This module developed for classes in Engineering and Computer Ethics at UPRM employs a value/virtue approach to encourage students to reflect on the ethical issues and problems that arise in group or team work. Throughout the class, students are given group assignments for which they receive group grades that are distributed to each individual member. The module then provides students with ethical goals to grade them as they execute these assignments. Student groups develop strategies for realizing these goals. They also envision pitfalls that often prevent groups from working cooperatively such as the Abilene Paradox, groupthink, and group polarization. Finally, students develop an assessment process based on these goals that they use to complete a group self-evaluation at the end of the semester. The primary purpose of this module is to use group work and cooperative learning as an occasion to reflect on the different ethical issues and problems that arise in collective activity. This module is being developed as a part of an NSF-funded project, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF SES 0551779.
- Ethics of Team Work
- William J. Frey (working with material developed by Chuck Huff at St. Olaf College
- Centro de la Etica en las Profesiones
- University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez
Module introduction
Much of your future work will be organized around group or team activities. This module is designed to prepare you for this by getting you to reflect on ethical and practical problems that arise in small groups like work teams. Four issues, based on well-known ethical values, are especially important. How do groups achieve justice (in the distribution of work), responsibility (in specifying tasks, assigning blame, and awarding credit), reasonableness (ensuring participation, resolving conflict, and reaching consensus), and honesty (avoiding deception, corruption, and impropriety)? This module asks that you develop plans for realizing these moral values in your group work this semester. Furthermore, you are provided with a list of some of the more common pitfalls of group work and then asked to devise strategies for avoiding them. Finally, at the end of the semester, you will review your goals and strategies, reflect on your successes and problems, and carry out an overall assessment of the experience.
Module activities
- Groups are provided with key ethical values that they describe and seek to realize thorugh group activity.
- Groups also study various obstacles that arise in collective activity: the Abilene Paradox, Groupthink, and Group Polarization.
- Groups prepare initial reports consisting of plans for realizing key values in their collective activity. They also develop strategies for avoiding associated obstacles.
- At the end of the semester, groups prepare a self-evaluation that assesses success in realizing ethical values and avoiding obstacles.
- Textboxes in this module describe pitfalls in groups activities and offer general strategies for preventing or mitigating them. There is also a textbox that provides an introductory orientation on key ethical values or virtues.
