Use of Ethical Dilemmas to Contribute to the Knowledge and Behavior of High School Students

In the educational environment, there is increasing interest in the teaching of ethics. At one time teaching was teaching ethics. Ethics was taught through literature, history, and other courses where applicable. Today, there is diminishing influence of churches and families in instilling ethical values in our youth, causing widespread decline in ethical standards. This decline creates a need for attention to ethics education, leading to attempts by educational systems to teach ethics in the academic environment. The following are examples of the movement toward including ethics education in the curriculum.

Ethics in the Curriculum

There have been efforts to integrate ethics into the K-12 curriculum. For instance, the Kenan Ethics Program, Ethics Across the Curriculum, supports innovation in the teaching of ethics and the integration of moral inquiry across the curriculum. Projects in the program have included the development of an environmental justice module focused on childhood exposure for a required course in Environmental Sciences, a faculty seminar to evaluate and revise the ethics curriculum in the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, and a practical ethics initiative in the Department of Religion (Kenan Ethics Across the Curriculum, 1999).

The Irvine Unified School District believes there are universal moral values, those associated with "should" or "ought" to which people in all successful civilizations subscribe. These values serve as the basis for ethical behavior across all societies and all major religions. In a public education setting, therefore, it is appropriate to foster and promote such ethical values and principles. Though not inclusive of every commonly accepted moral value, the following, endorsed by the Irvine Board of Education, has been developed to include values that are powerful and important to life: Honesty, Responsibility, Compassion, Perseverance, Respectfulness, Cooperation, Civic Duty, and Courage. The real test of the effectiveness of any moral education effort is its impact on the decisions students make. In the final analysis, students must routinely make ethical choices--choices distinguishing what should be done, from what can be done (Irvine Unified School District, 1999).

The Ethics Center Elementary and Secondary Education Programs in South Florida organizes and sponsors a Task Force composed of Center personnel and teachers from the Tampa Bay area schools. Their mission is to develop and test model programs that incorporate an ethics component in the elementary and secondary curricula utilizing case methods, interactive technologies, and video and text developed by the Task Force. The resulting program is expected to be adopted for statewide use (The Ethics Center Elementary and Secondary Education Programs, 1999).

On the international level, the Ethics and Science and Humanities program co-founded by Raphi Amram was first used in the Israel Arts and Science Academy. The program is also implemented in 10 high schools in six countries. The program is intended to enhance the sense of morality and character of the students by engaging them in writing activities and discussions on topics, such as cross-species organ transplants, colonization of other planets, and human cloning (Sappir, 1998).

Although many challenges remain, interest in ethics and moral development is flourishing in North America. Prominent organizations give annual business ethics awards, investments in socially screened mutual funds are increasing, ethics officers and corporate ombuds-persons are more common and more influential, and new ideas are being tested in practice. Major journals often include articles on business ethics, and new organizations emphasizing ethics have been initiated (Dunfee & Werhane, 1997).

With all of the interest in ethics education, one might wonder how our youth are doing. Is ethics education getting to all students? Do students recognize ethical dilemmas? How do they react to them? How can ethics be taught in the classroom? Does ethics education make a difference in behavior?

Vincent and Meche (1995) conducted an ethics study to determine knowledge of ethical principles and ethical behavior...