Transcript Assessment issues for Ethics Instruction - e

Ethics Education for Graduate Programs in
Geographic Information Science and
Technology
Presentation at the 17th Annual Meeting of the
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
San Antonio, Texas
Matthew W. Keefer, Ph.D.
University of Missouri – St Louis,
St Louis, MO USA
[email protected]
Instructional Design and
Assessment Issues for Ethics
Instruction
• Principles of Instructional Design for
PBL
• Two types of assessment
• Challenges for both types of
assessment
Principles of Instructional Design
for PBL
• Anchor curriculum within contexts that include
authentic problems, interviews, and case
examples
• Design learning environment that provide
opportunities for collaborative learning and
discussion (e.g., distributed expertise)
• Challenge students to assess revise and reflect
on their own thinking
• Connect learning outcomes to relevant problems
that require ‘authentic’ performances that
demonstrate knowledge.
Two General Types of
Assessment
Assessment of Ethical Outcomes
Summative
E.g., IQ Tests
Achievement
E.g., Kohlberg
D.I.T., RCR
General Norm
Referenced
Ext Validity
Curriculum-based Assessment
Formative & Summative
Performance Assess.,
Portfolio,
General PBL
Ethics Cases,
Case-Analysis,
Ethics Problem-solving
Contextual tied to
Curriculum
Goals
Psychological Approaches to Study of
Ethical Reasoning
Kohlberg MJI & Rest & D.I.T. (Cog
Dev’t Structural, pen & pencil questionnaire)
Domain theory (Turiel, Nucci)
Carol Gilligan (Hermeneutic)
Case-based Approaches (e.g., casuist)
Making a Norm-Referenced
Assessment
• Pilot instrument using a large variety of items
(with face validity) on appropriate population
• Obtain external validity measure
• Choose only those items that empirically
differentiate students on relevant criterion
Challenges for Assessments
of Ethical Outcomes
• Ensuring a match between measurements and
project goals (e.g., DIT, moral justification in
program of practical ethics)
• Trade offs between rigorous construct validity
and the “cost” of ecological validity
• Use of external assessment the problem of
“teaching to the test” problem
Challenges for Designing
Curriculum-based assessments
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Designing assessments to connect to specific curriculum and
instruction - the general problem of ‘trade-offs’
Designing assessments that allow for diversity in responses
(solutions with multiple steps not one unique answer)
Making expectations clear, providing opportunity for feedback
that challenges students’ thinking
Developing resources e.g., exemplars that could serve as
standards of high or noteworthy performance
(e.g.,commentaries, analyses & reflections on exemplars,
etc)
Making assessment results clear to students and providing
opportunity for revision and improvement
Involving students in assessment process
Some Advantages
• Ethical maturity more likely perceived as
intrinsic to professional role (less likely
perceived as a special aptitude)
• Resources for ethical decision making are
available
• Expectations for ethical behavior are clear or
more apparent
• Expectations and resources support
understanding of students’ as moral agents
(not simply moral justifiers)
• Responses to ethical problems perceived as
diverse
• Students are involved in assessment and
critique of their ethical learning
• Same principles that apply to teacher learning
Nine Elements of Proficiency in Ethical
Reasoning in Practical Contexts
• Can students identify various types of morally relevant
considerations (e.g., harms and benefits, responsibilities,
obligations, virtuous and vicious motives, behavior and
character, moral standing, and trustworthiness)?
• Can students identify and use appropriate specialized
knowledge to situate the problem in the larger context of
the professional domain or identify the ambiguities in the
problem situation that make it difficult to classify?
• Can students reason based on these considerations (e.g.,
make hypothetical inferences, etc.)?
• Can students attend to and use both specialized
professional and ethical knowledge in fashioning responses
to ethical challenges?
Nine Elements of Proficiency in Ethical
Reasoning in Practical Contexts
• Can students consider and generate alternative solutions
that might mitigate or circumvent some of the moral
conflicts that may arise in the situation?
• Can students identify some of the moral ambiguities or
moral costs in the case?
• Can students recognize different realities that may underlie
the apparent problem that would require quite different
resolutions?
• Can students consider the long-term moral implications (for
trust, for character development, as well as for
consequences of their resolutions)?
• Can students show understanding of the "situated," or
social, nature of ethical conflicts and the "distributed"
character of moral responsibility?