Senior Engineering Students’ Reflection on Their Learning of Ethics and Morality: A Qualitative Investigation of Influences and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Informed by ABET accreditation criteria and broader societal needs, ethics has been emphasized as important for engineering professionals. Engineering students are thus exposed to professional ethics and related concerns throughout their college experiences both within and beyond the formal engineering curriculum, but little is known about what learning experiences and lessons engineering students view as most memorable and salient as they approach graduation. Therefore, this paper answers the following research questions: RQ1) What types of experiences do senior engineering students report as salient learning experiences for their ethical and moral formation as they approach graduation? and RQ2) What do students learn from the most commonly discussed types of experiences? To address these questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with senior engineering students (n=33) and performed inductive thematic analysis on the resulting transcripts. Among various types of experiences that students reported as influencing their ethical and moral perspectives, this paper highlights work experiences, formal education, and family environment as the most frequently mentioned. Our results suggest that work experiences were especially significant for students’ learning of engineering ethics in a professional context, followed by academic experiences as a source of both professional/ethical and more general moral lessons. Many students also described family and friends as influential, especially as related to their general perceptions of morality. Based on these findings, a variety of educational implications are discussed.

Appendix - Interview protocol

CCE STEM Project - Final Interview Protocol - Spring 2019

Suggested interviewer script: The interview protocol is essentially broken down into four sequential parts:

• 1. Experience with Ethics

• 2. General definitions (including macro-ethics)

• 3. Experiences past, present, and future (including justice)

• 4. Ethical climate

• 5. Ethical scenarios

Introduction

To begin, please tell me a little bit about yourself, a 30-second elevator speech about who you are.

1. Would you say you identify as an engineer? Why or why not?

2. What are your main goals as a future engineer/professional?

3. What do you hope to achieve personally and/or professionally over the next 4-5 years?

4. In what ways have your goals been influenced by your experiences here at [student’s university]?

Experience with Ethical and Social Responsibility (Phenomenography)

• 1. Can you describe an experience you have had with an ethical situation as an individual, student, and/or an aspiring professional?

  • a. What was your role in the situation?

  • b. Who else was involved in this situation? What were their roles?

  • c. How did you approach the situation? Please walk me through the experience.

    • 1. Why did you take that approach?

    • 2. What led you to do things in that way? -OR- How did you decide to do these things?

  • d. What feelings did you experience during this situation? -OR- How did you feel during this situation?

  • e. How did the situation end? Were there any repercussions or long-term implications of the situation? If so, what were they?

• 2. Have you ever experienced any ethical situation related to engineering?

  • a. Can you briefly describe the situation, including who was involved?

  • b. How does it connect to ethics in engineering? (How is this an example of ethics in engineering?)

  • c. How did you handle the situation?

  • d. Why did you handle it this way?

  • e. What was the outcome?

  • f. What did you learn from this experience/incident?

  • g. Do any other situations come to mind?

General Definition Questions

• 1. How would you define ethical or moral character?

• 2. Please identify and describe a person (e.g. someone you know, a historical figure, a famous person, etc.) who you think exemplifies moral character, personal or professional integrity, and/or social responsibility.

  a. Why did you choose that person?

  b. How would you describe their moral character?

  c. How is their character exemplified?

• 3. What do you think it means for engineers to be ethical or to have high levels of professional integrity?

  a. What kinds of considerations, behaviors, attitudes, etc. are most important for ethical engineers to possess?

  b. What are some examples of situations where engineers face ethical situations in their work?

• 4. Explore relationship(s) between views on ethics and engineering ethics:

  a. How do ethics, generally, and engineering ethics relate?

  b. You just said XX about ethics and moral character. How does this view impact your beliefs about engineering ethics? Possibly point out when they are inconsistent, and ask them to explain why.

Macro-ethics

• 1. What professional responsibilities and obligations do you think engineers have to society?

• 2. What responsibilities do engineers have for the technologies they create?

  a. For example, can you talk about how and why you would/did respond to the following question: Surprising and risky uses or new technologies, such as social networking websites, are completely the responsibility of people who use them.

  A. Strongly Disagree

  B. Disagree

  C. Neither Agree nor Disagree

  D. Agree

  E. Strongly Agree

• 3. What duties do engineers have to their employers? (Refer back to the survey items 10.9 and 10.10 and ask the following questions)

  a. Before you talked about the duties engineers have to public. What should an engineer do if their duties to the public and their employer conflict?

Experiences, Prior and Future

• 1. You have indicated that you participated in [xxxx] activities.

(Interviewer note and script: List down all activities that the interviewee has participated in. See responses from Experiences and Demographics” Item #1 and from the interviews. Ask students to select specific activities that they think have shaped their ethical perspectives and explore the following prompts. Repeat as necessary for the other activities)

a. What motivated you to participate in that activity?

b. What is it about that activity that you think has shaped your ethical perspective?

• 2. Are there any other kinds of experiences that have shaped how you think about ethics and social responsibility—both in general and more specifically in relation to engineering practice? (Interviewer note and script: Additional prompt as needed: Have you participated in any volunteer activities, church programs, travel, special coursework, encounters with family or friends, student clubs, places you’ve lived, places you’ve worked, etc.?)

a. Why did you choose to participate in this program or have these experiences?

b. What is it about that activity/experience that you think has shaped or may shape your ethical perspective?

c. Are there any activities that you wanted to participate in but were unable?

d. What prohibited you from participating?

Justice

• 1. Tell me about a time when you felt that you or someone you know did not receive a fair response/reward for your/their efforts.

a. Why did you think it wasn’t fair?

b. How did you respond?

c. Why did you respond that way?

Ethical Climate

• 1. Thinking about the ethical climate of your university:

  • a. Would you describe the ethical climate at [Student’s University] as cooperative or is there is a sense that everyone is out for themselves? Can you provide examples?

  • b. Do you get a sense that students here are working towards a greater purpose? Can you provide examples?

  • c. Do you think students behave according to the code of conduct or do you feel there are certain situations where you feel students are more willing to bend the rules? If so, when? And what makes you feel this way?

  • d. Has your perception of the ethical climate at your university changed over the last 3-4 years? If so, how and why?

Moral Disengagement

• 1. The following items come from the survey you recently took. We’ll review some of these items and talk about why you either agreed or disagreed with the statements. All items range from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. We will also talk about your responses from your previous interviews. [Q 49]:

  • a. It’s alright to fight to protect your friends.

  • b. It’s ok to steal to take care of your family’s needs.

  • c. If a group decides together to do something harmful, it is unfair to blame any one member of the group for it.

  • d. If someone leaves something lying around, it’s their own fault if it gets stolen.

Why did you choose this response? (Probe further)

Ethical Scenarios

When Andrew, a professional engineer, discovers evidence that leads him to strongly believe his supervising engineer is attempting to injure the reputation of a competing firm, what should Andrew do?

· Andrew should focus on doing his own work not on criticizing others.

· Andrew should inform the NCEES (National Council of Examiners For Engineering and Surveying) Licensing Board of his evidence and assist it in determining the truth of the matter.

· Andrew should resign from his job.

· Andrew should speak to the supervising engineer in order to determine the rationale for his actions.

• 1. In this scenario, you indicated that you would [xxxxx]. What factors influenced your choice?

Langdon, a consulting electrical engineer, is hired by PixDream, a major motion picture company, to design and oversee the construction of the power distribution system at the company’s new film studio. Once the system is in place, PixDream asks Langdon to accept a nine-­month contract extension, and to monitor the power system during the filming of Monster Mountain. He accepts the contract extension. Three weeks into the shoot, with the power system operating well within acceptable parameters, Langdon is asked by PixDream to give his opinion on a pyrotechnic specialist’s plan for detonating a series of explosive charges. The charges are triggered electrically, but their chemistry does not fall within Langdon’s expertise. PixDream is confident Langdon can become familiar enough with the charges to give them a professional and competent opinion. Langdon wants to continue working for PixDream, but is uncomfortable with the idea of giving his professional opinion on matters beyond his area of expertise.

Of the following, which is Langdon’s best option?

· Since he enjoys the work, Langdon can learn about a charge’s chemistry and give PixDream his opinion on the pyrotechnic specialist’s plan.

· Langdon can trust that the pyrotechnics specialist is knowledgeable and trustworthy, and give PixDream a favorable assessment of the plan.

· Langdon should contact some of the specialist’s previous clients and base his analysis on their degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the specialist’s work.

· Langdon should decline to accept the contract extension on grounds that explosives chemistry is beyond both his engineering education and subsequent work experience.

• 2. In this scenario, you indicated that you would [xxxxx]. What factors influenced your choice?

Muriel, a consulting computer engineer, is hired to review her client’s plans to expand its existing computer network. In the course of completing her examination of the client’s internal communication capacities and requirements, Muriel discovers that the client is using an unlicensed version of a popular proprietary software package to manage its financial accounts. Since her finding is only indirectly related to her work, Muriel is not sure what she should do.

Of the following options, which one should Muriel not choose?

- Since the unlicensed software is not directly related to her work, Muriel should ignore it and complete her assignment.

- Muriel should bring the matter to the attention of her client’s executive officer and terminate her contract.

- Muriel should refuse to continue her work for the client unless the unlicensed software is immediately replaced with a properly licensed version.

- Muriel should not allow the client to use her name in advertising materials.

• 3. In this scenario, you indicated that you would [xxxxx]. What factors influenced your choice?

Conclusion (Can be inserted at any point as needed.)

Is there anything you believe is unique about your experiences that you would like to share?

• 1. Is there anything else that has shaped your ethical perspectives that we haven’t spoken about?

• 2. Is there anything additional you would like to share?