Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 605 de 957
as technology grows more complex and its effects on the world become harder to predict,
the ethical issues faced by engineers also grow in complexity and uncertainty. However,
research has shown that traditional institutional approaches used to develop these skills
in engineering undergraduates might not be adequate (Bucciarelli, 2008; Drake, et al.,
2005; Harding, et al., 2003). Professional engineers themselves have reported that their
ethics education as undergraduates did little to prepare them for the ethical realities they
face in their profession (McGinn, 2003). It was the intention of this investigation, the
Student Engineering Ethical Development (SEED) project
(http://www.engin.umich.edu/research/e3/index.html), to evaluate different
institutional approaches for ethics education with a goal of better preparing students to be
ethical professionals by determining how universities can improve their students’ ethical
decisionmaking capabilities.
The SEED project is a cross-sectional assessment of the ethical development of
engineering undergraduates in the United States. The project included identifying and
visiting 19 diverse partner institutions from across the United States and collecting data
from nearly 150 faculty and administrators and more than 4000 engineering
undergraduates through interviews, focus groups, and an online survey. This approach
allows for a general understanding of both the current state of engineering ethics
education in the United States and relates key institutional approaches for covering ethics
in the curriculum to a student’s ethical development.
Research Questions
The intention of this investigation was to evaluate different institutional approaches for
ethics education by evaluating students’ ethical development. In other words, what are the
explanatory variables within four major domains (formal curricular experiences, cocurricular
experiences, student characteristics, and institutional culture) that affect our
primary outcome variable (ethical development) as measured using three constructs –
knowledge of ethics, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior?
If we can identify variables that have the most positive impact on students’ ethical
development, institutions can adjust their programming to try to improve their students’
ethical decision-making capabilities. This will aid in preparing students to be ethical
professionals ready to perform in an increasing complex and global environment.
Theoretical Framework
Our conceptual model of ethical development (adapted from Terenzini and Reason, 2005)
consists of related but distinct domains affecting students’ engineering ethical
development: Student Characteristics, Institutional Culture, and Individual Student
Experiences (including Formal Curricular Experiences and Co-curricular Experiences)
(Figure 1). Student Characteristics refers to student demographic and behavioral
characteristics. Institutional Culture refers to the culture of the engineering school or
department within the context of the institution as a whole, both of which influence
student outcomes. The Individual Student Experience consists of the experiences of
individual students in this investigation and includes students’ Formal Curricular
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011