Integrating Mechanical and Ethical Reasoning
through Inverted Instruction of Ethical Cases
Christopher Papadopoulos and William Frey
University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
20th Annual Meeting
Cincinnati, OH
March 3-6, 2011
Grupo Interdisciplinario de Filosofía, Ingeniería y Tecnología (FIT)
Outline
1. Inverted Instruction
2. Methodology: Application to Kansas City
Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse (1981)
in Engineering Statics class
3. Summary of Results
4. Synthesis & Conclusions: Integration of
Ethics & Mechanics
Inverted Instruction
The Regular Classroom
The Inverted Classroom
The Inverted Classroom (Really)
• “[E]vents that have traditionally taken place
inside the classroom now take place outside
the classroom and vice versa.” [Lage, Platt &
Treglia, 2000]
• Often leverages online instructional tools
Pre Lecture
Learn material
Short quiz
During Lecture
Active Exercises,
Q&A
Post Lecture
HW/reflective exercises;
Supervised group study
session
Online-Offline Synergies
1. “Certainly, online course delivery can magnify
bad pedagogy. Online activities can also
magnify, enhance, and supplement good
pedagogy.”
[MPPE, Huff/Frey, 2005, SEE 11(3)]
Online-Offline Synergies
2. After the assignment
– Provides space for reflection
– Students can reflect upon and capture what they
have learned
• They assess their learning experience
• They can experiment with module language, concepts,
and activity
– Enables teachers to assess the module
• Students write out their views on the module
• They answer questions (take pre and post tests)
Online-Offline Synergies
3. Is this good?
– Something gained
– Something lost
Pedagogical Underpinnings
Also:
• “Active” learning
[many]
• Immediate
feedback [many]
• Time on task
[Taraban]
Dual feedback loops proposed
by M. Lovett, unpublished; c.f.,
Zuboff, 1989
• Subject-focused
[Palmer]
See also: Dollár & Steif, 2008;
Papadopoulos & Santiago-Román, 2010
Methodology
Pedagogical Strategy
•
Inverted Case Method: Engage students in
making a decision from the participatory
standpoint, rather than simply doing a
retrospective, arm chair analysis.
•
Create strategic insertions based on the
case of Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkway
(KCHRW) collapse because content is
available and directly relevant to Engineering
Statics.
Insertions
Insertion 1
Week 6
Mechanical analysis
abstract model
that represents, but
does not identify,
KCHRW
Insertion 2
Week 15
Hypothetical choice
to redesign a hotel
walkway that
mimics, but does not
identify, KCHRW
Insertion 3
Week 16
Find real examples
corresponding to
model
Relation to
Insertion 1 is
suggested
Discussion of ethical
issues
Direct presentation
of KCHRW case
Clear description of
mechanical issues
Write reflective
essay
Insertion 1
A
A
5
B
W
1
C
4
Case 1
1
3
C
W
2
W
B
3
6
W
2
4
Case 2
• Are there any significant differences in the forces carried by the struts and the
contact forces between the bolts and the blocks between Case 1 and Case 2?
• Can you think of any examples of real structures whose static behavior could be
modeled by either case?
Insertion 1
Insertion 2
Initial Design
Long rods threaded
over entire length
Proposed Modification
Shorter rods threaded
only near connections
• Which design would you choose?
• Which design would you have chosen if you had not completed Insertion 1?
Insertion 3
Reveal case of KCHRW:
• Short case narrative & chronology
• Mechanical analysis
• Socio-technical description of case
• Video from before & after collapse
18
Mechanical Analysis
A
A
5
B
W
1
C
4
Case 1
1
3
C
W
2
W
B
3
6
W
2
4
Case 2
Mechanical Analysis
A
W
2
A
W
2
5
B
W
1
W
2
C
W
W
2
W
1
W
3
W
W
C
W
2
W
B
3
W
2
6
W
4
2
W
2
W
2
4
W
W
2
Summary of Results
Tabulated Results
Choice
Insertion 2
Reasons Cited
Insertion 2
Cost
Score/10
Insertion 1
(N)
9-10 (4)
6-8 (8)
0-5 (7)
Total (19)
Initial Modified
Design Design lower/higher
2
2
2
6
2
3
3
8
3/1
1/0
1/1
5/2
Safety/
Risk
Mechanical
Reasoning
cited
correct/incorrect
4
1
2
7
1/3
2/3
1/4
4/10
• N = 19 total respondents completing Insertion 1
Tabulated Results
Issues Identified and Coded in Insertion 3
N
Ngroup
Understanding which design is better
Importance of good FBD
Importance of Individual Responsibility/Integrity/Duty
Need to pay attention to detail/check results
Need to avoid risk
Tradeoff of Safety over saving time/money
Bearing on human life/safety in engineering
Importance of Collective Responsibility
7
4
10
6
4
11
12
2
9
• N = 20 total respondents completing Insertion 3
13
17
2
Synthesis & Conclusions
Insights from Student Comments
“ We first looked at the Hyatt Regency design problem
a long time before we knew it was an actual design for
the Hyatt Regency. Many of us thought that the
difference between the two designs was very little
maybe even nothing. Some thought that the weight that
was distributed evenly in both, but as we found out the
day of the presentation the second design is half as
good as the first.”
Evidence that an ethics case can “finish” and accomplish a
lesson in engineering mechanics and statics
Insights from Student Comments
“It shocked me so much thanks to the fact that the
night before we were assigned a statics problem which
was similar to the design used for this walkway. But the
problem was that to save time I did it as fast as I could
and didn’t even think about double-checking my results”
Case also accomplishes moral imagination
Student imaginatively projects classroom activities into actual
engineering situation
Insights from Student Comments
“Something that I learned is that is the importance of
every decision. As an engineer every decision you
make is very important, so you have to carefully analyze
every detail of every decision. Also, I learned how
every decision you make you have make knowing other
people’s lives could depend on it.”
Importance of detail and bearing on life safety in
engineering
Insights from Student Comments
“And I would also like to say that thanks to his words
on the subject and those of other engineers I have
spoken with since this special class was given I will
promise to never again do my work (In the
classroom and on the work field) just to "get it
out of the way" but I will do it and continue double
checking it until I am one hundred percent sure that
there are no errors in what I did.” (emphasis added)
Motivation to take individual responsibility/ownership for
actions
Insights from Student Comments
“The persons who did this error probably didn’t noticed
it because of the opportunities they viewed on saving
money because the whole bars costs much more than
shorter bars.”
Issue of cost vs. careful design
Insights from Student Comments
“This was the moment those engineers should though
about when the world noticed those walkways
collapsed not beacuse of weather, materials, or an attack
to the hotel but because of a simple mistake that
even students of a statics class could had noticed
and fix.” (emphasis added)
Ironic: this perhaps explains why the case is so complex, and
why the failure happened
General Pedagogical Issues
1. Big cases overwhelm students with information
– Moral Imagination challenges:
• Struggle to frame the case
• Fail to separate relevance from irrelevance
– Moral Creativity challenges:
• Need to challenge students to go beyond the obvious solutions
2. Big cases also raise a fundamental question about the
role of basic and intermediate moral concepts
– Are cases merely means of modeling these concepts so
that the teacher can then integrate them into a covering
law approach to moral decision-making?
– Or must students learn to use the concepts as tools to
help them respond to the challenges presented by moral
imagination and creativity?
Ethics as Engineering Pedagogy
1. Two objections to carrying out EAC interventions, rebuked by student
comments:
• I don’t have the expertise
• I don’t have the time
2. Reformulates the interdisciplinary relation between ethicist and engineer as a
cooperative, synergistic, and interdisciplinary collaboration
• Engineers without ethics are blind (See other student comments
describing how he rushed through the assignment)
• Ethicists without engineering content (such as structural mechanics) are
irrelevant (=empty of essential content)
The ethical problem in Hyatt case could not be fully formulated or understood
without the explanation of the underlying mechanical principles
More Pedagogical Strategies
1.
If we characterize moral responsibility as Fingarette does as “response to
relevance” then the central problem in the Hyatt case is seeing the relevance of
the change in design
2.
How can we train engineers to see theoretical models in real world
instantiations?
• As the student comments indicate, seeing the video of the collapse of the
walkway dramatizes to students the ethical relevance of such engineering
decisions
• Students need to see engineering concepts in some kind of dramatic context
and realize what Dewey calls a “dramatic rehearsal”
3.
To some, this sounds like approaching moral responsibility and adopting the
pedagogy of teaching virtue
• Virtues can be seen as skills that students must practice, refine, and hone
• Virtues also consist of an ecological aligning of thought and reason with
emotion, perception, sensitivity, and, of course, action
Interdisciplinary Synergies
1.
Bill conceived of a fresh way to help Chris experiment with this
mode of teaching the case = (new approach to old case)
2.
Chris taught Bill how to formulate the ethical problem in the case
• The ethical problem flows out of the theoretical models
3.
Bill presented a simple case narrative that showed videos taken
just before and after the collapse of the walkway
4.
Chris provided activities in the inverted classroom that both
prepared students for the module and guided them in reflecting
on its content in the aftermath
5.
There is a trajectory to this collaboration that I find interesting
• It began as a multi-disciplinary activity: an engineering teaching
activity juxtaposed with an ethics presentation and reflection
• But it transformed into an interdisciplinary collaboration where each
of us learned to reframe our approaches to engineering ethics
Questions & Discussion