The ethics playbook: Here are the five core skills for teaching ethical decision making

As the anger and outrage for the latest school shooting has begun to subside into a search for strategies to reduce the number of deaths caused by people using firearms, the articulate courage of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School provides a flicker of inspiration in the shadows of grief.

Turns out that those students had been equipped to have a voice through the debate training program that is part of Broward County’s curriculum. Beginning in the third grade, students were taught how to evaluate evidence, develop a position, and articulate their ideas. Many probably had no idea that those skills would be used to launch a national movement to reconsider our collective response to gun violence.

Martha C. Nussbaum’s book, Creating Capabilities, provides a powerful challenge to educators about our responsibility to equip our learners with a voice and a sense of personal agency as they prepare to engage with the world. Nussbaum argues that creating capabilities includes helping individuals develop the vision and skills required for a good life as well as equipping them to work toward creating a political, social, and economic environment that gives people meaningful choice.

Faculty often complain that engaging students in conversations designed to build those personal and communal capabilities is hard. Yes, yes, it is. But by thoughtfully structuring classroom experiences that minimize the opportunity for knee-jerk reactions to difficult problems, students can develop the capability to engage in careful ethical reasoning. One effective method is practicing the five core skills underlying the Baird Decision Model™ —a process that helps transform passion and anger into meaningful action.

Be Attentive: Core to critical thinking is the ability to separate facts from assumptions and to evaluate the strength of the assumptions put forward in support of or opposition to a particular course of action. Stubbornly holding on to uninformed ideas is one of largest barriers to critical thinking in ethics, as one’s very identity is tied to their beliefs about what particular actions are right or wrong.

In the debate about the responsible use of firearms and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, asking students to do research and evaluate the quality of the information before coming up with solutions can help move the conversation away from closely held—but often unthoughtful—opinions to informed, more nuanced opinions. This strategy does require that the conversation take place over more than one class period, so students can prepare. But having the initial conversation be about the quality of the evidence for various positions reduces the intensity of the exchange and teaches students to evaluate facts and ideas rather than judge people.

Be Intelligent: Rather than focusing on right answers, this step of inquiry asks salient questions. What are our obligations in this situation? What consequences am I willing to have as a result of my actions? What is required to care for those with no power and get a fair result? What does my role require that I do in this situation? Each of these questions comes from a different ethical perspective.

Through asking questions, the core ethical tensions are exposed. For the conversation about guns, the tension is between protecting individual action and right to self-protection at the same time that community concerns for safety are addressed. What are appropriate limits (if any) on an individual’s ability to own and use firearms? What are the limits (if any) on community action to create and maintain a safe and secure environment for its members through limiting activities that might cause danger or death?

Be Reasonable: As students move to the next phase of reasoning, different approaches are evaluated. The goal is to put forward a set of policies that promote as much individual freedom as possible while creating as safe and secure of an environment as possible. Resources such as the Washington Post article, “How strictly are guns regulated where you live?” that outlines seven types of gun control legislation, or sites that give background on state gun laws such as Guns To Carry, help learners think outside of the proverbial box. Students learn that different options or combinations of options may be available for resolution of the tension.

Be Responsible: Through learning how to analyze an ethical dilemma with a bias toward action, learners have a strengthened voice and a sense of agency. Armed with information, a sense of what ethical action requires, and a vision for what options for action are available, individuals as well as the community as a whole are ready to make a difference.

The students from Broward County who had been through debate training and had researched the issue of gun violence were prepared and equipped to speak up when the unthinkable happened, a person came to their campus and used a firearm to take innocent lives. They were able to speak to those responsible for shaping the law. They were able to share their pain and anguish with others to get action from mobilizing national rallies to incenting businesses to evaluate their policies.

Be Reflective: No one wants innocent lives to be lost. However, not everyone will agree with the banning of certain firearms and other actions advocated by those students. Some may advocate more nuanced action with a different set of policies to resolve the tension. But, regardless of our individual position on how to effectively address violence caused by the irresponsible use of guns in our country, I believe that as educators, we have the responsibility to equip our learners to engage the conversation about violence and other difficult conversations, so they can effectively participate in the shaping of our life together, whether as citizens or members of a company or organization.

Ethics education at its best prepares learners to be thought-leaders who courageously take action as they work through the perennial issues of being persons-in-community. EthicsGame’s mission is to design engaging simulations and educational content that build learners’ capabilities in ethical decision making. We are also committed to equipping faculty members to effectively facilitate these important conversations. As all of us work together to develop opportunities for quality ethics education, we know that we are building the capability of the next generation to effectively navigate this world. What work could be more rewarding?