统的以讲授为基础的方法更有效地在工程教育中教授伦理学。以问题为基础的学习方法帮助学生确定自己的学习需求和实现学习的策略。这种方法与传统方法不同，传统方法只有在学生首先获得相关内容知识和技能后才会引入问题，通常是通过讲座。道德工程单元将在一门必修的一年级课程中设计和部署，该课程向欧洲经委会学生介绍该学科，目标是将道德操守和社会责任作为该学科的核心组成部分。这些单元将在线提供给对提高其他工程学科的伦理推理和认识感兴趣的工程教育者。该项目的目标是通过将伦理和社会责任作为欧洲经委会的核心组成部分来改变本科生的工程教育。将重新设计第一年的欧洲经委会入门课程，以便在整个课程中强调道德操守和社会责任。项目小组将开发和实施学习模块，这些模块将采用以问题为基础的学习方法或以讲座为基础的方法。这些单元将用于解决核心研究问题：在欧洲经委会一年级学生初步入门该学科期间，以问题为基础的学习是否比传统的以讲授为基础的方法更有效地教授伦理推理，以支持社会责任？项目小组将通过收集和分析学生在课程前后进行的伦理推理和社会责任测试的课程作业和表现样本来解决这一问题。另外两个研究问题将被讨论：(1)没有这种伦理重点的欧洲经委会和其他工程学科的一年级工程学学生在伦理推理和社会责任观方面是否存在差异？以及(2)在工程学科中，教师在伦理推理和社会责任观方面的分数是否与同一学科的学生分数密切相关？这两个问题将通过收集教师和工程学科一年级学生在伦理推理和社会责任测试中的分数来回答。该项目和道德操守单元的成果将通过一个在线储存库传播，该储存库将包括单元、实施计划和显示单元有效性的结果。该项目由NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持，该计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing electrical and computer engineering (ECE) students’ ethical reasoning skills and perspectives about social responsibility in engineering. Concern for teaching ethics in engineering has existed for some time, with engineering professionals identifying the need to focus on public safety, health, and welfare as early as the 1940s. The need for students to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities and make informed judgements were recently included as a student outcome requirements for ABET accreditation. This project focuses on effective approaches for teaching ethical reasoning and social responsibility for first year students in ECE. This study will evaluate if the active learning approach called problem-based learning is more effective at teaching ethics in engineering education than a traditional lecture-based approach. Problem-based learning approaches help students determine their own learning needs and strategies to achieve that learning. This approach contrasts with traditional approaches that introduce problems only after students have first acquired the relevant content knowledge and skills, often through a lecture. Ethical engineering modules will be designed and deployed in a required first-year course that introduces ECE students to the discipline with a goal of centering ethics and social responsibility as core components of the discipline. These modules will be made available online for engineering educators who are interested in improving ethical reasoning and awareness in other engineering disciplines.The goal of this project is to transform undergraduate engineering education by centering ethics and social responsibility as core components of ECE. A first year introductory ECE course will be re-designed to emphasize ethics and social responsibility throughout the course. The project team will develop and implement learning modules that will be deployed using either a problem-based learning or lecture-based approach. The modules will be used to address the core research question: Is problem-based learning a more effective pedagogy than a traditional lecture based approach for teaching ethical reasoning in support of social responsibility to first year ECE students during their primary introduction to the discipline? The project team will address this question by collecting and analyzing samples of student coursework and performance on tests of ethical reasoning and social responsibility administered before and after the course. Two additional research questions will be addressed: (1) Are there differences in ethical reasoning and perspectives of social responsibility between first year engineering students in ECE and other engineering disciplines without this ethics focus? and (2) Are faculty scores in ethical reasoning and perspectives of social responsibility within an engineering discipline strongly associated with student scores from that same discipline? These two questions will be answered by collecting scores on tests of ethical reasoning and social responsibility from faculty and first year students across engineering disciplines. The results of this project and the ethics modules will be disseminated through an online repository that will include the modules, implementation plans, and results demonstrating the effectiveness of the modules. This project is supported by the NSF IUSE: EHR Program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.