The SEED Study

The E³ Team has begun plans to conduct a national assessment of educational experiences and student context that positively influence the ethical development of engineering undergraduates in the United States. Using its theoretical model, the team will study three components of ethical development (i.e., knowledge of ethics, ethical reasoning, and ethical behavior) in engineering undergraduates who have experienced various modes of ethical instruction in diverse learning environments.

In particular, the team will conduct focus group interviews with faculty, students, and administrators to learn about curricular and extracurricular experiences associated with ethics instruction at each institution and to determine the range of student characteristics and institutional culture that exist. The team will combine this information with variables of its model of ethical development to develop the SEED (Student Engineering Ethical Development) Survey to assess the impact of educational experiences and student context. After pilot testing the survey, the team will administer the survey to more than 4,000 engineering undergraduates at all class levels at sixteen diverse institutions nationwide.

The team is confident that this analysis will ultimately identify the curricular and extra-curricular activities that have the most profound influence on the ethical development of current engineering students. Subsequent research will further elucidate the effect these successful activities have on students and will develop best practices for teaching ethical decision-making.