Create
Defend or critique a particular claim or choice.
Defend or critique an ethical theory.
Defend or critique their own personal values, principles, virtues, or choices.
Select a strategy below to see more details.
Ethics Policy Simulation: Break students into small groups (2-4 students), and ask each group to take the role of a committee tasked with developing an ethics policy or statement in response to some issue relevant to the course. For example, in a course discussing issues of freedom of speech, you might ask students to craft user content moderation rules for a social media platform. Depending on the needs of the course, you can make the simulation scenarios more or less based in reality. Have each group share their policy/statement with the rest of the section, and invite other students to ask questions and raise concerns about the policy/statement.
Well-suited for:
Modifying an ethical claim or theory to respond to some problem.
Providing an original solution to (or even an original way of thinking about) a particular issue or case.
Strengths
Emphasizes the ordinariness and inescapability of ethics. By engaging in case simulation, students are forced to encounter ethical questions and challenges in a way similar to how they arise in actual day-to-day life (as opposed to more abstract puzzles considered in a classroom setting). Ethical questions and challenges are part of being a thoughtful agent acting in the world.
Encourages applied ethical reasoning. While other forms of open discussion can be useful for teasing out the structure and content of ethical claims, commitments, and theories, working through case simulations can encourage students to work towards practical conclusions in their ethical reasoning and discussion – results that can be acted upon in real world situations.
Great for discussion sections later in or at the end of the term. While simulation activities can be effectively employed in service of all types of learning goals, having students create serious, original responses to ethical theories or cases requires that students already have a significant level of familiarity with the relevant theories or cases. Insufficiently prepared students are likely to get confused about the relevance of the hypothetical simulation scenario, the connections between the scenario and ethical issues discussed in the course, and so on. However, if used once students have already become familiar with the relevant course issues, an Ethics Policy Simulation discussion can be a great opportunity for students to apply their new knowledge.
Quick Write: Prepare open-ended questions or prompts about ethical claims, theories, or problems raised in class. Ask students to briefly (1 to 5 minutes) provide their own responses to one of the questions/prompts. After students are finished writing, reconvene section and ask students to share their responses. Use these responses as the basis for discussion. If students agree on some answer, ask if they had similar reasons behind their responses. If students disagree on some answer, discuss the reasoning that led them to their differing results.
Well-suited for:
Providing an original defense or critique of an ethical claim or theory.
Modifying an ethical claim or theory to respond to some problem.
Strengths
Encourages students to commit to and defend a view. By asking students to put their thoughts in writing, you push students to not only generally think about a question or problem but also to articulate a specific answer with specific reasons behind it. The short time limit also discourages waffling.
Encourages student-student engagement. Grounding discussion in students responses ensures that students are fundamentally responding to one another, as opposed to you or to course material. This gives them the chance to hear and contend with the often wide variety of ethical views, claims, and concerns of their peers, while also encouraging them to see these peers as valuable sources of insight and feedback.
Great for writing assignment preparation. The quick write discussion format can be an excellent way to get students to start thinking about and preparing to work on larger writing assignments. You can design your questions/prompts to be in-line with assignment requirements, so that students are pushed to start thinking about the contents of their writing well before any deadline. Moreover, the ensuing discussion provides students with an early source of peer feedback on their early ideas.