Goal 3: To inculcate a sense of personal and social responsibility that is anchored
through active involvement with diverse communities and real world challenges.
Domain 3.3: Ethical reasoning and action
Ethical Reasoning and Action
Definition: Ethical reasoning is reasoning about right and wrong human conduct. It requires students to
be able to assess their own ethical values and the social context of problems, recognize
ethical issues in a variety of settings, think about how different ethical perspectives might be
applied to ethical dilemmas, and consider the ramifications of alternative actions.
Instructors may use any or all of the behavioral achievements appearing in the list under each
performance level using the levels provided here (4, 3, 2, 1).
Performance Levels
3
2
4
Behavioral
Achievement
and/or Quality of
Work
Raw number of
students
achieving at this
level.
• Analyzes core beliefs
and their origins
clearly and in great
depth
• Accurately explains
relevant ethical
perspectives and/or
theories
• Recognizes ethical
issues in complex
situations and
explains crossrelationships among
issues
• Accurately applies
ethical perspectives
to ethical questions,
considering full
implications
• States an ethical
position and
effectively defends
against objections to
the position
• Discusses core beliefs
and their origins
• Names major
relevant ethical
perspectives and/or
theories and
attempts to explain
in detail
• Recognizes ethical
issues in complex
situations OR
explains crossrelationships among
issues
• Applies ethical
perspectives
accurately but does
not consider all
implications
• States an ethical
position and
attempts, with some
success, to defend
against objections
• States core beliefs and
their origins
• Describes only the
major ethical
perspective he/she
uses and is only able
to present the gist of
the ethical
perspective and/or
theory
• Recognizes basic,
obvious ethical issues
but does not
completely grasp
complexities and
interrelationships
• Applies ethical
perspectives to a new
example, but
inadequately
• States an ethical
position identifies
objections to it, but
does not defend
against objections
1
• States either core
beliefs or their origins
but not both
• Describes only the
major ethical
perspectives and/or
theories that she/he
uses
• Recognizes basic,
obvious ethical issues
but fails to grasp
complexity or
interrelationships
• Applies ethical
perspectives with
support but does not
apply them
independently to a
new example
• States an ethical
position but does not
identify the
objections to it
Number of students who participated in this assessment
but failed to meet Performance Level 1.
This template is adapted from the VALUE (Valid Assessment of Undergraduate Education) rubric of the Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
Page 2 of Reporting Template
Department/Program:
Semester, Year of Assessment:
Assessment Method: Course(s) Number (not section), student work product that was evaluated, brief
description of the rubric or evaluation instrument used (a copy would be appreciated.)
Executive Summary: Please briefly describe your findings, and your interpretations of the findings.
Recommendations: Please provide any suggestions you have for improvement (e.g., from minor
adjustments to the course, to changes to the assessment method, to major changes in KU’s approach to
the learning goal)