10-22-2018, 11:14 PM
For our last session, we decided to end with the Villager’s Dilemma Scenario, which we thought would be a perfect activity to bring together all the concepts we’ve been teaching these past few weeks. We asked the question, “How do you approach ethical decision making?”, which ties into the Villager’s Dilemma scenario, as the students have to come up with how to approach an ethical decision.
Before we began our lesson, we started off with a review of the Three Ethical Perspectives- consequence, virtue, and rules. This was a crucial element of our teachings, and we wanted to review it before starting with the Villager’s Dilemma, which tied into this topic as well. Although the students needed to be reminded of the Three Perspectives, they seemed to have a grasp of what they entailed.
Next, we began the Villager’s Dilemma exercise, and we read out the scenario and offered different possible options that the students could choose, and in order to further think about this we had the students split up into pairs. The 5 options the students had were killing 1 to save 9, walking away from the scenario entirely, killing none but protesting, taking away the gun and killing the commander, and offering yourself to save all 10 people. After talking for about 5 minutes, we came back to the big group and had students voice out some of their opinions. Student A mentioned that they should find the bad people among the group of 10 and only have those be the ones who are killed. Student B said that they should have the prisoners offer themselves if they are guilty or old. Then, after discussing in the larger group, we had the students split into small groups and walked around helping to prompt discussion and deeper conversations. The students were very engaged with this activity and not only disagreed among each other but also came up with interesting perspectives on the issue not presented. Once the students discussed in their small groups for a while, we again came back to a big group discussion and had the groups share what they would do in this scenario. One table argued that they should volunteer to kill an elderly person in the group since they have lived a full life and have nothing to lose. Another group decided that they would offer themselves to save the 10 people. Most groups had different opinions, and this showed us that the students were thinking for themselves and not only copying others in the class. They were not afraid to share their differing opinions, and this prompted an even more stimulating discussion. We then took a class-wide vote to see how many people would do what, and the results were: 9 people said they would kill 1 to save 9, 2 people said they would walk away, 0 people said they would kill none and protest (Student C, in regards to this argument, rebutted saying that they would not do this because it might further aggravate the commander which could backfire greatly), 4 people said they would take the gun and kill the commander, and 5 people said they would offer themselves only if it was their family or people they cared about they were saving. Then, we connected each of these options to the different Ethical Perspectives we discussed in the beginning of class, and we decided that killing 1 to save 9 would be maximizing the good (consequential ethics), walking away would be following the rules (rule-based ethics), and offering yourself to save the 10 would be being a good person (virtue based ethics). Before jumping into the college questions we saved for the end of class, we asked the students what they think of the most when making ethical decisions. Student A said they would try to maximize the good of everybody when making a decision, while Student B said he would follow the rules because he didn’t want to end up going to prison.
We ended the class with questions about college, which the students had a lot of. I believe that this was one of the most beneficial parts of this program, because many of the questions the students had were along the lines of “is college worth it?”, and being able to tell these students that college is worth it for their future was rewarding. I wanted to encourage them to go to college in their own time and to not be discouraged by financial needs, which was another big concern of the students. Overall, the students became more and more engaged with the exercises as the weeks went on, and I think they gained more knowledge on ethics and how to make ethical decisions in their own lives. I believe this will be a good foundation for further studies and for the rest of their lives. It was an amazing experience and I think it benefitted both the students and us.
Before we began our lesson, we started off with a review of the Three Ethical Perspectives- consequence, virtue, and rules. This was a crucial element of our teachings, and we wanted to review it before starting with the Villager’s Dilemma, which tied into this topic as well. Although the students needed to be reminded of the Three Perspectives, they seemed to have a grasp of what they entailed.
Next, we began the Villager’s Dilemma exercise, and we read out the scenario and offered different possible options that the students could choose, and in order to further think about this we had the students split up into pairs. The 5 options the students had were killing 1 to save 9, walking away from the scenario entirely, killing none but protesting, taking away the gun and killing the commander, and offering yourself to save all 10 people. After talking for about 5 minutes, we came back to the big group and had students voice out some of their opinions. Student A mentioned that they should find the bad people among the group of 10 and only have those be the ones who are killed. Student B said that they should have the prisoners offer themselves if they are guilty or old. Then, after discussing in the larger group, we had the students split into small groups and walked around helping to prompt discussion and deeper conversations. The students were very engaged with this activity and not only disagreed among each other but also came up with interesting perspectives on the issue not presented. Once the students discussed in their small groups for a while, we again came back to a big group discussion and had the groups share what they would do in this scenario. One table argued that they should volunteer to kill an elderly person in the group since they have lived a full life and have nothing to lose. Another group decided that they would offer themselves to save the 10 people. Most groups had different opinions, and this showed us that the students were thinking for themselves and not only copying others in the class. They were not afraid to share their differing opinions, and this prompted an even more stimulating discussion. We then took a class-wide vote to see how many people would do what, and the results were: 9 people said they would kill 1 to save 9, 2 people said they would walk away, 0 people said they would kill none and protest (Student C, in regards to this argument, rebutted saying that they would not do this because it might further aggravate the commander which could backfire greatly), 4 people said they would take the gun and kill the commander, and 5 people said they would offer themselves only if it was their family or people they cared about they were saving. Then, we connected each of these options to the different Ethical Perspectives we discussed in the beginning of class, and we decided that killing 1 to save 9 would be maximizing the good (consequential ethics), walking away would be following the rules (rule-based ethics), and offering yourself to save the 10 would be being a good person (virtue based ethics). Before jumping into the college questions we saved for the end of class, we asked the students what they think of the most when making ethical decisions. Student A said they would try to maximize the good of everybody when making a decision, while Student B said he would follow the rules because he didn’t want to end up going to prison.
We ended the class with questions about college, which the students had a lot of. I believe that this was one of the most beneficial parts of this program, because many of the questions the students had were along the lines of “is college worth it?”, and being able to tell these students that college is worth it for their future was rewarding. I wanted to encourage them to go to college in their own time and to not be discouraged by financial needs, which was another big concern of the students. Overall, the students became more and more engaged with the exercises as the weeks went on, and I think they gained more knowledge on ethics and how to make ethical decisions in their own lives. I believe this will be a good foundation for further studies and for the rest of their lives. It was an amazing experience and I think it benefitted both the students and us.