Undergraduate ethics education: student understandings of ethics and ways to incorporate ethics education across courses

The goal for this brown bag discussion is to exchange current practices for teaching ethics to undergraduate students at Virginia Tech. We will share results of a study we recently completed, share how we teach ethics, and engage the audience in discussion about their practices and advice for teaching ethics across disciplines. We will share findings of a systematic literature review, our small-scale student survey of ethical reasoning skill development, and strategies the VT Honors College has implemented based on findings from this study in course offerings. As a result of our findings, the Honors College has changed our approach to incorporate exploration of ethical processes across courses for our Honors Laureate Diploma to help acculturate ethical thinking. We aim to help train students to identify decisions for which ethical reasoning abilities are needed and encourage confidence in navigating intellectual spaces where understanding of ethical decision-making processes across contexts is required.