Approaches to increasing explicit opportunities for the acquisition of professional ethical competencies in higher education

By acquiring professional ethical competencies during their studies, universities ensure that engineering graduates (i) act responsibly, (ii) safeguard the integrity of the profession, and (iii) contribute positively to society. Despite the importance of professional ethical competencies, explicit ethical discourse only takes place to a limited extent during students’ higher education. Therefore, students often acquire ethical competencies unaccompanied, for example by interpreting and adapting the behavior of lecturers or researchers.
By further developing explicit ethics-related learning opportunities, students can be even better prepared for the responsible handling of tasks and challenges in society, economics, and science. This requires learning settings, which support (i) an understanding of the impact of technological developments on the environment, society, and the economy and (ii) at the same time the ability to integrate ethical principles such as a sense of responsibility, fairness, and consideration for future generations into professional work. The further development of explicit ethics-related learning opportunities can better ensure that engineers are not only professionally competent, but also ethically reflective individuals, who also contribute positively to democratic education and sustainable development. ... mehrIn addition, such qualified students can also make a better contribution to the further development of the higher education teaching and learning system during their stay at the university.
The discourse on currently highly relevant future skills (e.g., assumption of responsibility) and the need for further development of curricula as a result of changes in the general higher education framework (e.g. AI, education for sustainable development) allow for a synergetic increase in ethics-related teaching and learning. In order to receive feedback for the approaches currently being discussed in the teaching unit "Geodesy and Geoinformatics" (GaG) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and to increase richness of perspectives in the change process, selected learning settings of BSc degree programs will be presented at fPET2024. In particular, the two well-established approaches "Project Introductory Phase" and "Team Teaching" will be discussed. The thematically focused "Project Introductory Phase" (e.g. 2022: Professional Ethics, 2023: Education for Sustainable Development) takes place during the second semester and enables students to (i) engage in a topic-related exchange with professionals and (ii) explicitly reflect on ethics-related future skills relevant to their professional field. During "Team Teaching", students in the sixth semester are mentored by GaG-lecturers and ethics experts in a seminar-style teaching format dealing with ethics-related topics (e.g., AI, tracking of persons).
In addition to these two well-established learning formats, during fPET2024 a recently developed lecture (title: Empowerment for the Future and Society), which will prepare students even better for their important future role in rapidly changing systems (e.g. professional field, society), will be put up for discussion.