Although parents and especially religious institutions may teach ethics, they do not always teach ethical reasoning. Processes of reasoning can be taught, and the college or university is an appropriate place to teach these processes because so often it is taught no place else, and because it is essential for a successful adulthood. That is why instruction in ethical reasoning is of paramount importance over just teaching a set of ethical precepts.Įthical reasoning is how to think about issues of right or wrong. This is especially true when there are conflicting demands being made upon one’s actions, such as one person wanting you to do one thing and another wanting you to do something else. So the problem is not usually in knowing the precepts but in knowing how to apply them. But in other situations something more egregious, such as receiving a large gift, might be necessary to be considered a violation. Is having lunch with someone who seeks to influence you a conflict of interest? In some situations, it might be. But exactly what constitutes a conflict of interest is not always apparent. For instance, many professions have a code of ethics that discourages conflict of interest between personal and organizational activities. But even when given a set of ethical precepts to follow, be they personal/religious or professional, knowing what to do in a particular situation is not always clear. In addition, many professions have codes of ethics that professionals are encouraged to follow, and sometimes, are bound to follow by contract or law. There are, however, core values that are common to almost all these religions and ethical systems that schools do teach and reinforce, for example, reciprocity (the golden rule), honesty, sincerity, compassion in the face of human suffering. It is challenging (although certainly not impossible) to teach ethics directly in a secular school, because different religious, cultural, and other groups have somewhat different ideas about what is right and wrong under different circumstances. These principles are generally taught in the home, through religious training in a special school, or through learning in the course of one’s life. Ethics is a set of principles for what constitutes right and wrong behavior. They need to learn to reason ethically before they go out in the work force and start influencing and even controlling the fate of others (8).Ĭolleges should teach ethical reasoning rather than just ethical principles. Great professionals, citizens, and leaders in any field of endeavor are ethical people (7). In one survey, 86% of high school students agreed that students cheat at some point in their high-school careers (6). Much of this ethically-compromised behavior starts early, when students are in school. There are even severe ethical violations in the ministry, as shown by the denials and cover-ups of child-abuse that have made headlines over the years (5). Then there are the huge scientific frauds, such as that of experimental psychologist Diederick Stapel, who simply made up his data (3), and even frauds in education, including Corinthian Colleges (4), which deceived students regarding graduation and job-placement rates. Some of the CEOs took their business down with them. For example, if one looks at four huge and widely publicized business failures by CEOs (Kenneth Lay at Enron, Bernard Ebbers at Worldcom, Conrad Black at Hollinger International, Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco), all were related to ethics (2). One can have a degree in business, medicine, law, psychology, or education, and be familiar with the knowledge base of the profession, but nevertheless act in an unethical manner that undermines the utility of that knowledge. But when one considers the causes, later in people’s lives, behind failed job performance, failed relations with friends and colleagues, and even failed marriages, one is likely to find the root cause of the failure to lie not in content knowledge or even academic reasoning but rather in ethical reasoning (1). Sternberg, Cornell University Why this Learning Objective MattersĬolleges and universities today, in their testing and even their teaching, place great emphasis on academic content knowledge, as they should.
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