Open Research Review for “Principles Matter”
This is a reposting from my old site: www.melanieburns.net. It was originally published on Feb. 7, 2022.
The reading from Principles Matter investigated how an interdisciplinary approach integrated in to existing curriculum without disrupting the original class work would teach students towards “ethics work” (the continual role of ethics). It’s interesting concept worked with a PhD Ethicist for them to ask questions, the ability to connect their work with the ethical concepts, and the interest it developed. Although the students reported being engaged in the work, they also report feeling ill equipped to use the ethical principles in their work. These self-assessments were corroborated by the study’s assessment of the students written responses. One of the conclusion was that this framework could help provide interest and connection through the students coursework to ethics work, but that it would struggle without a larger framework of ethics study such as stand alone courses. This led me to the question, why do STEM courses, computer science in particular for this question, not have requirements to build critical thinking?
Critical thinking has many almost as many definitions as philosophers (Atabaki, A. M. S, et. al) but the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) defines it as: “Critical thinking is using logic or reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.” (Caratozzolo, P., et al) Essentially critical thinking is a valuable skills to effectively problem solve and communication throughout our everyday lives, but especially in engineering where designs can be around emerging technology, a massive scale, and may have to be made quickly. The World Economic Form Report gave an prediction that critical thinking would be the 2nd most valuable skill for successful careers by 2020. Yet it hasn’t been the focus of engineering departments (Caratozzolo, P., et al).
Looking at the University of Washington, where the study took place and where the ethicist is studying, I investigated the role of critical thinking courses in the catalog. In particular, I’m looking for psychology and philosophy courses along with more direct ethics courses as “philosophers emphasize critical thinking attitudes while psychologists focus on critical thinking skills.” (Atabaki, A. M. S., et. al) The B.S. of Computer Science requires no additional critical thinking courses, but the general education requires a minimum of 4 (20 credit hours) classes dedicated to “Individuals and Societies” or I&S. According to the UW website “I&S courses focus on the experimental study of human behavior both individually and socially. This includes the history, development, and dynamics of human behavior, as well as social and cultural institutions.” (University of Washington)
This broad topic had over 50 courses available for Spring 2022, but only a small portion of those would fit under philosophy, psychology, or ethics. For those who are interested in those gaining more of a framework may take more than one or two classes, but it would have to compete without important breadths and interests such as history, socials sciences, economics, etc. Further more, this leaves the requirement down to student preference despite the importance that is being placed on critical thinking skills in society and careers.
This leads to further questions: Why aren’t critical thinking courses required in the same way mathematical, language, and science courses are in engineering? What would need to change institutionally to put bring critical thinking skills into the basic general education? With a framework built in the general education would the framework discussed in Principles Matter lead to higher results?
Petelka, J., Finn, M., Roesner, F., & Shilton, K. (2022). Principles Matter: Integrating an Ethics Intervention into a Computer Security Course; Principles Matter: Integrating an Ethics Intervention into a Computer Security Course. https://doi.org/10.1145/3478431.3499275 (Links to an external site.)
Atabaki, A. M. S., Keshtiaray, N., Yarmohammadian, M. H., & I. (2015). Scrutiny of Critical Thinking Concept. International Education Studies, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n3p93 (Links to an external site.)
Caratozzolo, P., Alvarez-Delgado, A., & Hosseini, S. (2019). Strengthening critical thinking in engineering students. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM), 13(3), 995–1012. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-019-00559-6 (Links to an external site.)
World Economic Forum: The Future of Jobs, Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, International Report, January 2016. Accessed 9 Oct 2018
University of Washginton (2022) Computer Science Graduation Requirments, accessed January 2022
University of Washginton (2022) General Educaiton Requirements, accessed January 2022
