This article is about a beautiful book by a not so beautiful author, Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree. I will first reflect on the usually fraught relationship of literature and morality. I then will give a flavor of the moral fiber of Carter’s novel and then turn to some darker undercurrents, examining whether they intersect with the value of the work, whether we need them to intersect, and whether they ultimately submerge any initial judgments of the book. The (...) core issue is how and whether to continue to teach such works as worthy and beautiful literature despite deeply disturbing facts about the authors of such works. Finally, as we often have personal connections to our favorite books, how should such connections factor in while choosing whether to teach such works even if now aware of their problematic legacies? (shrink)

Program evaluation in education is a process for investigating the strength and weakness of on educational program. Instructors and teacher will find the point for improvement in the program and this process will led to reach the expected outcomes of education. PhD of medical ethics as a scientific discipline launched since 2009 in IRAN and the documented curriculum of this program proposed some learning experiences and competencies for the graduates of this program. After running 9 cycle of the program in (...) three universities, the board of the Medical Ethics intended to evaluate the program. Therefore the aim of this study was to evaluate the educational program of PhD of medical ethics in Iran. This program evaluation was done based on utilization focused approach. Based on the aim of the study and the flexibility that the approach allowed us, we chose the qualitative method of data gathering. Data were collected from in depth interview by academic staff of the program in all three centers, program instructors and educational experts. Student’s opinion gathered through three focus group discussion in educational departments. The evaluation question designed based on the literature review. The findings of this study are presented here based on main evaluation questions. The findings showed that there are some shortcomings in the program documents and also there are administrative issues. It seems that the program itself and also its application in universities need some improvement. Also the entrance exam and policies need some revision and the development of the medical ethics as a discipline need interdisciplinary coordination and communications. Based on the finding of the study we propose recommendations for the program per se and for the medical ethics discipline as a scientific field. (shrink)

Advancements in biological ageing research have shown that age-related diseases may be fought more effectively in the future by directly intervening into the ageing process. This prospect is associated with hopes for solving problems of demographic change. It also addresses raising awareness for complex ethical, legal and social issues that have hardly been a topic of discussion to date. Therefore, as the objective of our project, an interdisciplinary discourse module entitled “Ethics of Biogerontology” was developed to initiate a social debate (...) on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of biogerontology. The discourse module focuses on competences and argumentation skills and was developed with experts from relevant disciplines, e.g. biogerontology, social gerontology, philosophy, geriatrics, and medical ethics. Concepts of age and ageing are tightly interlinked with biogerontology and are as such relevant as teaching contents of the discourse module. The course module was tested in eight discourse teaching projects in research, medicine, and education in various partner institutions and evaluated based on an ethical competence model. This article describes the conception, including the learning objectives, of such a teaching course and the associated teaching contents. It also gives a justification for their selection. Finally, we summarize the results of the evaluation. (shrink)

The University of Malta has had a Master of Arts in Bioethics for several years delivered by the Faculty of Theology. Although there were medics invited to teach in this degree the Bioethics Research Programme of the Faculty of Medicine noted that the degree was top theoretical and was not meeting the needs of the Faculty and the attached hospital. Rather it contended that it needed to train medics in Clinical Ethics and to prepare some of them to specialise in (...) the field. Following failed attempts to either change the MA degree to cater for these needs or to have a collaborative degree, the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery proposed that a new degree by designed. This did raise some debate but finally both faculties participated in each other’s degree course. Within the local context a distinction had to be made to distinguish bioethics from the more skill-approached version, which it called Clinical Ethics, acknowledging that in many countries bioethicists may be skill-trained to work in the hospital environment. The paper discusses the development and philosophy of the Master of Science in Clinical Ethics & Law within the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery and give a description of the modules involved and the importance to acknowledge the difference between a theoretical degree in bioethics and one which provides bioethicists with skills that enable them to practice clinical ethics on the ward. (shrink)

Since philosophy is a notoriously difficult subject, one may think that the concept of adding rigor to a philosophy course is misguided. Isn’t reading difficult texts by Immanuel Kant or Friedrich Nietzsche enough to categorize a class as academically rigorous? This question is based on the misguided assumption that academic rigor has only to do with course content. While course content is a component of academic rigor, other aspects such as higher-order thinking, as well as how an instructor designs and (...) grades assignments, contribute to the level of academic rigor in a course. The author provides several ways to increase the level of academic rigor in a philosophy course based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy using examples from an introductory ethics course and then provides recommendations as to how to grade to promote academic rigor. (shrink)

This study investigates the relationships among Machiavellianism, attitudes towards the perceived importance of corporate ethics and social responsibility, referred to here as PRESOR attitudes, and certain attitudes toward environmental responsibility, i.e., support for corporate environmental accountability and environmentally motivated purchasing intentions, amongst undergraduate students. Data were collected from a survey of all final year undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong. Structural equations analyses were used to investigate the associations amongst the variables. The study finds that Machiavellianism and belief (...) in the importance of CESR play important roles in the development of university students’ attitudes toward certain environmental issues. Specifically, high Machiavellian students expressed lower levels of belief in the importance of CESR, which in turn were associated with weaker pro-environment views. The findings suggest that educational efforts to cultivate students’ PRESOR attitudes and/or reduce their levels of Machiavellianism would enhance their pro-environment views. (shrink)