How Academic Ethics contributes to the Goal of Education in the Professional Context

Abstract

The goal of education is to prepare students for the professional context. Currently, an important part of that preparation are the ethics classes. Marc Marenco, however, argues that these classes are of little use and proposes to prepare students by using problem based learning and making ethics into a meta-subject. In this thesis I will develop a more elaborate view on the goal of education and how academic ethics can contribute to that goal. I will show that problem based learning as well as academic ethics have advantages and disadvantages. They can complement and that way improve the curriculum. Academic ethics still has an essential part in the education in order to prepare students for the moral complexities they will be faced with in the professional context. It will allow students to develop moral commitments with a theoretical foundation and also not only be able to recognize moral situations, but also to develop a habit to make moral choices according to these moral commitments. Developing this habit is a long-term process that does might not be directly visible. I will also show that teachers have an important role to play in this.