Teaching Ethics and Values in Your Science Classroom
In Section II, Part 2 we will present twenty-three edited versions of model lessons originally developed by teachers who participated in our program. In principle, a teacher of any secondary school science course should be able to select from this set at least two or three lessons that can be used in her own classroom which serve to meet some, or all, of the basic objectives of any program of ethics and values instruction discussed in Section I, Chapter 4. In practice, however, each teacher's classroom needs are unique. This point was stressed by our institute teachers. Thus, although most of them did make use of lessons developed by other participants, almost all of them found it necessary to construct lessons specifically tailored to their own interests and the needs and abilities of their own students.
During the second and third summers of our program our institute staff
included teachers who had been participants during one of the previous
years. These participant-instructors, Ms. Phyllis Satz, Mr. David Flatley
and Mr.Vincent Sydlansky were specifically charged with the task of aiding
the teachers in the development of their ethics and values classroom lessons.
Many of the suggestions and comments that we offer here are based upon
the creative work of these three talented teachers.
Some Basic Observations and Suggestions
Teachers are accustomed to carefully considering the goals and objectives of their classroom
science lessons. This should apply equally to lessons designed to explore ethics and values in science. Many of the teachers who enrolled in our institutes began with a rather narrow conception of the purpose of ethics education. They mistakenly identified the study of ethics exclusively with the examination of dilemmas. A dilemma poses a choice among mutually exclusive options, none of which appears to be completely satisfactory. Whatever choice is made will result in some negative consequence, so the right or preferable choice is not clear. Ethics education was seen only as encouraging students to examine the ethics and underlying values associated with choosing among the possible courses of action in such "dilemma" cases.
In Part I, Chapter 3 we presented the following five goals of ethics education: Stimulating the moral imagination of students; Helping students recognize moral issues; Helping students analyze moral concepts and principles; Stimulating students' sense of responsibility; Helping students deal effectively with moral ambiguity and disagreement. Dilemma cases are specifically associated only with the last of these basic objectives. Although it is true that exploring dilemmas can involve the other four objectives it is important to make students aware that morality and values do not arise primarily in the face of a dilemma. Furthermore, cases involving moral ambiguity need not be dilemmas -- they can simply involve situations where making a good choice requires more thoughtful analysis. The universal goal of infusing ethics and values into science education is to reveal that as in all human endeavors, most of the actions of those that practice or use science involve choices with moral implications.
A second common mistaken notion is that the only way to avoid indoctrination when teaching ethics and values is to encourage the notion that all ethical choices are equally valid. The fact that few if any of us would want our students to become the kind of amoral agent who accepts the validity of that notion should be sufficient to discredit it. Indoctrination should indeed be avoided. Students should be encouraged to explore and express a wide range of ethics and values positions including those that may be viewed by other students (or the teacher) as socially or personally unacceptable. But students (and teachers) should also be expected to defend their positions and choices and to accept responsibility for their actions.
A problem commonly raised with regard to ethics education is that it may raise strong objections among the citizens, parents and school board members to whom teachers are ultimately beholden. Curiously, although this concern was voiced by many of our Long Island institute participants, few of them felt personally constrained by potential censorship. Most of them felt relatively free to introduce such sensitive issues as abortion and sexual preference in their classrooms. While this may be less true in other parts of the country, we suggest that teachers cautiously test the waters before assuming that an important issue related to ethics in science is indeed taboo.
Ethics and values education, like most other academic endeavors requires
the use of terms with specific meaning. Although we do not propose that
the science classroom is the proper venue for detailed introduction to
the study of ethics it is necessary to begin with a lesson that presents
some basic definitions and concepts Some initial attention should also
be paid to persuading students of the validity of some of the connections
between ethics and science discussed in Part I, Chapter 1.
Sources for Ethics in Science Lessons
A wide variety of sources are available to draw upon for the development of science classroom ethics lessons. These include:
Several of the other publications distributed by the NSTA are fruitful sources of materials for constructing ethics-in-science lessons -- but the lesson maker will have to draw attention to, and spell out the ethics issues, since the texts themselves make no mention of the related ethics/values questions. Such publications include a series of "event-based science modules," entitled Oil Spill!; Earthquake!; Hurricane!; Toxic Leak!; Flood!; Asteroid!; Gold Rush!; Tornado!; and Volcano! Each includes a student booklet and accompanying teacher's guide.
Another NSTA recent publication, Decisions Based on Science,
despite its suggestive title, does not explore or clarify the values implicit
in the making of scientific decisions. Instead it describes the use of
risk-probability methodologies in making decisions. Unfortunately these
methodologies are presented in a way that erroneously implies that they
lend themselves to value-neutral decision making. With an appropriate supplement
by the lesson maker this publication could serve as a useful resource for
a lesson on the numerous ethics/values questions that actually arise when
attempting to employ risk-benefit or cost-benefit analyses.
Techniques and Strategies for Ethics-in-Science Lessons
The twenty-three model classroom lessons we present in Part 2 illustrate several useful techniques or strategies that can be employed in the design of your own lessons. These include:
A Few Words of Caution
The personal lives and experiences of students may be closer to some of these issues than we realize. Discussion of a debilitating hereditary condition may be painful for a student who has a family member or close friend who suffers from that condition. Children of scientists may be disturbed by suggestions that scientists aren't all scrupulously honest at all times. Discussing the ethics of various techniques used to enhance reproductive techniques may distress a student who has learned that he or she is some form of "test tube baby." This doesn't mean that such issues must not be discussed in class, but teachers should be sensitive to the potential personal impacts they may have on an individual student.
Finally, dogmatism has no place in ethics education. It is impossible
and unwise for a teacher to try to hide personal feelings and thoughts
on important ethical issues. Indeed, we should try to be good ethical role-models
for our students. But at the same time we need to be scrupulous in encouraging
open discussion of different moral perspectives among our students.
Suggestions for Analyzing Cases
Can an ethics discussion be more than a "free-for-all," especially if it is not the responsibility of teachers to provide students with the "correct" answers? We believe that it can--and that it should. A lesson plan typically will include a scenario (or case) to be discussed. As in any inquiry, it will be important to determine the facts that are given in this scenario as clearly as possible. It is also important to try to determine if there are possibly other facts (facts not presented in the scenario) that would be helpful in addressing the ethical questions.
So, one of the first things to do with students is to try to get as straight as possible about what the facts are that give rise to ethical questions, and to try to determine what other facts might be relevant to answering those questions. This may require hard, careful work -- for two reasons. First, the facts presented might be unclear or in need of further explanation; to understand some of them it might well be necessary to learn a fair amount about science. Second, not every fact that is mentioned may be relevant to the ethical questions raised. So, some attempt to sort out the relevant facts from irrelevant ones is necessary.
Let's look at an example to see how this sorting might work:
Kim is one of the most popular students in her school and one of the smartest, as well. She has had all A's every semester since the 10 grade. Now she is a senior in her last semester.. Both John and Mark have invited her to the prom next month, and she is having difficulty deciding which invitation to accept. She likes both of them and does not want to hurt their feelings.
Usually Kim concentrates very hard on what she is doing in her chemistry lab. She has been working on an important project for the past three weeks. It will count 25% of her grade. Until yesterday everything in the lab had gone quite well. Her project was nearly finished, and all the data she had collected pointed in the same direction. One more day in the lab would clinch it, she thought.
But receiving a second invitation to the prom yesterday morning took her by surprise. In the afternoon lab Kim seemed more concerned about what to do about John and Mark than in paying careful attention to her lab work. She finally resolved her problem that evening, but today presented her with a new one. Checking the results of yesterday's lab work, Kim found a set of results that did not fit very well with all the other data she had collected. Today was the day to write up her final report. She was worried that if she included yesterday's data her results would look a lot less impressive than if she simply excluded the data. She worried that this might result in her not receiving an A for the semester.
"I can't believe this," Kim thought to herself. "Almost three weeks
of wonderful data, and now this -- on the last day of the project. I can't
do it over, because the report is due tomorrow. Maybe I made a mistake
in the lab yesterday; I could hardly think about anything other than John
and Mark. So, maybe I should just leave out that data. After all, I have
almost three weeks worth of good data -- and I know my conclusion
is right.
Would it be all right for Kim to leave out the data from yesterday's lab work?
In reading this scenario we can understand why Kim is tempted to leave out the data. But we should not assume that the psychological factors at play here are relevant to the ethical question of whether she would be justified in leaving out the data. Whether or not Kim wears glasses, has blond or brown hair, or is tall or short clearly have no relevance to the ethical question. Even if Kim were self-conscious about wearing glasses, having dyed her hair, or being very short or tall, this would not seem to have any relevance to the question of whether leaving out the data is justified. So, we should ask, what relevance does the fact that she was distracted by thoughts about John and Mark have to the ethical question?
By now it may be clear that to ask whether certain facts are relevant requires us also to ask what ethical concepts, rules, principles, or considerations are relevant to the case. So, the discussion needs to begin with two questions at once: 1) What are the relevant facts? 2) What are the relevant ethical considerations? In some cases, the answers may be relatively straightforward. In others, matters may be less clear and call for more extended discussion. Some of that discussion may pivot largely around what the facts are (e.g., what is the data from the study?), and we might want more information than the case provides. But what facts (known or unknown) we need to consider will, again, depend on the ethical issues at stake. Certain key concepts might also need to be examined. In this case, for example, it will be important to discuss what it might mean to misrepresent data, and whether omitting data is a form of misrepresentation. Further, is misrepresentation of data a form of cheating? Finally, we can ask what is wrong with cheating in a science assignment.
To give the discussion some structure, it might be useful to provide students with a set of tasks to perform. After reading the scenario, address the following questions:
