HOW TO DEVELOP SOCIALS AND ETHICS COMPETENCIES IN THE CURRICULUM OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS

The Dublin Descriptors, proposed in March 2002 and readapted in October 2004 following the Joint Quality Initiative, advise that qualifications that signify completion of the first cycle (bachelor degree) are awarded to students who, among others,
have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) to inform judgements that include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues; and for the second cycle (master degree), to students who have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity, and formulate judgements with incomplete or limited information, but that include reflecting on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements.

Both descriptors lead to the definition of competencies related to the ethic and social responsibility of the future professionals. In Europe, these competencies have been used in adaptation to ECTS of all the curricula of the university degrees. However, teacher’s lack of pedagogical knowledge makes its implementation in the classroom difficult.

In this work we present one of the most efficient techniques to develop ethical and social competencies in students in the classroom: the so called moral dilemmas. We describe the main stages and fundamental keys for the successful achievement of this method. Also, we illustrate the application of this method in two subjects of Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering, a Spanish bachelor degree. The description of these examples covers the whole design of the moral dilemmas, from its definition to the evaluation system applied.