Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Ethical Decision-Making In Design, Danielle J. Corple, Carla B. Zoltowski, Megan Kenny Feister, Patrice M. Buzzanell

Communication Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about how students engage in ethical decision-making, especially when designing in messy, real-life contexts. To prepare ethically competent engineers, educators need a richer understanding of students' ethical decision-making throughout the course of the design process.

Purpose/Hypothesis: This study examines students' intuitive ethical decision-making as it emerges throughout the design process as well as when and how students engage in ethical reflection. Outlining these processes enables educators to better structure and support students' ethical reasoning.

Design/Method: We conducted 103 semi-structured interviews with students in a multidisciplinary service-learning program. To capture how ethical decision-making unfolded over time, we …