The Future of Education

This critical review of the literature examines current practices and approaches in teaching ethics for the professions at the graduate level across disciplines. The results of this review revealed themes including the importance for students to understand how their moral values influence perspectives and practices as ethical decision makers and professionals. Another theme highlighted in the literature was the essential role critical self-reflection plays in the teaching and learning process, and the positioning of students’ moral values within the framing of professional practices and related ethical codes. Student introspection, inclusion of social learning, and the broader implications of ethical dilemmas within the context of professional decision-making were other common themes within the literature. The authors concluded there was a lack of continuity in how ethics is taught in various subject categories at the graduate level. The authors’ recommendations: (a) a teaching model for professional ethics is needed that can be universally applied in graduate education; (b) teaching descriptive and meta-ethics and how they inform universal understandings of ethics and value framing; and, (c) teaching how to incorporate and apply universal theories when faced with ethical dilemmas by situating personal and universal values in decision-making process.

Keywords: teaching professional ethics, ethics in graduate education, ethical decision making.