Integrating Ethics into the Engineered Construction Curriculum
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 133, Issue 4
Abstract
Equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, security, civic duty, justice, honor, and the rule of law are some of the widely held values in society. These are the values engineers must adopt to comply with regulations. Unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness in construction education regarding how to integrate social awareness and ethical behavior into professional practice. Several challenges facing construction engineering educators are how to develop strategies that will raise the awareness of students regarding ethical issues related to construction and how to provide a framework to make ethical decisions. Social values should serve as the basis for university-level ethics instruction. The objectives of this paper are to discuss the various disciplines that are available for use in developing course material and classroom presentations, and to describe a framework for making ethical decisions. Problem solving in ethics is a skill that is very much needed by students, but is quite difficult to teach. The approach described herein uses real world construction ethics cases and invited guest lectures from the construction industry plus multiple required and elective courses explore ethical theories, concepts of critical thinking, and major ethical issues related to the construction industry.
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dr. Thomas A. Litzinger, Director, Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education and Dr. Nancy Tuana, Director, Rock Ethics Institute for their support in development of this new program for the teaching and study of applied professional ethics as it relates to the construction education.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 133 • Issue 4 • October 2007
Pages: 291 - 299
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 16, 2004
Accepted: Jun 9, 2006
Published online: Oct 1, 2007
Published in print: Oct 2007
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