The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Bringing ethics into your class
Ethical behaviour and ethics in decision making is arguably a challenging topic to teach. ETH Zurich fosters the integration of ethical aspect into the curricula. For that purpose, ETH offers the ETHics research platform, where a variety of courses are listed that specifically and explicitly revolve around teaching different ethical aspects. In this Refresh Teaching we will hear about several approaches of how to integrate ethics into your coursework.
Dr. Elvan Kut
Elvan Kut (D-CHAB) is a lecturer and programme coordinator at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She teaches pharmacotherapy for Master students and leads interdisciplinary courses on ethics and the philosophy of science. She will present a two-day course on ethics in research and drug development, which is a blend of theoretical inputs, work on ethical decision making and encouragement for informed debate.
Eva Bobst D-HEST
Eva Bobst (D-HEST) is a moral philosopher who joined ETH in 2021 (D-Hest) for the development of the new ethics course for doctoral students (launching in the spring semester of 2022). She is specialized in the analytic tradition of ethics and is currently in the final stages of completing her dissertation on the (ethical) value of egoistic decisions at the University of Vienna. Eva will give a short input on the special role critical questions play in ethical decision making and how case studies and intuition pumps can help stimulate discussion in (and outside) the classroom.
Dr. Gerald Achermann
Dr. Gerald Achermann obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in Applied Ethics in 2005. Since 2006 he has been teaching the course “Research Ethics” at ETH Zurich. Using the newly established course “Ethical Issues in Animal Research” as an example, he presents ethics-related learning outcomes as well as a selection of the ethics-specific didactic methods or instruments used. Finally, he reports on his experiences and some challenges in teaching ethics.
Dr. Agata Ferretti (D-HEST)
Agata Ferretti (D-HEST) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Health Ethics and Policy Lab, ETH Zurich. She is a bioethicists researching on the ethics and governance of digital health technologies, and a lecturer in the course “Ethics Workshop: The Impact of Digital Life on Society”. Agata will share some insights about the structure of this three days interactive workshop, as well as show how the combination of different teaching approaches (case study analysis, podcast, role playing activity, mind mapping, group discussions, frontal lectures, videos) stimulates critical ethical thinking among the students, while keeping them engaged.
