CECsst.189


TITLE:  A Question of Ethics

AUTHOR:  Les Morse, Juneau-Douglas High School;
         Juneau, AK

GRADE LEVEL:  Appropriate for Grades 9-12

OVERVIEW:  A Question of Ethics is a unit of
instruction that helps students to understand the term
ethics, learn what ethical questions are, and develop a
self-checking ethics guide.  This lesson can be used
with a variety of subject areas, but would best be
served in a government class, Law class, economics
class, or a communications class.  I first used this in
a class called contemporary communications where we
studied English for the business and world of work
areas.

OBJECTIVES:  Students will be able to:
1.   Explain the meaning of ethics, and have a working
     understanding of the word.
2.   Recognize ethical violations in the working world,
     or in the political arena, etc. (this may depend
     upon subject area).
3.   Develop and describe what a personal ethics check
     is.
4.   Identify solutions to ethical situations.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1.   Have each student develop a definition for the
     word "ethics."   Discuss the different definitions
     and make sure that each student has a good working
     definition of the word ethics.
2.   Present the students with some general ethical
     questions.  Have the students work in pairs to
     decide if the situations are actually ethical
     violations, and if so define the violation and
     develop an alternative action that is not an
     ethical violation.  I typically present the
     students with ten situations and ask them to
     address five of the situations.  Once they have
     done this I ask them to share with the class or a
     neighboring pair of students, depending upon time.
3.   I have the students look through the evening
     paper, and any back papers they might have,
     identifying ethical violations in government,
     business, or other areas.  They are to clip the
     stories and bring them into class along with a
     written description of the ethical questions
     within the story.  These are shared with other
     students and can be displayed in the classroom.
4.   This year I used the book The Power of Ethical
     Management by Kenneth Blanchard and Norman Vincent
     Peale as reading material about ethic.  This book
     is appropriate for upper level high school
     students (The book is short, and can be read
     quickly by most students).  Introduce the book
     during the second day and allow for some time for
     the students to begin reading.  This book is
     optional, but provides the students with some
     background to develop a personal ethics check.
5.   Develop a personal ethics check.  Most students,
     if they read the book by Blanchard will use the
     following; 1) is it legal, 2) is it balanced (fair
     to all parties), 3) how will it make me feel about
     myself.
6.   I have students identify an ethical question from
     their own life.  They then write about the ethical
     question, Identify how they handled the situation,
     and indicate if they would have handled the
     situation differently given another chance.  I ask
     the students to hand this in only if they want to,
     but they must show me they completed the
     assignment.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1.   Have the students develop a collage about ethical
     violations and how they view the word ethics and
     ethical situations.  Display them in the
     classroom.
2.   Essay.  I develop an essay that fits the subject
     area.  This past year the class I used this in
     related to the world of business so I used the
     following question;

     "You have just been hired to work for a large
     sales firm.  You are the Special Assistant to the
     Personnel Director for Operation Ethics.  Several
     ethical violations have occurred in the personnel
     department and sales division.  You are to
     recommend to the new Personnel Director how to
     deal with the past violations, and recommend a new
     ethics policy, and develop a plan of
     implementation."

     I tell the students to be creative with their
     response, and to fill in gaps of the situation in
     any way they choose.  The question can be designed
     to fit many different curricular areas.