Ethical Decision Making
“When one considers the causes, later in people’s lives, behind failed job performance, failed relations with friends and colleagues, and even failed marriages, one is likely to find the root cause of the failure to lie not in content knowledge or even academic reasoning but rather in ethical reasoning.”
https://www.ideaedu.org/idea-notes-on-learning/developing-ethical-reasoning-and-or-ethical-decision-making
Teachers make 1000's of decisions each day. How can we help our new teachers make difficult decisions where the answers are not clear cut?
Having a decision making process can go a long way toward helping teachers make informed decisions that can justify consequent actions.
1.State the problem (what feels wrong)
2.Check the facts (look for distorted or missing information)
3.Identify stakeholders (their motivation and influence)
4. Seek additional assistance
5. Formulate solutions
6. Evaluate solutions and potential consequences
7. Monitor and assess outcomes
Guide to Ethical Decision-Making
How do you test your options when facing an ethical dilemma?
Ethical dilemmas are often complex situations with no clear-cut resolutions, and without a right or wrong answer. There are a series of basic questions that a teacher should ask when confronting an ethical dilemma.
harm test: Does this option do less harm than the alternatives?
publicity test: Would I want my choice of this option published in the newspaper?
defensibility test: Could I defend my choice of this option before a parent, a committee of peers, or my principal?
reversibility test: Would I still think this option was a good choice if I were adversely affected by it?
colleague test: What do my colleagues say when I describe my problem and suggest this option as my solution?
professional test: What might my profession's governing body for ethics say about this option?
organization test: What does my district’s ethics officer or legal counsel say about this?
Click HERE to find more than 30 research-based videos from The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business that explore behavioral ethics concepts and general ethics principles that inform our choices and actions. (about 5 minutes each)
To make good decisions, we must be aware of the biases and pressures that influence our thinking. Too often, these subtle factors change what we do in unethical ways.
Ethics Toolkit from the Pennsylvania Professional Standards Commission
This toolkit contains a plethora of ethics materials that can be incorporated into many different teacher education courses and professional learning opportunities. Here you will find articles, discussion questions, case studies, video case studies, and action plans which explain the societal expectations concerning teacher conduct.
Accept the responsibilties of being a role model. The mistakes that a town will permit in other civilians, they will not forgive when teachers commit them.
At the root of all of this
is the fact that a community
treasures its children,
and a teacher is, for a time,
a stranger
that we are entrusting with
the wellbeing of our kids.