Evaluating a Problem-Based Learning Strategy for Enhancing Ethical Awareness in Negotiation

Abstract

A problem-based learning strategy (Bransford & Schwartz, 1998) was used to develop a training protocol to enhance U.S. Military Academy (USMA) Cadets' awareness of ethical issues and decision-making processes in negotiation situations. The training protocol was tested in an upper-level course on negotiations at USMA. Cadets were assigned to either an experimental (training) or a control (no training) group. The experimental group was exposed to four negotiation scenarios at one-month intervals, and were asked to evaluate the scenario for potential ethical issues, to role-play the scenario in class, and then to evaluate their own and others' negotiation and ethical decision-making performances. Role-plays were followed by an after action review in which the instructor encouraged Cadets to discuss their ethical evaluation and decision-making processes. Following the fourth scenario, the instructor presented a lecture describing a thematic model of ethical sense-making (cf. Graves, Pleban, Miller, Branciforte, Donigian, Johnson, & Matthews, 2010) and how the model could be applied to facilitate decision-making across different contexts. Pre-post training assessments indicated that the training strategy significantly improved the experimental group's sensitivity to themes related to ethical sense-making and decision making in military specific situations relative to scores obtained from the control group. Also, post exercise ethical awareness scores correlated significantly with Cadets' negotiation strategies. The Cadets' responses to the training were favorable. The training strategy may be used to support experiential and dialogue-based professional military ethics training for officer Cadets and newly commissioned junior officers (ROTC, OCS, and USMA). 15. SUBJECT TERMS professional military ethics training, assessment and training development, ethical decision making, active learning, decision-making experiences, ethical perceptions scale (EPS), thematic model, ill-defined domains 19. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 20. NUMBER OF PAGES

Far Transfer of Leadership Training: Concepts, Experiences, and Applications

“…Baumeister, 1984). That said, Pleban, Graves, et al (2011) did find positive results using a thematic framework to train cadets to recognize and make sense of ethical dilemmas emerging in role-played exercises in a USMA negotiations course. There may be benefit to additional experimentation, applying the framework within the PL300 course, field exercises, or other settings.…”

Comparison of Direct Instruction and Problem Centered Instruction for Army Institutional Training

“…Recent research (e.g., Pleban, Graves et al, 2011;Pleban, Vaughn, Sidman, Semmens & Geyer, 2011;& Tucker, Semmens, Sidman, Geyer, & Vaughn, 2011;U.S. Army, 2011) provides some support for Clark's (2004) major conclusions, indicating that the effectiveness/utility of a specific training strategy (i.e., direct instruction versus problem centered) will depend on a number of factors such as learning objectives, time allotted for instruction, available resources, preparation of instructor, and level of experience of the learner.…”

“…Additionally, issues involving classroom organization such as fixed time length instructional periods in military classroom training environments (of shorter duration than might be optimal for PCI), skill levels of current instructors to serve as course facilitators versus lecturers, and the relatively high student/instructor ratio (40:1) in many military classrooms may limit the applicability of this particular approach. These practical limitations have led some researchers (Tucker et al, 2011;Pleban, Graves et al, 2011;Pleban, Vaughn et al, 2011) to examine the feasibility of implementing alternative PCI strategies in Army institutional classroom settings.…”

“…To date, contrasting cases/invention has been used to train ethical decision-making skills with United States Military Academy cadets (Pleban, Graves et al, 2011), and mission planning skills with second lieutenants attending the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course (Tucker et al, 2011;Pleban, Vaughn et al, 2011) with mixed success. Tucker et al found this approach yielded the highest self-report of training effectiveness and was more engaging for students.…”

“…Also, the brevity of the training allotted in these investigations (one day for Pleban, Vaughn et al and two days for Tucker et al) may have played a major role in explaining the lack of improvement from the students on the objective performance measures. Pleban, Graves et al (2011) found the contrasting cases/invention approach to be effective in training ethical decision-making skills but the training involved repeated cycles of invention/contrasting cases over a period of sixteen weeks. Although total training duration may be problematical, there are a few advantages of this approach for use in a military classroom training environment.…”