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Lecturers’ views carry no more authority than the
students’ do. Any member of the class is entitled to state why he or
she would not respond in such-and-such a way, and other members of
the class are entitled to respectfully test the reasoning of
classmates.
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The mode of discussion is one of mutual respect
where pre-agreed rules do not permit mocking, insulting and
shouting, and where listening and giving reasons for one's views are
required.
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People are not told what is right or wrong in
relation to any ethical issue. Sometimes, telling people how to
behave and enforcing good behaviour, are necessary and desirable.
However, during ethics education classes, telling would be
ineffective because the benefit comes from uncovering for oneself
what is required to become more ethical. Consequently, during ethics education classes, a code of ethics is not given or if it
is, each ethic is debated afresh.
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No attempt is made to inculcate or internalise
any ethics or to indoctrinate. This means that even if the lecturer
has strong personal views on any subject she must not try to
convince people that her view is the correct/best one.
There are still questions about the practicality of
ethics education. For example, should students be required to pass an
examination in ethics education? If they did not, would they take the
activity seriously? If the answer is "yes”, what form should such an
examination take? Since becoming more ethical is such a personal
matter, is a society justified in forcing students to participate in
ethics education? These questions could be part of the ethics
education sessions.
What does all this mean for lecturers in institutions of higher and
further education?
Since they are fundamentally involved in guiding people in becoming
more ethical, educators must know to a greater extent than their
students do, what being ethical is. They need to be skilled at
facilitating classes in ethics education. Consequently, the
suggestions presented so far, also apply to lecturer-training
institutions.
All trainee-educators, no matter what their subject specialism, should
be required to participate in ethics education so as to be better able
to assist their students become more ethical. However, this does not
mean that they have to specialise as facilitators of ethics education
classes. If ethics education becomes a subject in its own right,
specialist educators should be trained to guide others to their own
realisation of what being ethical is.
It might seem that introducing ethics education into the curricula of
universities and colleges would be an uphill struggle. However, there
are encouraging signs that ethics education (or values education) is
an idea whose time has come. The Values Education Council in the UK
co-ordinates the efforts of about fifteen institutions that promote
values education. In the United States of America, there is The
American Society for Value Inquiry (ASVI) the Institute of Global
Ethics (IGE) and The Society for Values in Higher Education (SVHE),
for example.
There is considerable scope for research in the field of ethics
education and Dr Bill would be happy to assist postgraduate students
(with approval of their university or college) design and undertake a
study. Contact him on bill.robb@valueseducation.co.uk
Copyright © 2008 Values Education Ltd
Note to editors. Feel free to use this article as long as the
following details are retained. “A values education article from CAVE
www.valueseducation.co.uk
”
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