The week included sessions on the following topics:

Gary Comstock, "Goals and History of the Workshop"
Lilly-Marlene Russow, "An Introduction to Ethical Theory"
Martin Curd, "Ethical Reasoning and Critical Thinking"
Gary Comstock, "Ethics and Religion"
Fred Gifford (Michigan State U.), "Ethics and Science"
Paul Thompson (Texas A&M) and Jim Vorst (Purdue), "Agriculture and the Environment"
Cleora D'Arcy (Illinois), "How I Have Incorporated Ethics Into My Classes"
Jeff McMahan (Illinois), "Using Animals in Biomedical Research"
Allen Buchanan (Wisconsin), "Choosing Who Will Be Disabled: Genetic Intervention and Justice"
Preparation of pedagogical materials
Presentation of pedagogical materials

26 Purdue faculty members attended, adding their efforts to those of other ISU Model Bioethics Institute "grads"--72 at Iowa State; 51 at Illinois; and 34 at Michigan State--for a total of over 170 faculty nationwide. The numbers of graduates arguably constitutes arguably the most significant curricular reform movement in recent nonmedical life science higher education.


ENCOURAGING ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN CLASS

Joylynn H. Reed and Daniel E. Hallock

Editor's note: Professors Reed and Hallock at are St. Edward's University (TX). Reprinted from The Teaching Professor, volume 10, number 1, January 1996 with permission from Magna Publications, Inc. (800/433-0499)

We have been concerned about the ethical behavior of our students and thought we might be able to encourage more of it by making our standards high and expectations explicitly clear. We share the following handout with our students on the first day of class...

The following guidelines set the standards for student's ethical behavior in this class. They are adapted from a set of guidelines for faculty prepared by the American Association of University Professors in 1987. As your instructor, I pledge to uphold these high faculty ethics.

Please read and study the guidelines below. I'd like you to make a similar pledge to me and your classmates. Please do so by signing the statement which says you've read the guidelines and agree to abide by them.

As a student in this class, your ethical obligations are to:

1. ENGAGE IN THE PURSUIT OF LEARNING BY:

• Seeking help and clarification when needed.
  
• Respecting fellow students', professor's, and guests' opinions without disparaging and dismissing them.
  
• Seeing beyond "personality issues" with others to appreciate their contributions to the learning environment.

   

2. MODEL ETHICAL SCHOLARLY STANDARDS BY:

• Avoiding plagiarizing and all other breaches of academic honesty.
  
• Engaging in discussions with other students and professors about ethical issues in academics.
• Avoiding any seeming approval, acceptance, or encouragement of fellow students' academic dishonesty and bringing any such instances to the attention of the professor and/or university officials.
  

3. ACKNOWLEDGE, ACCEPT, AND EXPECT JUST ASSESSMENT OF YOUR LEARNING BY:

• Understanding the professor's methods and rationale for your assessment; asking for clarification if you don't understand.
  

• Engaging in accurate, just, objective self-assessments of your own work.
  
• Engaging in constructive, value-neutral discussion with the professor about discrepancies between your self-assessment and the professor's assessment of your work.
  
• Refraining from comparing assessments and grades with classmates' so as not to diminish classmates' self-esteem.

   

4. AVOID HARASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION, AND EXPLOITATION BY:

• Getting to know classmates and the professor as individuals rather than applying prejudices an stereotypes.
• Contributing your full effort in team and collaborative projects.
• Respectfully voicing your expectations of full participation in team and collaborative projects to fellow students.
  
• Not discouraging, in any way, a member's full participation in a collaborative project.
  
• Being careful not to make racist, sexist, and other types of discriminatory remarks during class.
  
• Being careful not to monopolize class discussion time so that others do not have a chance to participate or are intimidated about participating.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE AG BIOETHICS FORUM!

You can now receive The Ag Bioethics Forum twice yearly over e-mail. To subscribe, send an e-mail to agbioethics-request@iastate.edu with the word subscribe in the body of the message. Or, you may send an e-mail message to the ISU Bioethics Program Assistant at ahouser@iastate.edu.