Engaging and Supporting Problem Solving in Engineering Ethics |
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| Authors: | David H Jonassen Demei Shen Rose M Marra Young‐Hoan Cho Jenny L Lo Vinod K Lohani |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Information Science and Learning Technologies University of Missouri;2. Dr. David Jonassen is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Missouri where he teaches in the areas of Learning Technologies and Educational Psychology. He has published 30 books and numerous articles, papers, and reports on text design, task analysis, instructional design, computer‐based learning, hypermedia, constructivist learning, cognitive tools, and problem solving. His current research focuses on the cognitive processes engaged by problem solving and models and methods for supporting those processes, including causal reasoning, analogical reasoning and argumentation during learning.;3. University of Missouri;4. Dr. Demei Shen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Missouri‐Columbia. She received her doctoral degree in information science and learning technologies from the same institution in 2008. Her research interest includes factors that influence online learning and teaching, social computing, and engineering education. Her current research focuses on online learning self‐efficacy beliefs and factors that influence learning achievement of students in engineering classroom.;5. Dr. Rose M. Marra is an associate professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Innovation, a MS in computer science and worked as a software engineer for Bell Laboratories. She is currently co‐director of the NSF‐funded Assessing Women and Men in Engineering (AWE) and Assessing Women in Student Environments (AWISE) projects, and Co‐PI of the National Girls Collaborative Project. Her research interests include STEM education with an emphasis on engineering, gender equity in STEM, the epistemological development of college students, and promoting meaningful learning in web‐based environments.;6. Young Hoan Cho is a Ph.D. student in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. His current research interest is learning from examples in ill‐structured domains: engineering ethics, writing, mathematics teacher education, and instructional design.;7. College of Engineering Virginia Tech;8. Dr. Jenny Lo is an Advanced Instructor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She received her doctorate in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999. Her current research interests include curriculum development, engineering ethics and academic advising for first‐year engineering students.;9. Dr. Vinod K Lohani is an associate professor in the Engineering Education Department and an adjunct faculty in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1995. His research interests are in the areas of knowledge modeling, water and energy sustainability, engineering learning modules for freshmen, and international collaboration. He leads a major curriculum reform project (2004–09), funded under the department‐level reform program of the NSF, at Virginia Tech. A spiral curriculum approach is adopted to reformulate engineering curriculum in bioprocess engineering in this project. |
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| Abstract: | Learning to solve ethical problems is essential to the education of all engineers. Engineering ethics problems are complex and ill structured with multiple perspectives and interpretations to address in their solution. In two experiments, we examined alternative strategies for engaging ethical problem solving. In Experiment 1, students studied two versions of an online learning environment consisting of everyday ethics problems. Students using question hypertext links to navigate applied more perspectives and canons and wrote stronger overall solutions to ethics problems than those using embedded hypertext links. In Experiment 2, students engaged in a more generative task, evaluating alternative arguments for solutions to the cases or generating and supporting their own solutions. Both groups better supported their solutions and generated more counterclaims than control students. These studies focused on solving realistic case‐based ethics problems as an effective method for addressing ABET's ethics criteria. |
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| Keywords: | argumentation engineering ethics problem solving |
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