In secondary school philosophy classes students learn to reason critically about social and scientific issues. This study examined the effects of a whole-class, teacher-led philosophy classroom dialogue intervention on students’ value-loaded critical thinking. Value-loaded critical thinking is logically consistent, self-reflective reasoning focused on making moral value-judgments about what is right to believe or do. In a quasi-experimental study (N = 437 students) with a pre-test post-test design, we investigated whether engaging in classroom dialogues in which the teachers implemented five design principles for promoting value-loaded critical thinking and transfer thereof, positively affected students’ (n = 150) value-loaded critical thinking in transfer tasks. The results were compared to two comparison conditions: students (n = 149) who participated in regular teacher-led philosophy classroom dialogues and students (n = 145) who followed a regular 10th-grade curriculum without philosophy classes. Results showed that students in the intervention condition outperformed students in both comparison conditions on referring to moral values. Regarding critical reasoning, we only found significant effects compared to the students who followed the regular 10th-grade curriculum. Findings indicate that a specifically designed dialogic intervention can enhance students’ capacities in value-loaded critical thinking.
The study of moral reasoning in relation to sustainable development is an emerging field within environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD). The vignette method was used to evaluate the perception of the relationship between environmental and social issues in the Dutch upper elementary school children. This case study is placed within two broad areas of tension, namely between the need to address urgent environmental problems and to promote pluralistic democratic learning; and between the value of environment as an economic asset and deep ecology perspective. Results of this study indicate that the children are able to critically think about the moral dilemmas inherent in sustainable development and distinguish between different values in relation to environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2013.12.004 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
This paper introduces the design principle of legibility as means to examine the epistemic and ethical conditions of sensing technologies. Emerging sensing technologies create new possibilities regarding what to measure, as well as how to analyze, interpret, and communicate said measurements. In doing so, they create ethical challenges for designers to navigate, specifically how the interpretation and communication of complex data affect moral values such as (user) autonomy. Contemporary sensing technologies require layers of mediation and exposition to render what they sense as intelligible and constructive to the end user, which is a value-laden design act. Legibility is positioned as both an evaluative lens and a design criterion, making it complimentary to existing frameworks such as value sensitive design. To concretize the notion of legibility, and understand how it could be utilized in both evaluative and anticipatory contexts, the case study of a vest embedded with sensors and an accompanying app for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is analyzed.
De robotassistent is een nieuwe, veelbelovende technologie om docenten in het primair onderwijs te ondersteunen en leerprestaties te verbeteren. In dit onderzoek ontwikkelen we een morele theorie voor het inzetten van deze robotassistenten in het onderwijs.Doel Met dit onderzoek ontwikkelen we een theorie over het moreel verantwoord inzetten van robotassistenten in het onderwijs, waarbij kwalitatieve en kwantitatieve data wordt gecombineerd. Resultaten Dit onderzoek loopt. Hieronder vind je een overzicht van de resultaten tot nu toe. Smakman, M. (2019) De robotdocent komt eraan, maar hoe? AG Connect. Januari/ Februari 2019. pp 70-73 Smakman, M., & Konijn, E. (2019). Robot Tutors: Welcome or Ethically Questionable? In M. Merdan, W. Lepuschitz, G. Koppensteiner, R. Balogh, & D. Obdržálek (Eds.), Robotics in Education ‐ Current Research and Innovations. Vienna, Austria: Springer. [in press] Smakman, M. and Konijn, E.A. (2019-02-07) Onderwijsrobots: van harte welkom of ethisch onverantwoord? Presented at Robots en AI in het onderwijs. Den Haag, The Netherlands. Smakman, M. And Konijn, E.A. (2019-01-31) Moral challenges and opportunities for educational robots Presented at Workshop How do we work with educational robots? De Waag, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Goudzwaard, M., Smakman, M., Konijn, E.A. Robots are Good for Profit: A Business Perspective on Robots in Education. [accepted] to 9th Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics Smakman, M., Konijn, E.A. (2019, February) Moral Considerations Regarding Robots in Education: A Systematic Literature Review. Paper presented at Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap, 7-8 February 2019. Nijmegen, The Netherlands Smakman, M., Konijn. E.A. (2018, December) Considerations on moral values regarding robot tutors. Presented at the Symposium on Robots for Language Learning. 12-13 December 2018. Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey Smakman, M. (2018, February). Moral concerns regarding robot tutors, a review.Poster presented at the ATEE 2018 Winter Conference – Technology and Innovative Learning, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Looptijd 01 januari 2017 - 01 januari 2022 Aanpak Dit onderzoek maakt gebruik van de Value Sensitive Design (VSD) methodology. VSD is een methode om rekening te houden met morele waarden tijdens het ontwerpen en inzetten van technologie. Eerst richt dit onderzoek op het benoemen van relevante (morele) waarden. Door verschillende focusgroepen met onder meer ouders, leraren, overheid en robotbouwers, worden de waarden verder uitgewerkt. Vervolgens wegen we de waarden door ze voor te leggen aan diverse groepen. Daarna stellen we richtlijnen op hoe robots op een verantwoorde manier kunnen worden ingezet.
