Ethical dimensions, issues and dilemmas.

Finding the ethical dimension, issue and dilemma

Before students, can find a suitable ethical issue and dilemma to analyse critically at the centre of the reflective project process, teachers need to feel comfortable tackling this area. On this page, and many others listed below, you can build up your understanding of ethics before giving the activities and lesson ideas a go with your students. All discussions you will have with students on Applied Ethics will often reassuringly encompass all the PPS themes.

Breaking down what is needed

Start here

A student needs to be able to understand the ethical ramifications of their chosen issue and dilemma; they will need strategies to help apply ethical principles. Here we explore definitions and give helpful activity suggestions. Use with Ethical Thinking for ideas on how to differentiate between terms with ease and how to help students access the skills they need. There are a very wide range of resources available here on ethics so, if this is your first time to this page, do make time to check out these further resources:

What am I preparing the students for?
It is really important to recognise that the field of philosophy is huge and care needs to be taken to make it truly accessible for students. The resources and exercises here promote systematic building of knowledge, discussion and real world application. This can be supported further with the Ethical Thinking  and Critical Thinking pages.

In brief ... students should be able to establish the ethical parameters of their dilemma and the questions it raises at the start of their essay to hook in the interest of the reader/assessor. They then must be able to carry that thread throughout the project as they way up the strength and weaknesses of different perspectives and impact of cultural contexts.

How 'ethical' does it need to be?

We are not often called to define ethics explicitly and differentiate between ethical terms. Students struggle with terms - especially the term 'dilemma' so being able to break this down without over complication is vital. This is an area that PPS and Core teachers can easily feel out of their depth; confused how to approach building ethical understanding and which ethical frameworks to draw upon in such a huge academic field. Furthermore, how to simplify complex ideas without dumbing them down to make them user friendly. 

5 Key points about ethics to build the reflective project on:

Students' projects must be built upon the following understandings. Students can use this as a checklist before

1. Ethics are about the moral principles that govern, shape or guide the behaviour of a particular 'culture'.

2. Ethics and morals can be terms used interchangeably but, at its simplest: ethics refer to rules provided by an external source and morals refer to an individual's own principles regarding right and wrong.

3. An ethical issue worth exploring for the reflective project must have a controversial angle and arise from the career-related study.  There must be disagreement or conflict ...

4. ... which leads to the ethical dilemma. For a dilemma to be viable, there must be a clash of principles without an obvious solution. With an obvious solution, there is no dilemma.

5. Therefore the reflective project to explore an ethical dilemma, it must have the opportunity to:  analyse different pespectives; contextualise the dilemma with local or global examples; consider the impact of the ethical dilemma on community or communities; consider the impact of cultural influences

Getting students started

Thinking routines to promote ethical thinking and debate

Students can have it drilled into them that they must question what they see but they do not necessarily know how to ask questions or what questions are worth asking. The key to thinking routines such as these below, attributed to and adapted from Harvard Project Zero, and why they work so well is that it is never presumed that the student knows what questions to ask. Most importantly is to remember the word 'routine' - these are habits of mind, to be visited often so the structure becomes a familiar process. With this familiarity, comes confidence, clarity of communication and enhanced critical thinking.

 Same and Different

This is a Harvard Project Zero thinking routine that helps students go beyond superficial observations of similarities and differences. It is an excellent routine to carry out for students to appreciate that ethical dimensions, issues and dilemmas are not black and white or contain polar opposites: often the truth is murky and grey with subtleties and degrees of difference.

'Choose a debate, incident or object in which opposing views are clearly apparent or images that look different but are grouped together.

1. First glance:  What was the first impression you had about this?
2. Perspective Taking: From what other points of view could this be perceived? What would one say from those points of view?
3. Same and Different: What are the similarities? Differences? How is this case the same and different at the same time?'[1]

Varying the activity

1. As a whole class activity, especially with a bigger class size, once the thinking routine has been established, different groups can be given a specific and relevant stakeholder from the initial prompt, to develop and research further. The evaluation of similarities and differences can be done as a whole class where their responses to stage 3 above can be expanded upon and more and more complexities developed.

2. On an individual level, students can carry out this activity when using a specific article they are utilising for the ethical issue they are researching. The identification of specific stakeholders, visibly recording the different points of view and recording similarities and differences should be a habitual part of their research process. Students might consider recording their ideas in a venn diagram to help them visualise this process.

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