TY - GEN
T1 - An experiential pedagogy for sustainability ethics
AU - Spierre, Susan
AU - Martin, Elizabeth A.
AU - Sadowski, Jathan
AU - Berardy, Andrew
AU - McClintock, Scott
AU - Augustin, Shirley Ann
AU - Hohman, Nicholas
AU - Banna, Jay George
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - While sustainability is increasingly recognized as an important ethical principle, teaching ethical reasoning skills appropriate for sustainability is problematic. While the classic approach in professional ethics education makes intensive use of behavioral codes and retrospective case studies, these approaches are limited in their ability to prepare students for the unfamiliar and forward-looking problems of sustainability. Moreover, the classic read-discuss-write pedagogical strategies typical of the humanities emphasize abstraction and reflection at the expense of two modes of learning more familiar to many professionals (e.g., engineers and physical scientists): experimentation and experience. This paper describes the results of a novel experiential approach to ethics education that employs non-cooperative game theory to position students in situations that model unfamiliar ethical tensions characteristic of sustainability problems, such as the Tragedy of the Commons. In this approach, students can only advance their own grade at the ultimate expense of other students. Whereas the Nash Equilibrium in our games predicts systemic collapse of student grades, the actual grade outcomes aligned with egalitarian ideals, despite evidence of conflict in on-line student communications.
AB - While sustainability is increasingly recognized as an important ethical principle, teaching ethical reasoning skills appropriate for sustainability is problematic. While the classic approach in professional ethics education makes intensive use of behavioral codes and retrospective case studies, these approaches are limited in their ability to prepare students for the unfamiliar and forward-looking problems of sustainability. Moreover, the classic read-discuss-write pedagogical strategies typical of the humanities emphasize abstraction and reflection at the expense of two modes of learning more familiar to many professionals (e.g., engineers and physical scientists): experimentation and experience. This paper describes the results of a novel experiential approach to ethics education that employs non-cooperative game theory to position students in situations that model unfamiliar ethical tensions characteristic of sustainability problems, such as the Tragedy of the Commons. In this approach, students can only advance their own grade at the ultimate expense of other students. Whereas the Nash Equilibrium in our games predicts systemic collapse of student grades, the actual grade outcomes aligned with egalitarian ideals, despite evidence of conflict in on-line student communications.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85171904677
SN - 9780878232413
T3 - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
BT - 119th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
PB - American Society for Engineering Education
T2 - 119th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
Y2 - 10 June 2012 through 13 June 2012
ER -