The Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT): A Discipline-Specific Approach to Assessing Moral Judgment

• DOI: 10.1007/s11948-009-9148-z
• Publication Date: 2009-07-13T09:24:21Z
• Authors: Jason Borenstein; Matthew J. Drake; Robert Kirkman; Julie L. Swann
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Georgia; Science; 4. Education; Decision Making; 06 humanities and the arts; Morals; 0603 philosophy, ethics and religion; Sensitivity and Specificity; Ethics, Professional; Judgment; Principle-Based Ethics; Engineering; Humans; Female; Educational Measurement; Problem Solving

To assess ethics pedagogy in science and engineering, we developed a new tool called the Engineering and Science Issues Test (ESIT). ESIT measures moral judgment in a manner similar to the Defining Issues Test, second edition, but is built around technical dilemmas in science and engineering. We used a quasi-experimental approach with pre- and post-tests, and we compared the results to those of a control group with no overt ethics instruction. Our findings are that several (but not all) stand-alone classes showed a significant improvement compared to the control group when the metric includes multiple stages of moral development. We also found that the written test had a higher response rate and sensitivity to pedagogy than the electronic version. We do not find significant differences on pre-test scores with respect to age, education level, gender or political leanings, but we do on whether subjects were native English speakers. We did not find significant differences on pre-test scores based on whether subjects had previous ethics instruction; this could suggest a lack of a long-term effect from the instruction.