Understanding students’ ethical reasoning and fallacies through asynchronous online discussion: Lessons for teaching evaluation ethics

ABSTRACT

Evaluations are practiced in political contexts, posing ethical dilemmas to evaluators. It is important, therefore, to prepare evaluation students for ethical decision-making in their future evaluative work. This study explores the use of scenario-based moral reasoning and ethical argumentation as an instructional strategy for teaching evaluation ethics to a group of graduate students enrolled in an online course on program evaluation. The participating students were asked to discuss an ethical scenario in an asynchronous online format during five consecutive weeks. The results suggested that participation in this assignment benefited students in three main ways: (1) providing new insights and adding new perspectives, (2) recognition of and discussion on dichotomies, and (3) attending to one’s own and others’ unwarranted assumptions. Furthermore, we identified some of the students’ ethical misconceptions regarding evaluation and were able to relate these misconceptions to Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement and Sartre’s notion of self-deception or bad faith. Implications for teaching evaluation ethics and suggestions for future research will be presented and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching evaluation
• ethical decision-making
• online discussions
• argumentation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amir Hedayati-Mehdiabadi

Amir Hedayati-Mehdiabadi is an assistant professor at Organization, Information & Learning Sciences at the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences at University of New Mexico. His research is focused on talent and professional development and seeks to answer the question of how we can improve ethical decision making among professionals including engineers, computer scientists, and evaluators.

Wenhao David Huang

Wenhao David Huang is an associate professor at Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His scholarly activities are focused on informing practice through research. In particular, his research explores conceptual and empirical relationships among factors that could influence individuals’ decisions to engage with complex learning and performance environments. Dr. Huang’s research output informs the design, implementation, and evaluation of online learning environments and game-based learning environments for various learner populations.

Eunjung Grace Oh

Eunjung Grace Oh is an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include learning and engagement in online and technology-enhanced environments, design-based research, and learning and performance support of different groups of workforce. She can be reached at [email protected]