Work in progress — Can one measure of ethical “competence” be useful in varied undergraduate, multidisciplinary settings?

Abstract

Many educators would like to believe they are helping their students prepare to become intelligent, skilled, responsible -and ethical --workers as they move into adult life. Most research has concluded that few schools have serious, well-designed programs to assess the ethical competence of their students and to ensure that the desired outcomes are met. Educators agree that it is desirable to measure the outcomes of our educational processes. But to measure, one must first identify the desired competencies. This has proven difficult. We will report on a multi-university research program designed to develop measure(s) of ethical "competence", in order to identify best practices in developing those competencies. We will report on the three measures we are currently designing to measure ethical competence in these settings.

The Search for Ethical Competency

“…Regardless of its form, and regardless of any enforcement process involved, a code can serve to protect professionals from pressure to behave unethically by increasing the likelihood that most other members of the profession will behave in accordance with its principles. While May, Gandara, Edwards, Subhani, and Huyck (2010) argue that codes are created in response to actual or anticipated ethical conflicts, they conclude that it is only in the context of reallife ethical ambiguity that the codes take on meaning.…”

“…At the same time, understanding that ethical guidelines cannot by themselves provide a solid basis for ethical competence may nonetheless contribute to an assessment of the role of codes in the search for such competence. Whitton (2009) argued that in addition to the use of codes of conduct and ethical rules, the teaching and assessment of ethical competence is based on strengthening the ability of public official in the following areas, which largely mirror those described by May et al (2010): 5. Building self-awareness and consensus building skills; 6.…”